Salesian Fathers Run Orphanage In Odesa
(RISU.org.ua) For the last seven years, "The Light House,"
an orphanage started by Salesian Fr. Oleksandr Chumakov of
the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), has functioned
in southern Ukrainian Odesa. This news was reported on 6 December
2002.
"The Light House" provides shelter and food for
orphaned children, but more importantly, gives them spiritual
education.
In his interview for "The Evening Odesa" newspaper,
Fr. Chumakov stressed that the orphanage has established good
relations with many branches of the state authorities, in
particular with the regional department for underage children.
"This department tries to satisfy all our requests concerning
homeless children that have fallen victim to manipulations
of criminal organizations," said Fr. Chumakov. "We
have also received help from some deputies of the city council,
as well as from the municipal department for information and
public relations."
According to Fr. Chumakov, only the municipal department
for underage children demonstrates a negative attitude to
charity organizations. Mr. Holoskov, head of the department,
believes that these organizations don't do any charity and
are illegal, said the priest.
Fr. Chumakov stated that the issue of taking care for homeless
children and their social protection once belonged exclusively
to the competence of the state and no one could complain about
anything. "Since the time our charity organization was
founded and we began to help these miserable children, this
information has been made public and shortcomings in the work
of state bodies responsible for underage children have been
revealed," said Fr. Chumakov. "Only then did it
become clear that the problem is not the children, but the
inactivity of government officials who should solve the problems
of children, but don't do this."
According to the police departments that conducted a special
investigation last summer, today Odesa is home to approximately
2,000 homeless children, whereas there are only two state
orphanages with 100 places each. In addition, two charitable
orphanages, "The Light House" and "The Way
Home," currently function in Odesa, giving shelter to
40-60 children each. However, all the city orphanages have
enough room only for 350 homeless children.
Source: www.risu.org.ua
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