My husband and I adopted biological siblings, Paul and Rya from the Children’s Village in December, 2006. We adopted in 2003 from the shelter, and I thought I was familiar with all of the area orphanages, but it turned out I was wrong! When we were asked if we wanted to go and meet two children at what was called “The Children’s Village” we said yes, but had no idea what to expect! The name suits it well. The Children’s Village is a small orphanage consisting of 5 house-like buildings. The buildings are on a little street made of brick, and the property is gated.
The 5 buildings at the orphanage consist of one for administrators, and four for the children. The first home contains the director’s office, psychologist’s office, and the doctor’s office. There are four other houses that are home to four groups of children. Each building houses 9 children. There are three bedrooms in each house with three beds each. Each home has a bathroom, a living room, kitchen/dining area, a room for the caretakers and a large foyer. The home our children lived in had a piano and is subsequently where the children’s holiday programs are held. We were able to attend their New Year’s celebration and it was really wonderful.
The kids that live at the Children’s Village attend school at the Regional Boarding School/orphanage nearby. Our son was in 2nd grade there at the time of his adoption. We spent 5 weeks visiting our children and their group, and witnessed a lot of studying. They all seemed to work very hard on their schoolwork and their housemother was often very involved in homework support. The kids were all eager to try their English with us and didn’t laugh too hard at our Russian! They loved the game UNO! Because of the nature of the setup, we were able to spend a lot of time with all of the kids in our children’s group. Our son and daughter were the youngest of the group at 6 and 8, and the oldest were 15 years old. The groups truly live like families, each with responsibilities for cleaning and cooking, laundry, and looking after one another.
Since we left the Children’s Village in January 2007 to bring our two new additions home, we have been sponsoring outings for the children that we had to leave behind. The way the kids are split up at the Children’s Village makes it very easy to sponsor a group outing. We have a lot of love for our children’s group and are so happy to be able to sponsor their outings. The only hard thing is knowing that there are three other groups there that don’t get to go. Sponsoring a house at the Children’s Village would be a wonderful opportunity for a family, or a group such as a girl/boy scout troop, or a church youth group, or any other group that you might be a part of such as a Rotary club, or a sorority or fraternity. The possibilities are endless. It is such a joy to receive the photos of the children on their outing and see their smiling faces. It’s definitely my favorite part.
Thank you Sarah, for writing this article about the Children's Village and sponsorship!
To find out more about sponsoring an outing for one of the other three Children's Village Groups....please contact us at antares.foundation@yahoo.com OR contact Sarah at taylor.sp@gmail.com
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