I've been in Ukraine for several days, mostly away from Kyiv, but in telephone contact. With the help of Tanya, our Ukrainian coordinator, Marta, a board member who lives in Ukraine, and Maryna, the head of Priyateli Ditey of Ukraine, we've been getting the ball rolling. Transport has been arranged (a large van and a truck) and supplies are being purchased (the Harry Potter books have arrived, along with many others). More shopping is planned for Friday with Irka, as she is arriving later today in Ukraine.
Peggy and Nellie arrive Friday, and we will all have a route get-together at Marta's house to psyche ourselves up for the trip. Ross and his wife Julianna from Detroit will join us (Ross has been checking out a venue in Chernivtsi for a possible camp next summer, among other things), leaving us one short of a quorum for a board meeting.....
Interviews have been set up with our scholarship students for Saturday and Sunday. Peggy and I will be conducting those with the able help of Ruslan, our good friend and himself once an orphan in the Ukrainian internat system. Ruslan helps the new scholarship students get acquainted with the intricacies of the internet, and sets up e-mail accounts for them to use.
There is lots more to do before the route--lots more shopping, inventorying the items sent ahead, and then packing the truck. The mind boggles.
I have one more day of rain and gloom in L'viv before I return to sunny, warm Kyiv. If I don't melt away completely first.......
---Luba
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
2007 Route
Our plans are finally falling together–falling, though, is much too passive a word, considering all of the hard work that has gone into planning this route, mostly by people other than me. We've selected the orphanages we wish to visit, gotten responses from most of them as to their wants and needs, and are organizing the acquisition of those items. Boxes have been packed and sent, paperwork filed, and tickets bought. We're just about all set and raring to go.
We will head from Kyiv first to Krym (the Crimean peninsula, the part hanging off of Ukraine down into the Black Sea):
There we will visit internaty (orpahange-schools) in Dzhankoy and Feodosia (one each), as well as Kerch (two).
We selected these sites because they get very little international aid. Most of the foreign aid organizations seem to favor (quite understandably) sites that are easily accessible, thus much of the aid seems to flow to internaty nearer to Kyiv.
This will be a two day drive for our convoy (a minibus and a truck). Krym is in the far south of Ukraine, and Kerch is the most distant town in Krym. We hope to spend a few days at each site, getting to know the staff and children, delivering the supplies we brought for them (which will include complete sets of Harry Potter in Ukrainian), and buying additional items locally.
On the way back we will stop at an internat for AIDS kids in Dnipropetrovsk, and then return to Kyiv, where Peggy and I need to interview this year's scholarship recipients, and Nellie will visit an internat in Baturyn (Chernihiv oblast).
I'm told we will be quite busy. I'm the group doctor, in charge of our health and assessing the medical needs of the orphanages, and also main photographer and, probably, main blogger. We'll see if that pans out–internet access was a challenge for us last summer in Yalta, one of the largest cities in Krym. If need be, I'll post when we get a chance, even if it is delayed.
Keep checking for updates! The route will officially begin on September 14th.....
–Luba
We will head from Kyiv first to Krym (the Crimean peninsula, the part hanging off of Ukraine down into the Black Sea):
There we will visit internaty (orpahange-schools) in Dzhankoy and Feodosia (one each), as well as Kerch (two).
We selected these sites because they get very little international aid. Most of the foreign aid organizations seem to favor (quite understandably) sites that are easily accessible, thus much of the aid seems to flow to internaty nearer to Kyiv.
This will be a two day drive for our convoy (a minibus and a truck). Krym is in the far south of Ukraine, and Kerch is the most distant town in Krym. We hope to spend a few days at each site, getting to know the staff and children, delivering the supplies we brought for them (which will include complete sets of Harry Potter in Ukrainian), and buying additional items locally.
On the way back we will stop at an internat for AIDS kids in Dnipropetrovsk, and then return to Kyiv, where Peggy and I need to interview this year's scholarship recipients, and Nellie will visit an internat in Baturyn (Chernihiv oblast).
I'm told we will be quite busy. I'm the group doctor, in charge of our health and assessing the medical needs of the orphanages, and also main photographer and, probably, main blogger. We'll see if that pans out–internet access was a challenge for us last summer in Yalta, one of the largest cities in Krym. If need be, I'll post when we get a chance, even if it is delayed.
Keep checking for updates! The route will officially begin on September 14th.....
–Luba
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