Part 2  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSRzfjrW1m4

2007 TV Documentary: Russia's Forgotten Children

First aired - Saturday 7th July 2007 - TVNZ 5.30pm TV One

The promo is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbY_jMrjETk

For a full copy, please contact us for details on how we can send you one.

2006 TV Interview on Shine TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnLwUwDWQKM

2005 TV One Closeup Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPrlrv5e8sU

1999 TV Interview on Holmes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QYnwzwXJr4

Support

Your commitment to ongoing sponsorship or even a modest one-off donation will make it possible for us help the countless numbers of children living on the streets in Vladivostok. Life on the streets in Russia is extremely transient. Many of the children change address or move their ‘sleeping quarters’ without warning and obviously, without any official tracking. To help them, we have a number of ongoing projects that we run all-year round to provide basics like warm food, essential healthcare and some form of temporary shelter or accommodation.

In addition to these, we also have a list of short-term projects targeting at improving the lives of a defined family group or street community of kids, or acquiring equipment and materials that they can enjoy whilst in our care.

Follow these easy steps to donate and give hope:

1: Read through our list of ongoing and short-term projects below.
2: Click the link to go to our secure server page.
3: Fill in your personal information in the boxes provided.
4: Using the drop boxes, indicate which project(s) you’d like to support.
5: Choose whether you want to donate using your credit card or by cheque, and follow the appropriate steps.

Ongoing projects

- 24-hour Youth Hostel

- Mobile Soup Kitchen

- Current Day Centre

- Holiday Camps

Short-term and targeted

Natasha and her sisters
We have been working with a family of 5 sisters for about 5 years. We first met the oldest, Natasha on our mobile soup kitchen. She came along to one of our camps and made a decision to change her life. We helped her into school and found a place for her to live and a sponsor for her education. She asked us to help her sisters who were then Svetlana, 13, Nastya 12, Vika 11 and Anya 4, whom had also been roaming the streets and eating at the soup kitchen.

Now 2 years later we have all the girls off the streets and living back at home – although home is in a worse condition than most places we keep our animals.  Natasha is also now the mother of a beautiful baby girl. 

The mother is an alcoholic who does not work and does not contribute anything towards their upbringing or education. Their Father/Stepfather died in September of 2005 from alcoholism. Living Hope provides everything necessary for the girls to attend school: Clothes, Footwear and School supplies etc and often food for the family. The amount required to equip all 5 girls at the beginning of the school year - NZ$1000

To provide winter coats, boots and warmer clothing (temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius are not unusual in winter) - NZ$800

Passports

By Russian law, each child must obtain a passport at the age of 14. A passport enables them to be registered in a place, so they can get into school, higher education or training and employment.

Passports are usually obtained by parents, but obviously this is rare in the case of street kids. Living Hope helps with all the necessary paperwork to ensure the child obtains the passport, including hours of work and considerable traveling to other communities and villages to acquire birth certificates and trace families. This can often include getting their mother her first passport. The average time taken to complete the process is around 30 hours, including expenses up to NZ$300, not including wages.

Camps

Every summer we run 2-3 summer camps. These camps are invaluable to reaching children over a period of time where we can encourage them to get off the streets.  Many of the children we invite to our camps make commitments to returning to home or school and we provide follow-up support after the camps.  If you would like to be involved in helping one of these children attend and get a fresh start off the streets, please consider being involved in some of the following ways:

Sponsorships

It generally costs about NZ$260 to send a child to camp which includes 10 days at camp, medical attention, life lessons, fun and games, encouragement, guest speakers, and most of all love and support.  If you would like to sponsor a child for camp, your gift will make an enormous impact.

Kayaks

Since our camping area is on the waterfront, we would like to purchase 2 kayaks for the kids to enjoy on the camps. This requires NZ$500 and would be a fantastic way to help all of the kids at camp.

Bicycles

Like any kid, Vladivostok children love riding bikes but none are available. We aim to provide some for the kids to use whilst on Living Hope holiday camps, and so we can start overnight bike camps. NZ$300-$400 each