The story of a girl from Zurupinsk

This is an archive page of Les Amis de Svieta from 2000-2021

Olga Igorivna was born on August 25th 1986. Her parents refused her at the maternity hospital because of multiple medical problems. She stayed at Nikolaiev Baby House (NBH) till September 1992, during which time she had many surgery operations.
December 2006 Director Olga Ivanovna from NBH, who stayed in contact with her even after her departure from NBH, contacted us and asked for help.

Olga Igorivna, November 2006

A sad and really touching story where we wanted to help.


At the age of 6 Olga Igorivna was sent from Nikolaiev Baby House (NBH) to Zurupinsk (Kherson Oblast) orphanage for invalids where she lived for the next ten years. She didn’t get any professional education during this time and barely finished obligatory school because that establishment didn’t have required teachers for higher grades. At the age of 16 she was sent to an elderly home place simply because there was no where else she could go. At the age of almost 20 years Olga worked out a plan for her future and contacted director Olga Ivanovna at NBH for help.
Olga Igorivna needs to catch up and bring her education to the level of average normal Ukrainian children after leaving school. Parallel to that she wants to take accounting and computing lessons. She already took lessons in sewing and the work she did looked quite impressive. She is rather clever and knows what she wants to achieve. But she doesn’t have the money to continue her education. Her dream is to obtain a professional education and find a job afterwards so that she doesn’t depend on anybody anymore.
We started to look for a sponsor who was willing to commit to regular payments for the next three years and we found two generous Swiss ladies that agreed to help Olga.

Olga Igorivna together with Kathrin Rudolf Zachmann in April 2007

In April, during Pascal’s last trip, we met with Olga. A very bright and well mannered young lady. We started to search for a school that would accept Olga and that would provide the required education. It wasn’t an easy task and the first two schools we visited refused Olga because of her incomplete school education.

 

Vozkresiensk school

Luckily, with the help of the ministry of education, we found a third school in Snigurivka (60 km east of Nikolaiev) ready to accept Olga. Beside being able to complete missing higher grade school years, that school also provides desired classes in accounting and computing.

Snigurivka school plate

The school itself looked ok – for Ukrainian standards – but the boarding school where students live is in such a bad state that we wouldn’t want to make Olga live there. Olga still has until August to take her final decision. We will then need to find a suitable room in town for Olga to live.

13 teenagers per room and only a small electrical heater!

The school in Snigurivka badly needed a new refrigerator and a deep freezer to properly store food for children. On the same day, after visiting that school, we were able to buy one in Nikolaiev and organize delivery. Refrigerator was delivered to Snigurivka next day, as planned. Amazingly, this is possible too in Ukraine. Director of school was extremely happy and can almost not believe it.

 

Old refrigerator as we found it and the newly bought one

Stay tuned to follow Olga’s story.