Orphanage # 34 classoom renovation

Orphanage #34 is located in Odessa, Ukraine. The main building of Orphanage #34 was built as early as 1900 and extensions were added in the 1950’s. It presently houses, educates, and feeds 151 children. Of the 151 children living at Orphanage #34, approximately 90 of the children are true orphans who are deprived of parental care. Many of the children have mental or physical disabilities and limitations, and their parents are extremely poor and unable to provide for the children, their schooling, or their care. Orphanage #34 has a unique program in which it educates the children in various trades such as sewing, agriculture, carpentry and construction. Children range in age from six to eighteen years old, and they are in grades one through eleven.
As are many of the Ukrainian orphanages, Orphanage #34 is run by the Ukrainian government. The orphanage’s funding is lacking as the government’s budget does not allocate funds to fully cover the children’s basic needs. The state provides shelter, nourishment, and education for children, but it does not provide funding for building repair. Most of the orphanage building structures were built during the days of the Communist Regime and have now fallen into a state of incredible disrepair.
The entire building at Orphanage #34 needs major renovation, but renovation of the school’s technical classrooms are an urgent need since they affect the children’s education, development, and work-life skills. Within the technical classrooms, the tools and machines are extremely outdated and in poor condition: The sewing machines and carpentry equipment are 35 years old and many machines are broken beyond repair. Additionally, the classrooms are in poor condition which results in an unsafe and poor learning environment for the children. Given physical and mental challenges that face the children at Orphanage #34, having experience with accurate and technologically sound equipment is of paramount importance. Without these opportunities to develop work-life skills, these children will have very few options for work when they do leave the orphanage at an older age. Classroom repair and new equipment would provide orphanage children an opportunity to learn basic, up-to-date, and marketable skills that will help foster their independence and work-life skills as young adults in Ukraine.
Frontier Horizon is requesting funding for the renovation and repair of one of the Classrooms at Orphanage #34: Carpentry Shop ($13,000), Metal Shop ($11,000), or Sewing ($20,000).