To date, An Orphan Smiles has helped support four trips to Kiev for children from Tsurupinsk Children's Home.  The fifth and most recent trip for twenty children to visit Kiev  (Jan 2011)  was funded thru a benefit concert arranged by our partner organization in Ukraine Artful Giver.  To date a total of over sixty children have experienced an exciting trip to Ukraine's capital city.

Special Trip to the US - Summer 2011:

From June 22 thru July 7, 2011, five disabled students and two chaperones traveled from Kiev, Ukriane  to Seattle, Washington to stay with host families.   Xavier University initiated this effort by raising funds to secure visas for the children and the chaperones.   Then through additional fundraising by the University, Artful Giver and generous supporters, An Orphan Smiles was able to provide the additional needed funds for airline tickets and associated travel expenses.

This trip was important on several levels.   First, and foremost, it provided five teenagers an opportunity to experience a trip of a lifetime.  Most orphanage children rarely leave the orphanage grounds.   For disabled children, even moreso.    In Ukraine, there are rarely any facilities for disabled people.   The trip gave the children and the director accompanying them an opportunity to visit a couple former orphans from Tsurupinsk living in the US and to see how well they have done.   Hopefully, this experience will encourage orphanage administrators to see a possible future for disable children through adoption and/or educational opportunities like vocational training once they age out of the orphanage.

To read more about the trip, visit our blog entry.   The hope is that another trip for five or six more children can be planned for Summer 2012.

Please consider a donation to the "Tsurupinsk Summer Trip" or future "Trips or Outings" using Paypal below:

Past Trips:

October 2010 - During a break in school, ten children from Tsurupinsk visited Kiev and stayed with host Orphanage 12.  A photo album from this trip can be viewed here.

A message from our in-country Volunteer Bogdan:

January 2010  - Since children from Mykolaivka Orphanage were unable to come to Kiev because of a flu epidemic, Orphanage 12 invited another group of children from Tsurupinsk. As last time, there were children from two orphanages in the group - one for children with physical handicaps and one for children with slight mental disabilities. The children stayed at Orphanage No.12 in Kiev from January 5th through January 7th, 2010  View the photo album.

December 2009  - Because the first Christmas trip was so successful, An Orphan Smiles and volunteers at Orphanage 12 planned another one.  Christmas Trip to Kiev for ten Tsurupinsk Children was December 26 - 28, 2009.  View the photo album.

December 2008 - Ten children living at the Tsurupinsk orphanage visited Kiev for three days over the Christmas Holidays. The trip was a once in a lifetime
experience for these children.

From Bogdan Bashtovyi about this trip:

The three day trip was incredible. The children enjoyed it immensly. We organized lots of joint activities with Orphanage No.12 -a talent show, art competition, pizza party and even a disco. The group visited a Christmas play in a local theater, Children's Entertainment Center with 4D theater, show with dolphins and other sea animals, movie theater (watched Disney's "Bolt"), botanical gardens and many other fun places. They were at the openining of the country's main Christmas tree on Maidan, met the Ukrainian St. Nicholas in the city park and Santa Claus from Laplandia, Finland). Of course, everyone got lots of presents, including one at their own wish. What an incredible and fulfilling experience.