We take care of 70 little children daily, giving them 3 meals and all the love and comfort they need! A safe place for children where they can receive the love of Jesus.
It was started 20 years ago to provide a need that was identified: many small pre-school children from poor families where parents were unemployed and/or dependent on alcohol/drugs were growing up on the streets: hungry and destitute.
The government does provide for kindergartens, but they are paid. We wanted to provide shelter, care, education and 3 basic meals to these children free of any cost. Another need that was identified, was for children with special needs for which the government kindergartens do not make any provision. Our vision was to take care of these children with all the other children. Through the 20 years a number of 50-75 children have been taken care of each year. There has always been a number of children with special needs in Raduga.
“Raduga” is the Russian word for “rainbow” and it has always been our purpose to bring colour and life to children in the extremely colourless and poverty-stricken society of the post-Soviet Union Ukraine.
Raduga Children’s Center is a charity registered according to Ukrainian law.
Let me take you by the hand
and lead you through the streets of Reni…
The Danube flows like a life-giving vein through the landscape. Reni has a port which used to be the main source of work and income but traffic has slowed down to a trickle.
The street where we live is still a dirt road. Reni has amazing, beautiful sunsets and a charming rustic atmosphere. It is an amazing conglomeration of different cultures with Ukrainian, Russian, Moldovan, Bulgarian, Gagauzian… to name just a few!
People are poor and struggling to survive. Many leave for bigger cities or job opportunities in other European countries. Dads are absent, families broken… children are at the receiving end of the cycle of poverty and addiction.
