UKRAINE WITHOUT ORPHANS!!!

We are continuing working with churches presenting and promoting national adoption in Ukraine. We have just got report from our Adopt Ukraine project manager Victoria. 
We had a wonderful opportunity to present our work and our passion in Good News Church Dnepropetrovsk region. At the end of her presentation 4 families came up to us and have asked us if we could provide them with more information about how they can adopt a child. 
We hope that more children instead of living in orphanages would find Christian families where they would live in warm, loving and carrying environment.

We are very excited to see more churches getting in to this movement which is spreading around Ukraine at this moment. 

UKRAINE WITHOUT ORPHANS - OUR PASSION IS COMING REAL!!! 

: )

WOUNDED CHILDREN - HEALING HOMES PROJECT UPDATE!

It has been almost two months since we started translation of the book. We want to give you little update about it, what stage the translation is at and when it is going to be finished.

We have already translated 12 chapters of the book and there is only one chapter left. For the next two weeks the text of the book will be edited and proof-read.

We hope to publish the book at the end of August and organize book presentation event in September!

There are many adoptive and foster parents, as well as social workers and adoption specialists who have been waiting on the book! We hope as they use it, they will find the best ways to help traumatized children to recover from traumas of the past. : )

         

TRAINING FOSTER AND ADOPTIVE FAMILIES IN WESTERN UKRAINE!

International Leadership and Development Center has  trained 17 adoptive and foster parents in Uzhgorod city in Western part of  Ukraine. At this training parents received valuable knowledge that will help them in raising their foster and adoptive children.  Over the training ILDC national trainers went through four main topics, such as: The Identity of adoptive and foster child, Sexual Behavior, Working with Teenagers and Burnout. At the end of the training, parents had expressed their gratitude for organizing this training and shared with us how valuable this training was to them.

Providing post placement trainings for foster and adoptive parents is very important. There are over 8000 children in foster families and about 2000 children adopted per year by Ukrainian families. Usually families are very enthusiastic when they take children and have a sincere desire to help them. They also go through some pre placement trainings offered by the government and NGOs. But it is after the placement when they need training and support the most. Because once they begin to face difficulties and challenges with their new children they become discouraged and burnt out. There is no post placement trainings available for them yet. All this can cause bad consequences and traumas for foster and adoptive children when they can suffer in their new families or be returned back to the orphanages in the worst case.

That’s why it so vital to help adoptive and foster families at this moment providing for them with resources that could help them in raising their adoptive and foster children. 

Besides this training we were able to develop very good partnership with local Social Service and another organization, called  “Nehemiah”. With this new partnership we  will be able to conduct more trainings for adoptive and foster families in that part of the county.  

We already have scheduled next training for a new group of parents in region in the beginning  of August.

If you are interested  in supporting this post placement trainings for foster and adoptive families in Ukraine email us at info@ildcua.org

Thank you : )

SHE ALMOST LOST HER KIDS!!!

Nina Terpugova is a single parent of two of her 5 and 3 year old sons. They have struggled  with finding permanent place to live and when the Children Service had found out about her situation they  wanted to terminate her parental rights and take the children to the orphanage.  Local Social Service have approached us with the request to help them to find the best solution so that this family could be preserved. We already had similar situations in the past and at this time we had to act quickly. At that moment our partner organization had available space in one of their program homes. We were able to cooperate with them and place this family in this temporary home. So at this  moment this family have a temporary place to live and  we are trying to help Nina to find job so she could provide for the kids. Our next step will be to activate churches to help this family to find a permanent place to live. 

The kids were very happy to stay with their mom. They attend kindergarten while we are helping Nina to find a place to work.

We would like to ask you to consider this family in your prayers that God would help us to find a permanent home for them and second prayer request that God would help Nina to find a permanent job.

JUDY RYCUS HAS ARRIVED IN KIEV!

IHS program director, an author of 4 volumes of the Files Guide to Child Welfare and the member of the ILDC Board Judy Rycus has  arrived  to Kiev this Friday. Judy has played a major role in promoting best practice in Child Welfare of Ukraine. IHS trainings programs have been broadly used across Ukraine and beyond. We are very privileged to have these programs as they help us to  promote best practice in the area of Child Welfare in Ukraine.

We welcome Judy in Kiev and hope her visit will be enjoyable

NEW ADOPTIVE AND FOSTER FAMILIES WERE TRAINED IN KRIVIY RIG!

New 12 adoptive and foster families went through training for adoptive and foster families on May 11th -13th in Kriviy Rig. These families have already adopted children. During the training we found out that most of them are willing to adopt more children from the orphanages.

The participants of the training were eager to learn new skills and new information. After the training, local churches have expressed interest in finding out more about the work with families and orphans.


We have learned that there is already a growing interest in adoption among people which we meet from different churches in Ukraine. When people find out that they can do something good for the orphans in Ukraine and it can make a difference in their lives, many turn to us for more information and counsel how they could be of help.

FINISH LINE

It has been very challenging for us in the beginning. We had met a lot opposition from the participants but after the fist module the situation had tremendously changed and participants had opportunity to learn and change their perspectives and point of
view about new ways and approaches in child welfare.

At the moment, all is left to do is print certificates for every participant of the training.

We are very eager to see in near future how these trained professionals will start to apply new skills and knowledge that they had received in their work settings. It really
inspires us every time to see transformation in thinking of a child welfare worker or a social worker. This where change begins ….

We are very excited to announce that the group of social workers from Sevastopol have successfully completed our training program “Case Worker Core” in Southern Ukraine!

Over 30 social and child welfare workers were able to go through all of the modules in a period of the last 5 months.

FIRST VOLUME OF THE FIELD GUIDE TO CHILD WELFARE HAS BEEN REPRINTED NOW!

Finally we have got to the finish line. Our publisher has reprinted first volume of the Field Guide (1500 copies) and we expect it to be delivered next week in our office.
We are very excited and look forward to reprint other three Volumes within next few month.

ADOPTION SUMMIT!

In November of 2010, ILDC participated at the conference "Ukraine without orphans" that was held by ILDC partner Alliance Ukraine Without Orphans in Kiev.  Since then a lot of efforts and work has been done in the area of promotion of national adoption among communities, churches and organizations that work in Ukraine. Last Friday on April 29^th another remarkable event took place in Kiev.  ILDC  had a great opportunity to partner with Alliance Ukraine Without Orphans in organizing Adoption Summit.  60 people from all

over Ukraine arrived to Kiev to participate in the summit.  The purpose of this event was to unite the efforts in our work with orphan children in Ukraine through promoting idea of national adoption. As well, ILDC was able to bring to the summit  3 new volunteers who will work in churches in south of Ukraine promoting national adoption and will be motivating churches to join our vision “Ukraine Without Orphans” .