ATLANTA (ABP) — Thanks to a $6,000 gift from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Ukrainian street children will have clean water from a new well.
Village of Hope, which sits on a 17-acre tract of land half an hour from Kiev, Ukraine, badly needed a well and water pump to support its foster-care facility and the surrounding buildings used to house poor children. Now, due in large part to the gift, clean drinking water is on its way. Drilling for the well is set to begin this summer.
“The water well will ensure that the children and families living in the Village of Hope will have safe water to drink,” said Mina Podgaisky, a CBF missionary serving in Ukraine.
Owned by Ukrainian Baptists, the Village of Hope is a partnership between several organizations, including CBF of North Carolina, German Baptist Aid, the Fellowship and a Netherlands-based Little John Foundation. Unused since 1986, the Village of Hope site was formerly a communist youth camp that continues to be renovated for new use as a foster-home facility and Christian camp. CBF of North Carolina has sent many volunteer teams to the area, as have other organizations from different countries.
Water currently runs to the Village of Hope from the nearby city of Bucha, where out-of-date water-treatment facilities clean and pump water through a 50-year-old pipe system. Filters have been unable to block pollutants from contaminating water at the Village of Hope, making the water unsafe to drink or even use in household tasks.
The new water supply will enable continued facility expansion. Summer building plans include a cafeteria and dormitory. This year's plans also call for building a new cottage that would house up to 10 at-risk children. The master plan for the property includes a chapel, school, medical facility, farm, trade center, more family homes and an additional dorm.
“The Village of Hope will help give a home to some of the street children and at-risk children that live in Kiev,” Podgaisky said. “We hope to give a future and a hope to the children that will find a home and a family in the Village of Hope.”
Currently 10 people — six children and four adults — are living at Village of Hope in the Lighthouse building, which will eventually house up to 30 foster children.
Depending on the quality and supply of water, the Village of Hope water well could also provide water to the nearby community, Podgaisky said. More than 17,000 street children live in or near the village.
According to the United Nations, more than 1 billion people worldwide don't have access to safe drinking water, contributing to the large number of people hospitalized with waterborne diseases.
“While the global situation seems beyond hope, the Fellowship can choose to intervene … so that these and other foundational issues of life can be transformed for one individual, family and community,” said David Harding, the Fellowship's international coordinator for emergency response and transformational development. “CBF should be a leader in addressing fundamental life concerns for people like providing good water and sanitation wherever we work.”
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