The following is a very urgent problem:

SITUATION: A couple, healthy, no bad habits, love children. Many children running around a house brings them happiness and peace. In the future, having grown up surrounded by love, these kids will become decent members of society.

QUESTION: why can't the government help families like that?

For some reason officials don't enjoy solving problems like this one...

They have to save money on everything, mum has to do all the housework herself when dad is having to work very hard, he has a full-time job and also tries to find night shifts whenever he can, all to feed the family. This results is stress, mood swings and constant quarrels... This sounds like family life of the majority of population, with only a few of us managing to keep calm, find inner reserves to carry on. Here's an example of such a family, their story will not leave anyone untouched, even if they are stress-proof!

Natalya and Vyacheslav wanted several children, and their dream came true. Now they have a big family of 7: mum, dad and five children. Their family life is filled with love and understanding. The elder children share clothes with the younger ones, help them with homework and overcome all the obstacles life puts in front of them. Natalya says that her family is really good like that. None of the children were deprived of anything since their early days: “We have lead a modest life but none of children ever complained that they are missing something”. This is wonderful! However, due to a change in circumstances this family has had to deal with certain difficulties which they can't overcome alone, unfortunately.

This is a plea by Natalya Zakatyanskaya, mother of five:

«Hello! We are a large family, me and my husband have five underage children. In 2011 we inherited part of a house (living area 21.6 sq. m). We couldn't move into the house straight away, because there were no windows or floors in it, the pipes and heating were missing, and on top of that the house came with huge outstanding utilities bills.

My husband was working as a pillow restorer, and I was getting benefits for children, so we had enough money to rent an apartment pay for education and kindergarten. We had a modest life but we had enough to get by. Until my husband's kiosk was burgled...

We started living off the child benefit of UAH 1,500 a month (that’s around 183 US dollars), we had to other income at the time. We started getting into debts, I applied for a low-income family benefit, and our budget grew by UAH 2,500 (306 US dollars).

We were unable to keep renting because it left us no money to live on. During family dinner we made a decision to move into a semi-detached house we had inherited.

Every day my husband and my sons made a trip to the house to refurbish it, they were trying to get it ready for winter: changed the pipes, put concrete on the floor, installed a new gutter. This was the end of the project since there was no money left..

We thank God that we have some sort of roof over our heads. My husband went to work in a factory, and I re-applied for family benefit (this must be done every six months).

After a month we were yet to receive the benefit, nothing happened in the month after either. Mid-August we were told that our benefit application was refused, since we moved to a different district, so our application was forwarded to Leninsky district where we currently reside. As it happens, the application has not yet been received by our regional department, and as a result we don't know when we will start receiving the low-income family benefit. I tried to contact the local MP but my case was refused since there is no money in the budget.

My husband currently earns UAH 2,000 (244 US dollars) per month, we're also getting UAH 1,500 (183 US dollars) children's benefit. With this sort of income we could never afford to install heating at the house...” - this is where Natalya's story ends with silence... She takes a deep breath, tears appear in her eyes and she continued with a trembling voice:

«Please help us. I have wonderful healthy children. They enjoy studying and educating each other, my husband is an admirable man. I am responsible for all the housework. We have relatives but they are unable to make a significant contribution, and we could never save that much money ourselves.

I am asking everyone who was touched by our story to help us prepare the house for winter!”

The house may be in a run-down state but it's their own house!

If the house is equipped with heating and new windows, we'll be able to spend winter in our own house and never have to rent again”.

Thank God this family hasn't had to deal with ilnesses, Natalya and Vyacheslav have healthy and happy children. Still the lack of normal living conditions forced them to contact our Fund. Perhaps, someone can help them with building materials – any help would make a huge difference to them!

Natalya and Vyacheslav's phone number is +38 098 553 12 78

For more information you can also contact the employees of Charity Fund “Happy Child”