IN 1999 we found that a young man called Sasha had moved on from the Children’s Home at Zhuravichi to an appalling mental instititution. Sasha was an intelligent young man, whose only disability was that he could not walk. We managed to move him temporarily to a better home, and resolved that we should set up a small home for Sasha and a few other young people like him.
Gomel Regional Education Department gave us half a kindergarten in the village of Klimovka, half an hour out of Gomel City. We spent several months in the year 2000 renovating it and turning it into a very comfortable home for four young people.
Sasha moved in to the home in November 2000 with two of his friends from Zhuravichi - Liena, who has Spina Bifida and Greesha, who has cerebral palsy. They were later joined by Sveta, who grew up at Rechitsa Boarding School. Sveta had received a good education, whereas the young people at Zhuravichi had never learned to read or write or to care for themselves.
The young people, with the support of four excellent carers, have caught up on some of the education they missed and learned to cook and look after their home.
The Social Protection Department were very supportive and the Diector of the Department for Gomel Region is very proud of our 'Family Home 2000' and he is encouraging other regional authorities in Belarus to look for foreign partners who can help to create something similar, using Klimovka as a model. A home for six yougn people with disabilites has now been establised at Rechitsa with funding from an Irish charity.
Sveta now works as the receptionist/secretary in our Mayflower Centre, and Sasha has moved on to a bigger home as he decided that life at Klimovka was too quiet for him. Anya, who grew up at Rechitsa Boarding School, moved into Klimovka in 2005, but she will soon move on to a more independent life and be replaced by another young person who needs help in the transition from a childhood in an instititution to college and independence.

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