JUNE 2018
The Case for Summer Camp NOT JUST FOR SUMMER, BUT FOR LIFE The most painful time in an Eastern European orphan’s life is not when they lose parents, or are rejected by them, or the isolation they experience during a childhood spent in boarding homes. It is when they turn 16 and have to leave the Home to fend for themselves. The reality of the adult world is far more harsh & desperate than anything they have experienced in a boarding school. Statistics tragically tell us … • 60% of girls end up being trafficked for prostitution or pornography within 2 years (orphans are at extremely high risk for being trafficked and exploited); • 50%+ of girls become pregnant as teenagers; 80% of babies born to former orphans become wards of the state within 3 years, creating the next generation of orphans; • 70% of boys wind up in jail within 2 years of leaving the orphanage; • 15% of children commit suicide within 2 years of “graduating.” Natalia [pictured right, at camp in 2017] has grown up in a western Ukraine boarding home, and faces a very uncertain future. As a child, she witnessed her mother – after years of drunken abuse - kill her father in self-defense. Because of this, Natalia has psychological problems, learning difficulties and requires special care.
Our workers and the Home staff understand she has experienced bullying & little in the way of love or compassion, which makes her withdrawn and uncommunicative. This is what Summer Camp is for – to give children like Natalia a break from hardship and to let them know that they are valued & loved.
“Natalia tries to look cool and strong,” Maxim—a camp volunteer says, “but she is afraid of what life holds for her. We care about her needs and we listen to her.”
Last summer at age 15, along with 900 other vulnerable children in Ukraine, she experienced a Mission Without Borders Summer Camp for the first time. If there had been no camp experience for her, she would have had no summer “holiday” and no break from her daily struggles.
Our care goes beyond camp, as we will help her to find a job and invite her to be part of a local church in the coming weeks and months.
A 10-day Summer Camp for a vulnerable child costs only $150
We cannot over-emphasize how important it is for children like Natalia to feel needed, and to know that they are not just an empty space in this world.
Our team in Ukraine tell us that the stories of orphans turned out after years in boarding schools is a deep wound in the body of the country.
FROM BEGGING & STEALING TO FOLLOWING JESUS
“I was 12 when I first went to camp. At 17, I gave my life to Jesus. Looking back on my boarding school years, I never dreamed that my life would turn out how it has. The day when I was baptized became the happiest day in my life. In Jesus, I found joy, peace, freedom and love.”
Victor [pictured right] & his four siblings were raised by their mother in a desperately poor community in Moldova. He never met his father and his mother, struggling to provide for her children’s needs, had no alternative but to send them all to boarding school. As a child, Victor was involved in a motorcycle accident, resulting in him being unable to read or write properly.
Today, Victor is a leader at camp, and each summer he gives back to the children in need in his region, like he once was. “I want to serve the Lord,” he says. “I want to show children God’s love in the same way it was shown to me when I was in boarding school, and I want these children to know that there is a plan for their lives.”
VICTOR TODAY
“I was often bullied because I was older than all my classmates, and I couldn’t read or write. I began to avoid my lessons, and I also started to fight back.”
For vulnerable children in Eastern Europe, growing up in an environment of poverty, abuse, abandonment & neglect is considered “normal”.
“I learned to beg from childhood; we had nothing to eat, and I would knock on people’s doors and ask for bread. Some children threw stones when they saw me coming and shouted: ‘Beggar, beggar, don’t play with him’. The rejection made me feel so alone.”
Attending camp lets them experience life as God intended it to be … nutritious food, friendships, fun and unconditional love. That’s the reason why so many leave with their lives changed forever.
“I don’t know why but I started to pray that God would give my memory back so that I could read and write and be like others, and amazingly it happened. I started to improve and I became one of the best in the class.”
Despite this, whenever Victor returned home, he was faced with a step-father who forced him to go out on the streets to beg and steal.
Would you help us to change even more young lives for good?
VICTOR IN 2007
“All the other children looked forward to weekends, but I didn’t … my step-father used to beat me & my siblings, and we would run from him to the cornfields where we would sleep all night.” The only bright spot for Victor in his life were visits to the boarding school from Mission Without Borders, with workers who would read the Bible to the children, bring gifts and show them care and affection.
The cost of sending a child to camp is just $15 per day, to a maximum of $150 for a 10-day camp experience. If we fill all the places at our Summer Camps, any additional monies raised will be put towards our projects to help disadvantaged children and families in our field countries. (The Mission’s follow-up activities are also important—they help galvanize the children’s camp experience, and provide a foundation for a better future.) Give what you can, and as always, THANK-YOU for your generous support!
“I remember when someone would see the coordinator coming … We jumped all over him when he came, as we knew we could talk to him and that he was our friend.”
Sincerely,
And then Victor heard about Summer Camp.
SPONSORSHIP COORDINATOR MISSION WITHOUT BORDERS CANADA
MISSION WITHOUT BORDERS CANADA OFFICE LOCATION #4-30465 Progressive Way, Abbotsford EMAIL mwbcanada@mwbi.org | www.mwbca.org All donations are used to effectively deliver programs.
Bonnie Borowetz
TOLL FREE 1-800-494-4454 | LOCAL (ABBOTSFORD) 604-855-9126 MAILING ADDRESS Box 2007, Abbotsford, BC V2T 3T8 Follow us on Facebook at “Mission Without Borders Canada”