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ZHORDINA ORPHANAGE |
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The town of Zhordina is
situated approximately 50 kilometres
north-east of Minsk and its orphanage is
home to 98 three to six year olds. |
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For most of the
children, this will have been their
third move since being born.
With no transitional preparation, they
are often traumatised and insecure. |
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The staff at Zhordina
however, do care and the wonderful
leadership of Director, Tatyana Yurevna,
means that they are conscious of the
children’s distress and the best is done
to develop as homely an environment as
possible. Cookery lessons
are regular, birthdays are always
celebrated with the children’s friends
in the pretty little kitchen and doors
between classrooms are opened so the
children can ‘visit their neighbours’. |
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These small
things go to making life a
little more pleasant for the
orphans whose only crime was to
be born to a mother that didn’t
want them (only 2 of the 98
children are natural orphans).
It is Tatyana Yurevna’s dream to
keep the children with her until
they are old enough to make
their own way in the world.
Sadly, at present that is not
possible. At the age of 6-7 they
will have to move to a large
boarding school close by. It is
home to over 200 children and
‘homely environment’ is not part
of the curriculum! |
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We have been taking an
interest in Zhordina for some time and
last summer decided that we would like
to work with them permanently. We
discussed how we could help with Tatyana
Yurevna and have so far refurbished the
sports hall, which was so cold and
draughty the children couldn’t use it.
The huge windows were rotten and the
walls needed replastering and painting. |
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The room doubles
as a concert room and for the
first time this Christmas the
children were able to enjoy a
Christmas concert. |
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We were asked to paint
Disney murals on the walls of the sick
bay and we were delighted to oblige.
Again, Tatyana Yurevna’s forward
thinking means that she wants to keep
the children who are sick stimulated.
She has made a special garden outside
where the children can see it from the
sick bay window. |
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At Christmas we were
able to take lots of presents and give
the children a special Christmas party
with jelly and ice cream and lots of
other goodies. |
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Earlier this year we
arrived to discover that there had been
a flood in one of the units. They didn’t
know how they were going to fund the
repairs and the children couldn’t live
in it. The money the convoy team had
raised was immediately put to good use
and everybody set to work preparing the
room for the workmen to finish. We
haven’t seen the end result yet, but are
sure it will be excellent! |
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This is not all we have
done though. We have tentatively started
a ‘befriending’ programme and already
one family have befriended a little boy
whom they visit, take to their datcha on
weekends and involve in all parts of
their family life. It is a delight to
see his face when he is learning to
plant beans or helping ‘Dad’ do
important chores around the house. We
have replaced the old and tatty sofa in
the visiting area; provided 100 matching
sets of new bedding; brought pretty
dresses for the girls; brought toys,
paints, paper etc; provided them with
seeds for the garden; bought garden
equipment; the list goes on and is all
possible thanks to the generosity of
people back home. |
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Our next project,
which is underway because they are
desperate, is to refurbish the dark main
corridor. It needs a new ceiling, new
windows, rewiring, re-plastering and
painting.
Total cost £3,000. If you would
like to help towards this you can donate
on line at:
www.justgiving.com/leavesofhope/donate |
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If you would like to
join one of our convoys you can get more
information from our ‘Convoys’
page. |
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