The children displaced from Ukraine’s broken families are placed by the government in institutions; there they become wards of the state whose guardians are orphanage directors. There are about 100,000 orphans in Ukraine, and 4,000 of those are in the Zhytomyr region. Last Bell Ministries works with Orphanage #4, which has about 200 orphans.
The students at Orphanage #4 graduate after ninth grade, or at about 15 years old. If they pass their exams, most will go to a 2- or 3-year trade school, and that school’s director will be given guardianship. The trade school dorms are older Soviet-era buildings that house as many as 400 students. Conditions are usually poor; the food is inferior and the buildings are often cold. Students easily get sick. Predators from cities and villages are waiting to exploit the orphans, who are vulnerable, easy targets. Most of them are given “leftover” trades to study.
Without any kind of support system, the prospects for these young people are grim. Over half of the girls become prostitutes, and over half of the boys turn to crime. Many become addicted to drugs. Anywhere from ten to fifteen percent take their own lives in the years after graduation.
Learn more about orphan life in Ukraine: