In the late fall, two new girls moved into the Shelter: Vita and Snizhana. Here is an introduction to Vita, a sweet girl from a very difficult family.P.S. – Normally, we would send updates like this one to the folks who sponsor a Shelter 2 kid. But Vita doesn’t have any sponsors. If you’re interested, please email us at info@lastbell.org. Thanks!Vita Lavrenuk
This fragile girl just came to us recently. Vita has been staying at the Shelter since September. We met her through another missions organization that works with orphan kids. They worked with Vita through several summers, and they didn’t want Vita’s life to be ruined with drinking parties and sex in the dormitory.
When we met Vita, we learned the very sad story of her life. She was born in a prison in September of 1995. From prison Vita was sent to a baby house, and when she turned six or seven years old, she was sent to an orphanage. There she met her older sister Lena. Lena had already had been at the orphanage for some time. The girls didn’t feel a strong affection for each other, though they do try to connect.
Vita as a little girl – left, sitting on the couch – with her sister Lena and Lena’s daughter Sophia
No one ever visited them in the orphanage, and the girls didn’t know anything about their relatives. A few years later Vita learned about her mom and the evil things she had done. Vita had a brother, but her mother hit him against a wall and killed him. Vita also learned that she had a twin sister. But when her mother was having a bad day, and her sister was crying, her mother cut her twin sister’s hand with an axe, and she died from blood loss.
That was all Vita learned about her family. She doesn’t know anything about her grandfathers, grandmothers, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts. And she doesn’t know anything about her father. She heard that her mother lives in the Zhytomyr region.
Vita at her Shelter 2 birthday party
Vita’s sister Lena lives in the same village but doesn’t know anything about her mother. Lena attends Haven regularly, and goes to our Stop the Cycle meetings for moms.
Fortunately, at the moment Vita is a happy kid. She is very talented; she sings well and dances. She adjusted to our Shelter community easily, just like an “old” family member. There were some minor issues but these were solved quickly. Vita is an obedient girl and wants to learn new ways of living.
After orphanage graduation in 2014, Vita entered trade school #15, where she is studying to become a baker. She cannot cook yet, but she does her best to learn.
We plan to visit Vita’s village with her to learn more about her relatives, so she can understand herself better. The only problem is transportation, but we hope to do it very soon.
