Greetings from THE Ukraine!
I've traveled across the world with Halle Project to document the work some missionaries are doing in Ukraine. We spent today visiting children in a tuberculosis hospital and a mental hospital. Jake Knotts and his church have been working for the past several years to make living conditions bearable for the kids and staff of each. When they began at the tuberculosis hospital basic needs included soap and lightbulbs. Jake's team quickly brought grocery bags full of each. They began to address bigger issues as well such as replacing broken windows and sewing plastic covers for mattresses. A guy in their church owns a window company and is selling them for cost. The winters are below freezing and there is a story of a mother and baby who spent a whole icy season without natural light because they covered their window with a blanket to block the piercing cold air. So far they've replaced 18 windows and hope to replace another 20. When they began to serve the hospital it smelled of feces and death. After covering mattresses with plastic, supplying them with soap and washing machines, the children and the hospital are able to continually keep clean.
Here are a few of the beautiful faces we encountered.
Ben Potter surrounded...
Drew Barefoot.
This woman is the newest head of the hospital. She really cares about the children and has been making it easy for the church to contribute and improve the living conditions.
This mother was living with a man who contracted TB to her 4 year old daughter and baby son. The boy was close to death when the mother brought her children here months ago. These kids have to get shots of antibiotics often and I watched the baby get one. So sad!
10 year old Kids with TB smoking... Ironic?!
Scenes from the Mental Hospital. Funding is so low they've dwindled from 40 kids to 18. Staff are worried they will loose their jobs.
Jake is explaining that this is a room that the church made for the little kids to play in. They didn't have anywhere that was safe to play and would just get beaten up from the older kids. The church padded the walls and floors adding murals on each wall to brighten up the room.
They replaced the dirt lot that the kids played in with this beautiful playground complete with benches, tables, shade, swings, and an outhouse.
A current need the mental hospital has is for soft not-so-breakable furniture. The kids come into this room to hang out and there is only a few mattresses to lay on.
Ben Potter and Jake Knotts interviewing the children's mental hospital director.
A couples scenes left over from the Soviet era.
Dinner delivery back at the TB hospital. Beats and potatoes grow year round even in freezing climate.
Homemade birch wood soccer goals.
Tyler Wholford filming Jake share about the TB hospital.
Tyler, Ben, and Drew sharing their vision for the Halle Project.
And this is the movie they made!
Children's TB Hospital in Chernigov, Ukraine from Halle Project on Vimeo.