Orphan Statistics

ORPHAN STATISTICS

The statistics will amaze you:
1. There are over 100,000 orphans in Ukraine.
2. The older an orphan gets, the chances for his/her adoption drastically decrease.
3. Each year many orphans between 15 to 18-years-old leave the orphanages.
4. Most of these orphans have no one to turn to for help.
5. 10% of them will commit suicide after leaving the orphanage before their eighteenth birthday.
6. 60% of the girls will end up in prostitution
7. 70% of the boys will enter a life of crime
8. Only 27% of these youth will find work

These youth live in a country that labels them as “useless” and gives no assistance to turn their lives around. It is a society that has created its own problem by placing thousands of children in orphanages, and then when they come of age, they give them no assistance to lead a successful life. It is almost as if the system places them in trade schools to become “slaves of the State” to fill the low-income jobs of unskilled labor and remain the under-trodden, 2nd-class citizens that the majority of the population of Ukraine believe that they are.

OTHER STATISTICS
1. There are presently 6,000 adoptions a year (almost all foreigners adopting).
2. Only 10% of orphans are in orphanages because of death of a parent, 90% are social orphans – due to alcoholism, abandonment, or imprisonment of parents.
3. There are 450 orphanages or orphan homes in Ukraine.
Of these:
50 are baby houses
100 are regular orphanages for ages 8-17
100 are boarding schools for specialized needs including learning disabilities
100 are shelters where 30,000 children live temporarily between leaving home and being assigned to an orphanage.
100 are private institutions, housing a total of 1000 children, mostly Christian efforts.

WHAT DO ORPHANS NEED?

When asked they unanimously agree that the first thing was LOVE. And the second was TIME: come and play games, or teach the children in the orphanage. They said that money and things such as clothes, candy, toys, etc. were not so important. Visits and contact are important.

CBN showed a video interviewing grad orphans, who are now out of the orphanage, as to what is important to them. Their answers were:
1. Someone to trust
2. A person who is committed to help them
3. A flat – place to live
4. “Someone to hold my hand”
5. Moral support of friends
6. God’s help
7. Moral support, not just clothes
8. To learn to be independent
And what was the most painful thing about being an orphan?
To listen to people their own age talk about their family life.
These kids are too old to be adopted. But a synonym for adoption is “belonging” They need to belong to someone who loves them and someone they can trust.

WHAT IS MMK DOING?

Music Mission Kiev continues to expand its ORPHAN RESCUE MINISTRY.

Our Grad Orphan program (ages 16-21) is growing fast.
1. We have Bible study on Thursdays followed by a good dinner in the McMurrin apartment.
2. We have purchased a washer and dryer, and those who are faithful to the group can do their laundry once a week at the apartment. They are thrilled with this.
3. We have started an English conversation group on Tuesdays at 4 pm to help improve English skills, and even teach beginners some phrases in English. English is the key to employment in a good job.
4. We are hiring tutors in Geometry and English for certain students who are pursuing their diplomas, and because of poor educational backgrounds need extra help to succeed.
5. We are hiring orphans to do tasks for the mission such as delivering letters to embassies, cooking in the kitchen, cleaning the stairwell, remodeling jobs for which they have been trained to improve the mission apartment, ushering at the KSOC concerts. They are willing to work, and they do their tasks well.
6. We include the grad orphans in a new fellowship of believers on Sunday afternoons, that includes a worship service, and Bible class. The group of 40 people is aimed for musicians, but the orphans feel comfortable in this small Christian fellowship, and have taken root there as almost 1/3 of the congregation. The worship is held in Apt. 11, then the orphans have their class in Apt. 12, returning to Apt 11 for a fellowship dinner with everyone at 6 pm.

WHAT MORE CAN MMK DO?

The list of needs for the grad orphans are gradually taking form.
We feed the group twice a week, Thursdays and Sundays.
We pay some expense money to those housing orphans, and rent to the widow.
We pay tutoring fees for special educational needs and the services of a counselor.
We provide some educational materials and medicines.
We hire the kids to work for the mission, and their supervisors are Christians.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Would you like to come and be a part of these kids’ lives? We need workers. Write me now if you want to be on a task force for finding ways to love these kids and share Christ with them. Diane.mcmurrin@musicmissionkiev.org