Marina's Kids
Natasha's Apartment
2013
10 aged-out orphans
The Need
Natasha is a young single mother, who grew up in the orphanage system. After having her baby she lived with friends and for a while with her old grandmother in an old, one room house with no running water. After some time she was able to get documents for an apartment that use to be her parents, no one has lived there for close to 20 years. All of the plumbing and electricity has been ripped out. Walls were peeling and windows were rotted out.
Solution
Kirill, one of Marina’s Kids volunteers, wonted to help Natasha and her baby, Mathew. He proposed a plan of fixing u the apartment. Kirill, who grew up an orphan himself, hired 2 more young adults who use to be in the orphanage with him. Together they did a complete makeover of this fixer upper. New windows, new plumbing and electrical wiring; new front door, old bathtub was purchased at a discount and refinished; a used stove was donated by a neighbor; a partition wall that fell apart was rebuild; all new paint and wallpaper; new floors. The project took about 3 months and total cost was about $2,500.
The Resuts
Natasha and Mathew have now a good, safe place to live for years to come. This is a story of an orphan who is successful, and will have a future.
This is just one of many: Kirill has been helping several young families who have no or very little support. They come from broken families and orphanage environment. We want to break the cycle, we want to help this young people not to give up, and have their own families be broken, but to help them succeed in this hard time of their lives, and in the hard Ukrainian economy. We want for the next generation of children not to end up in the orphanages.
