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Help
Us Help The Children (HUHTC), a project of Children Of Chornobyl
Canadian Fund, is a voluntary, non-profit charitable initiative dedicated
to improving the quality of life of children living in orphanages
in Ukraine. The purpose and mission of Help Us Help The Children
are to provide immediate aid to those most vulnerable in Ukraine
- the children.
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The support of private, institutional, corporate and government sponsors has enabled Help Us Help The Children's dedicated core group of volunteers to commit significant time and energy towards meeting the basic needs of disadvantaged and orphan children in Ukraine - many of them victims of the Chornobyl disaster.
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The key principle underlying
our organization's mission is a strong belief in individual responsibility.
This is manifested in everything we do: |
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- Our organizational
structure is based upon a model where relatively small teams carry specific projects through to completion. Each team is thus responsible for the results of its activities.
- Specific
individuals at each orphanage are made responsible for the safekeeping
and distribution of the resources we provide. They are driven by a genuine concern for the children living in the orphanages and a desire to secure continued aid and co-operation from HUHTC.
- We believe
that, in the long run, it is essential that today's orphans become
tomorrow's productive and self-sufficient adults.
- We believe
that individuals can make a difference in creating a better world
and that each of us is responsible for finding ways to achieve this.
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Help Us Help The Children
exists to aid children living in orphanages in Ukraine by: |
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- Improving
the quality of life and health of the children.
- Creating
opportunities for children to reach their maximum potential.
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- Help
Us Help The Children believes that each child should live
free of hunger, poverty and isolation.
- Help
Us Help The Children is committed to ensuring that each
child is provided with hope, love and the fundamentals of daily
living.
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Humanitarian Aid
Over the past fifteen years, HUHTC volunteers have personally delivered humanitarian aid to orphanages throughout Ukraine.
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- To date, outreach teams have traveled a combined distance of over 400,000 km through 25 oblasts (provinces).
- More than 40,000 children in some 200 orphanages and 16 hospitals, rehabilitation centers and clinics have benefited from supplies of medicine, vitamins, food, clothing as well as educational toys and materials.
- Volunteer professionals working with HUHTC have personally distributed over 900,000 kg of purchased and/or donated goods with a retail value of approximately $14,600,000.
- Many children with physical handicaps and deformities have been provided prosthetic devices, specialized surgeries and ongoing rehabilitation.
- Dental equipment has been provided to a number of institutions and hundreds of children have received basic dental care.
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Summer and Winter Camps
During the past fifteen years, HUHTC has run summer camps providing opportunities for youth residing in orphanages to acquire life skills and better develop their potential in a non-institutional setting. |
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- More than 200 North American volunteers from HUHTC have trained and worked with Ukrainian volunteers and educators to run concurrent summer camps in the Carpathian Mountains for over 5,000 orphans.
- Over the past couple of years, HUHTC has organized smaller winter camps in the Carpathian Mountains.
- Children participate in various workshops run by North American and Ukrainian volunteers. They focus on developing basic life-skills which will assist the orphans succeed both academically and in their lives beyond the orphanage. Children are encouraged to challenge preconceived notions about their capabilities. They are taught that they are not only capable, but must become productive members of society.
- Computer skills training is also provided to the children at the camp. After the completion of the camps, the computers are installed in deserving orphanages to establishing computer classrooms and enhance their research and communications capabilities.
- Children participate in various worksops aimed at developing their marketable skills, such as sewing. Over the past number of years, HUHTC has provided sewing machines and workshops at its camps. The sewing machines are then distributed to deserving orphanages where the children further develop their capabilities.
- The children are exposed, very often for the first time, to Ukrainian culture and traditions. They develop a sense of pride in their heritage. They further their knowledge and understanding of Ukraine's history. The children are encouraged to discuss and consider Ukraine's present and future role in our global society.
- Children from orphanages throughout Ukraine interact with one another and develop long-lasting relationships. This interaction develops their confidence and problem solving skills as they realize that they are not alone in the difficulties they face and discover diverse solutions to similar problems.
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Scholarship and Professional Skills
HUHTC also supports the professional development of institutional managers as well as the scholastic and technical achievements of orphanage graduates. |
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- To date, over 25 orphanage graduates have received scholarships to pursue post-secondary education, 7 of them at Ukraine's prestigious Kyiv Mohyla Academy.
- HUHTC volunteers have organized and run educational workshops for Ukrainian volunteers, caregivers, educators and directors of orphanages.
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In 1997 HUHTC organized a National Conference for Directors of Orphanages in Ukraine to review modern management techniques and child development practices. An Association of Directors and Managers of Orphanages was founded as a result of the conference.
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Anti-Trafficking Initiative (ATI)
Most recently, HUHTC has dedicated significant time and energy to raising public awareness, both in Ukraine and abroad, of the sexual victimization of girls and boys, both in the orphanage system and beyond the walls of these institutions. ATI's primary goal is eliminating the exploitation faced by many orphans while still living within the orphanages or immediately upon leaving their confines. Outreach teams of HUHTC volunteers have run educational workshops for orphans and educators at both the summer and winter camps as well as directly in the orphanages themselves. HUHTC volunteers have collaborated with many organizations in printing and disseminating educational materials on the topic of human trafficking. |
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For more information please visit the Help Us Help The Children website at www.helpushelpthechildren.ca |
