Help with Food
Text and photos Natasha Kirllova (note: Natasha is the Director of the "HELP FOR CHILDREN Charity Foundation, St. Petersburg, Russia" , Help For Children Charity Foundation or HFC, provides aid, assistance, counsel, Christian teachings and encouragement for Russian orphans. HFC regularly visits and presents programs for orphans who live in orphanages maintained by the Russian government. HFC also works through the Grace Center in St. Petersburg to help single mothers keep their children from being taken to orphanages.Star of Hope's families have supported this worthy partner for many years.) Also, we understand that the term "mental retardation" although a medical term is being changed by among others the ICD group at the World Health Organization to "intellectual developmental disorders (IDDs) however during translation some terms are unchanged.
Meet Sveta Smirnova
Sveta Smirnova here with her two daughters, Viktoria and Stefany. Sveta grew up in an orphanage for mentally disabled kids. They were given practically no education whatsoever, she writes with many mistakes and can read somewhat better than she writes. She was a typical child of "the system" and when she, all of a sudden started to develop better then the children around her no one payed attention on that. And when she was sent to live to the adult's mental full-time hospital, no one wanted to believe that she was capable and smart enough to live by herself.
It's hard to give all her story in details yet it's genesis was running away from the mental hospital, finding herself a job, living on the streets and at friends houses. Finally she went to one of the people's social deputies who finally saw her a as a normal person and the state gave her an apartment to own and live. She got married, was blessed with two wonderful daughters, got divorced and is struggling for herself and her girls every day to be able to be better mother.
When she became part of our program: we helped her with needed dental treatments, helped the family with clothes. They are regularly part of our summer camp. Sveta is very thankful to all the sponsors for the opportunity to be part of our program and for all Star of Hope has done for her and her daughters! It is not easy for her to raise up kids all by herself. The little education she received being a child, her struggling health doesn't allow her to have a good job. The family values and christian values that are part of our program "You are not alone" helps her to be a good mother. Summer camp as well as regular supervision helps her not to be alone.
Meet Lena Naumenko.
Lena's life is similar to Sveta's. She ws raised up in the same orphanage and had no legal rights after graduation. No one believed that she could have children and raise them up herself. But Lena was strong enough to fight for her future. Nothing is not easy in her life, to fill in a form at work ( when people see that she can't write they do not accept her), to find a job, rejection by her own mother who she found after she graduated. A hard life indeed, she felt no support or encouragement from others. When she came to us, she said that she wants to be part of the program 'You are not alone" because there we help the graduates from the orphanages and respect them, that was what she said. She is our new mother and we like her and will try to open her a wonderful world of Christianity! May God help us in it.
