Finally the day of the Last Bell Ceremony arrives: the end of the school year. Not long after is graduation, a final summer in government-run camps, and the beginning of independent life.
A few go on to live with extended family, but most go on to trade school, where they move into a large, minimally-supervised government dormitory. The food may be poor, or the students may be expected to cook for themselves over one freestanding burner shared with a floor. In the winter the kids often get sick because the dorms are so cold.
An orphan will probably be studying a “leftover” trade: he may not necessarily be good at it, but there was an opening in the class. Without the close supervision of government workers, he is unlikely to do well.
Most graduates will never have budgeted or handled their own money before. They receive a monthly stipend from the government, but it may not be enough for the things they need. Big status items may take priority. In Ukraine, clothes are a status symbol, and orphans can “buy” a way to fit in. Many graduates buy cell phones and then don’t have enough left for food. Or they may spend the money on escape: drugs or alcohol.
Even though health care in Ukraine is free, it is necessary for families to accompany a patient and provide care alongside the government system. Facing a medical problem is a fearful thing for orphans as they don’t have any experience and no one to come alongside them. Abortions are often encouraged as a student cannot be in trade school and have an infant.
If they were not true orphans as children, they often become true orphans after graduation. One girl lost her parents and one brother to alcohol, and another brother to a fire. Six of our graduates lost their mothers in one summer. Many live with the knowledge that they have family out there somewhere – but family who have rejected them. How will they learn to trust or form any healing relationship? They’ll test and provoke anyone who tries to help, believing that person will fail them just as everyone else has. Many dream of ending their own lives rather than facing life completely alone.
After graduation from trade school, an orphan is truly on his own, lacking even the security of government-provided food and shelter. An orphan’s status as a ward of the state is stamped on his government ID, and employers will often reject his application for work simply because he’s an orphan. He might be kicked out of an apartment for the same reason.
As their society rejects them, many will relive the rejection of their parents and their experiences of abuse and neglect. More alone than ever before, these kids feel a deep, inescapable despair.
The prospects for these children are grim. Commonly-accepted statistics, which have been witnessed by our staff in the field, suggest that a third will become addicted to drugs, over half of the girls will become prostitutes, two-thirds of the boys will turn to crime, and up to 15% will commit suicide in the years just after graduation.
But it doesn’t have to be this way for the graduates from Orphanage #4. The statistics, and the stories, are changing for the orphans who are served by Last Bell.
Learn more about orphan life in Ukraine: