Ruslana is a orphaned mom in our Stop the Cycle program. She recently broke her leg while playing with her daughter, and lost her job.
At the same time, she received an offer that could make a big difference in her life. Sometimes, the Ukrainian government allocates funds for an orphan to buy a home. Ruslana received just such an offer.
In most cases when orphans are offered these funds, a home is never bought and after a year the funds are retracted. Why is that?
The answer is closely tied to why we called our program “Stop the Cycle.” Orphaned young people often lack basic resources like finances, financial literacy, family help, and knowledge about how society works. Many orphans are in a catch-22 situation: they don’t have the money or know-how to take advantage of offers that could help them. So often the next generation is orphaned, too.
But Ruslana broke the cycle. In partnership with a local social worker, we helped her fill out the necessary documents and visit the right offices. And your donations paid the document fees, a gift that was multiplied a hundredfold in the form of her new home!
Staff member Yuliana wrote, “If it weren’t for your donations, Ruslana and her daughter would be out on the street this winter. There were many different obstacles, but with God’s help, today Ruslana and her daughter Dasha have a roof over their heads and hope for a happy future.”
Thank you, friends, for helping our youth make a new future for their families!