Dear friends,

We’d hoped Ukrainian director Andrey Pankyeyev would be in the States this spring to visit supporting churches and have those special one-on-one conversations. We love seeing you all in person!

That isn’t possible right now, but we still want to connect with you personally. So on April 30th and May 5th, we’re hosting Zoom conversations with Andrey and with Executive Director Megan Hershey. Andrey will share how Last Bell is adapting our service to orphanage graduates, and Megan will share about current operations and finances (15 minutes all together). Then we’ll open up for questions. We’d love to hear from you!

We’ll have two options:

Thursday, April 30th, 2 PM
Tuesday, May 5th, 10 AM

Please RSVP to emily@lastbell.org, especially if you might need technical help. The day of each session, we’ll email the link to the Zoom call. This will go out to our whole list, so please feel welcome to join us even if you haven’t RSVP’d.

See you soon!

The Last Bell Team

Very quickly, we have seen desperate needs arise because of the COVID-19 crisis. 

Igor, Tanya, and daughter Sophia are in our Stop the Cycle program. Their life is already challenging. Igor is an orphan, and Tanya comes from a dysfunctional family. Sophia has been sick for over a year, and leading up to the crisis, Igor had been injured and unable to do his job at the food market for two weeks.

After Igor had been back at work for one day, the markets closed. They tried to live on Sophia’s state stipend, 860 UAH/month (about $31). But that’s only enough for diapers and a few days of food for Sophia. They needed to pay for utilities, medications, and food for a month. 

Tanya borrowed 50 UAH ($1.80) to buy food for her daughter, while she went hungry herself. Finally, she turned to us. She simply had no one else to ask.

Staff member Yulia shared, “In cases like this, we respond to the situation with caution and, having provided ourselves with protection, we go out to help.”

We brought groceries, diapers, and medication, and prayed with them. Later we’ll look at long-term help for those affected by the crisis, but right now, we’re making sure no one is hungry and meeting other urgent needs.

Dima T. (above) lost his regular job because of the quarantine, and already hadn’t been paid for weeks. He’s moonlighting as a loader at the market, but can’t get many hours. When we reached out, he’d run out of food and everything he needed for hygiene and cleaning, even garbage bags and dish soap. And he’d been walking everywhere. So we brought him groceries and other supplies, and offered help with transportation to job interviews or medical appointments.

Most of the youngest orphans we know are students, so they’re not dependent on income from work. But some of the scholarship money that pays for food, toiletries, and other essentials has been delayed, and medical care is delayed because offices are closed to non-emergencies.

Many teen orphans are staying in the villages with different relatives. But many are still at their trade school or social dorms with nowhere to go and nobody to help them. One staff member shared the names of seven teens to whom she’d taken food packages in just a couple of days; even during quarantine, we helped someone pay for medical tests. Our food packages are especially important for growing teen guys who are always hungry!

Investing for the Future

As we get to know them, orphan youth will become more comfortable reaching out. Our persistence right now lets them know we truly want to help and they haven’t been forgotten.

For fourteen years, Last Bell has been investing in orphanage graduates. One of our great joys in the midst of this crisis is watching men and women we know and love give back to their communities.

Tanya

Tanya grew up in an orphanage in Zhytomyr, and was part of a Last Bell residential program before she got married and moved to a village.

She’s now a mom of two little girls and faithfully attends our Stop the Cycle program. Tanya’s been sewing masks from medical gowns and cloth diapers, and distributing them to her neighbors and her husband’s colleagues.

Victoria

Victoria, one of our Stop the Cycle moms, turned to us for help. The father of her daughter Vlada lost his job during the quarantine. They can’t pay rent and will move in with his parents.

We brought diapers, food, and baby food. But in the midst of her need, Victoria also passed along books, prenatal vitamins, and Vlada’s old clothes for other moms.

She’s part of a real community, where we take care of each other!

Anya

Anya (left), a doctor and part-time Shelter staff member, also grew up at Orphanage #4. She’s working at the hospital in Zhytomyr, at the front lines of the fight against this disease.