KIEV, Ukraine (ABP) — As the world's attention focuses on Ukraine during a time of political unrest, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina is trying to bring hope to the region's forgotten homeless children.
The street children of Kiev live under buildings, in heating and sewage tunnels, or wherever they can find shelter. Some forage for, or steal, food. Others prostitute themselves so they can eat.
To counteract all this despair, officials of the CBF of North Carolina hope a residential foster-care facility half an hour northwest of Kiev will give these street children a chance for a different life.
Now in its early stages, the Village of Hope is a 17-acre site with seven buildings, all in need of renovation. Formerly a Communist Party youth camp, the site has sat unused since 1986. Last summer, 176 volunteers from North Carolina worked on completing the first building for foster-care families, which could house 30 children.
“We want to bring street children into a foster care community. When they leave, we want them to have a job and be educated,” said Jim Fowler, missions coordinator of the CBF of North Carolina, which has poured more than $200,000 into the project.
Working side by side with Ukrainian laborers, the 15 volunteer teams did everything from painting to roofing.
The Village is owned by Ukraine Baptists but has an international board of directors. “It's all about the kids. It's not about who's in charge,” Fowler said.
The Village of Hope has a consistent CBF presence through Gennady and Mina Podgaisky, CBF global missions field personnel in Kiev. The Podgaiskys coordinate the Coalition of Street Children Ministries and Workers, which seeks to be a network of resources and ministries to help alleviate the crisis.
The abundance of street children is a relatively new phenomenon, according to Caroline Crume, a Campbell University Divinity School student who coordinated an 11-member mission team from the CBF of North Carolina to the Ukraine. When the old Soviet Union disbanded, it brought economic collapse in many of the former republics. The inability of many parents to support their own children, combined with substance abuse and the inactivity of social programs and services, forced many children into the streets.
“It's a hidden problem you find only if you're looking for it,” Crume said.
Some estimates indicate there are as many as 40,000 street children in this city of 4 million, according to Bill Mason, a member of Wingate (N.C.) Baptist Church who has been on five trips to the Ukraine.
“We can't deal with the whole problem, but hopefully we'll be able to house some of them,” Mason said.
Mason and his wife, Marie, spent six weeks at the Village as summer site coordinators. Mason, a retired engineer, was on the original team that selected the property. He estimates the construction can be completed in five years if the necessary funds and volunteer teams can be secured.
“I hope it becomes a haven for the street children of Kiev, and that we would be able to house and feed and clothe and give them a better chance in life,” Marie said. “They don't have much of a chance now. They're just holding on.”