1. Orphanages are no place for children. I believe that you’ll agree with me that children should grow up in a family. In a perfect world, these would be intact families under the care of blood relatives. But alas, reality is far from perfect. And some children are unlikely to be adopted because health problems, age, or too many siblings.
2. Such boys and girls may find caring parents in a foster family, a family-type group home, or with guardians. Society does not understand people who endeavor to bring up orphaned children. They are revered as heroes or, paradoxically, reviled as scammers who “line their pockets at children’s expense”. Regardless, foster parents need help and support: financial, emotional, psychological, and pedagogical.
3. Some people who dream of creating a foster family are constrained by their living situation. Others find fostering difficult because of a lack of like-minded people. Some dream of making things better for children far from the hustle and bustle of a city.
4. Since 2011, Happy Child Charity Foundation has built five Happy Homes housing more than 30 orphans who found their families. These are children from large family groups, children with disabilities or congenital abnormalities, troublesome teenagers, and so on.
All houses are built, furnished, and equipped with appliances thanks to the support of sponsors from around the world. We provide families with houses, and also furniture, appliances, and a shared car. Families make use of common property: garden tiller and tools, grass trimmer, chainsaw, trampoline, swimming pool, playground, and so on.
5. We have no permanent sponsor who covers the needs of the developing settlement. We use the funds as effectively as possible: we build quality energy-efficient houses, seek the lowest prices for materials, engage volunteer labor, and streamline the construction process. We also accurately estimate the amount of materials needed so that there is no budget overrun. We seek your support.
6. In our Children’s Village, families develop ecological thinking among children and their parents. We do not destroy trees, but we fuel furnaces with dead wood. We sort garbage, and try to minimize the use of plastic.
In fall 2018, four houses were equipped with solar collectors which provide large families with free hot water. One dream is to buy an electric vehicle that would help the project participants move cheaper and without harming the environment.
7. Animals are loved in our settlement. We do not raise them to slaughter. We try to keep our dogs unleashed. Neglected and abandoned animals find shelter here. We usually sterilize our pets in a conscientious approach to their health.
8. It’s a refreshing environment. This is the place where you want to wash your face, take off your shoes and blend into nature. Soul and thoughts become clear here, and this is important not only for traumatized children, but for many adults too.
9. The eco settlement, Happy Child Village, is located in a postcard-perfect, but rather remote place (village of Ukrainka, Mikhailivka district, Zaporizhzhia oblast). This is a place for many good people, who want to make a difference, to care for children, to create, to educate, and to work the land. If you dream of a reboot, perhaps it will happen right here.
10. Everything you have read above is a description of a picture-perfect
project. In reality though, we have many bugs and imperfections, but we analyze our mistakes and try to optimize the lives of all the inhabitants of the Happy Homes. That is why we badly need your support: financial, informational, emotional, psychological, pedagogical, and simply human.
It is easy to donate at deti.zp.ua/donation (specify “charity donation for Children’s Village”).
