Shade for Children General Fund

Greetings from Western Ukraine,

We have two major projects to report. 

1. We once again sponsored a summer camp for children in the western Carpathian Mountains at the end of June. Your donations made it possible for us to host a diverse group of children ages 5-12 which inlcuded children from a local government orphanage, adopted children and children in foster care, children displaced by the war, and children from multiple local churches. Our volunteers were amazing, especially since the two Shade for Children directors were limited to evenings only due to a series of meetings they were required to attend throughout the week.

2. The other project has been happening over the past two weeks as Shade for Children's Ukraine Director (Lena) and our social media director, Allina, have been in Eastern Ukraine (less than 30 miles from frontline fighting) to advocate for single mother and her two children, working in tandem with two organizations in that area, one of which reached out to us for help. Some of your donated funds helped with repairs for a grandmother's apartment. They had a fire about two months ago and there had been no repairs since then. They also helped the single mother, but unfortanately, neither the organization on the ground in Zaporizhia region, nor Shade for Children, can provide the care that's really needed in this situation. We're hoping she'll move into a residential rehab center and we stand ready to support her when/if the time comes. In the meanwhile, we were able to get the youngest child, a newborn infant, out of the hospital and into custody with a family which might lead to adoption if the mother continues to be unable to care for them (or herself). Without our efforts these past few weeks, the infant for sure would have been moved to insitutional care (an orphanage) and that's no place for any child!

Thank you for your donations and your support. This is what we do with the money you provided.

Greetings friends,

Your contributions to the general fund enable us, among other things, to conduct summer camps for children in Western Ukraine. We paid our deposit back in January for our venue- the third year we've been at a wonderful location in the low mountains near the Polish border.

We will host a variety of children, some from a local State orphanage, some from displaced families (living in our area but orignially from wartorn areas in South and East of Ukraine). We'll host adopted children and children in foster care, as well as a sprinkling of kids from area churches.

Our theme is Camp Chaos and we'll work in a trauma-informed environment to learn how to find peace in the midst of conflict and chaos.

Thank you so much for your support, we appreciate it more than a report can convey!