L'Arche and L'viv, part 3

Wednesday morning Vasyl came from Ivano-Frankivsk to meet with us. His organisation "Ukrainian Philanthropic Network" works with an orphanage very similar to the one here in Tsyurupinsk. They are also in the planning stages of building a home something like what Alys is doing. Vasyl is a lawyer, and he is studying all the ins and outs of everything to do with work like this. We talked for three hours straight. Most of that was us listening to what he has learned so far and scrambling to remember and take notes.

We talked about adoption. They work with Maya's Hope to try and get kids adopted. We talked about how to help in orphanages--it's best not to give things and money (amen!)--and how they've built accountability for when donations are given. Banking: we definitely decided that Alys' director/manager Maxim needs to talk to Vasyl about processing finances. Vasyl told us a lot about funding and his plans to present his building project for government funding. He knows all about the legislation related to this, what's already in place, what needs to change, and more. If he can't get government funding, his Plan B is to find a certain number of donors who can give a certain amount each month. I don't remember the numbers, but I know that it sounded very reasonable. He had great ideas about publicity and getting neighbours and local community on his side. Even now, he's started with public meetings and approaching local officials.

Nila got the only photo from this time: Vasyl and Alys

While we talked with Vasyl in the kitchen, the other group of Smiles came and started their day in other parts of the house. On this day, the leader was a different man, and he had his family with him. His wife is also a L'Arche assistant, but she's officially on maternity leave. She and their two youngest children were there anyway, though. The older two joined us later in the day. (All four are younger than our Bogdan; I enjoyed them greatly!) As soon as we said goodbye to Vasyl, we started getting to know our new friends. Apparently I didn't take any photos, but Nila did:

After we talked with them some, it was time for us to go meet the people of another workshop. All our running around the day before had been particularly hard for Nila. For this day, L'Arche drove us. She couldn't climb up into their bus, but that wasn't a problem at all:

They took us to the church where "Ascension" workshop is. Here we got to see more of daily life in a L'Arche workshop. This one has a tradition that every guest makes an angel to leave behind. So, for a while we drew and cut and coloured to make ours. They told us about themselves and showed us their work.

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Hanna*

Assistants*

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Learning how to "hook" a necklace*

Yura*

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Natalia

Andrei

This next picture isn't related to L'Arche. It was just interesting to me: a mural in progress at the church. All the little pieces of tile were set out in containers on the table, and the picture was already sketched out.

We ate lunch at Ascension and then went back to the house for the end of the Smiles' day there. Oh, something I saw when arrived was worth noting. As I have said before, the assistants and friends work together. Some in this group are truly not able to do physical work. However, they are still included in everything. Oksana was washing the floor, and Ira and Galya were parked in their wheelchairs right there with her. They finished their work and activities, and we joined them for songs and prayer once again.

To be continued...

*These are Nila's photos.