A couple weeks ago I posted photos from Vitebsk, to visit a boarding school for deaf children.
Most of them go home on weekends and holidays. But a handful of the youngest ones have to stay behind.
Their parents are dead. Or too poor to make the journey to Vitebsk to pick them up.
Or they simply don’t want them anymore.
“The children feel extremely lonely,” director Svyeta says. “It is difficult to explain to these little deaf children why they are not taken home like their friends.”
But she has a dream … to make a special place for these orphaned preschoolers … An “Island of Joy,” just for them … Away from the classrooms, the everyday places … without desks and cafeteria tables …
This would be a place they actually look forward to, on weekends and holidays … just like the children who look forward to going home for weekends and holidays.
We can create an entire “Island of Joy” — a beautifully designed area just for orphaned preschoolers, with games and toys, special play areas, and more — for just $2,983.99.
I’d like to do it for them, as a Thanksgiving gift from America. Would you please consider giving a “Thanksgiving gift” today, to make this dream come true?
Maybe you could choose one of the specific costs:
1. Wallpaper $319.92 2. Building materials (putty, plaster, primer, etc.) $162.87 3. Flooring (linoleum) $540.96 4. Tiles for floors and walls $570.04 5. Child-sized sink, toilet, bath $442.071. 6. Play area (a pretend store, clinic, kitchen, dining room) $465.34 7. Chest for clothes $58.17 8. Child-sized tables and chairs $424.62 Total $2,983.99
Any generous gift you could give today, in any amount, large or small, would be a real help. And if by some miracle we receive all the funds needed, we’ll devote any additional funds toward providing wheelchair access for deaf children who are also physically disabled — a separate $4,013 project.
“Any help given to these children is priceless,” Svyeta says. “We cannot give them hearing and take the place of their parents, but it is in our power to improve their quality of life, and make them a little happier.”
Thank you for considering this wonderful opportunity to say “I love you” to a deaf orphan … in a way they can really “hear.” Much love, Doug Brendel