Olyesya- currently  24years old (20/3/87)

Max- currently  24years old (18/6/87)

Bogdan currently  3 years old (14/6/08)

Olyesya- Study, work Studied as a health and safety Teacher/ Works as a nanny

Max- Study, work studies as a  teacher of sports and Tourism/ works as a camp teacher

(Coincidently most of Max’s students are from orphanages)

 History

Olyesya

Olyesya lived with her brother Denis (Pictured on our banner) and Mother till she was 9 years old. Her earliest memories were living with a friend of her mother, when he started beating her mother and later Olyesya and Denis.  Her mum was working at a poly clinic and they were staying with this man during the day. Later she went to kindergarten, then remembers starting school, but stopped going as she couldn’t do any of the things the other kids could do and was scared they would find out all the time, as at home her mother wasn’t doing homework or spending any time teaching her.

When Olyesya was seven years old, her mother and brother Denis had gone for a walk and left Olyesya at home with her mum’s friend. He was sitting at the table drinking Vodka and she remember sitting beside him calmly eating Palmini, when he asked for her fork.  He then took it and stabbed her through the eyelid miraculously missing her eye.

Within a few months another day he beat her mother and put a rack like knife through her cheek. They then moved around living with friends of their mum’s  which was always dirty, everyone was always drunk and never had  food. They then found a abandon house where they lived for a while and remembers always being hungry.  Olyesya and her brother Denis spent their days begging for bread or money near the local shops, until someone reported them to the education department. They were taken to Mira Refuge  (where we do our English Kids club) for one year and was later taken to Lastochka orphanage.

We met Olyesya just as she was leaving the orphaning to live in the student dormitories.  She came to live with House of Grace and hope a year later.  Olyesya is one of the few orphans we know who has studied to the 11th grade and completed University In her 4th year of university she fell pregnant with Bogdan and was going to quiet but we really felt her education was too important for her future and so we took on the care of Bogdan, till she completed her degree and when her husband was away studying after she went onto working.

Olyesya has since given birth to her second son, which she called “Platon”