Natasha dreams about becoming a teacher one day. She wants to study hard and learn English so that she can realize this dream in her future. But Natasha is an orphan in Ukraine, and statistics say Natasha should end up on the street or in prostitution- repeating the cycle of her parents.

Thanks to a week long Life Skills summer camp, Natasha and other orphaned teenagers like her were given applicable skills for life beyond the orphanage. Through the Christian leaders that came to teach at the camp, these youth were encouraged and given hope that there are ways to make better choices in life. The statistics that are given about the future of orphans do not need to become a reality.

A team of 10 young adults traveled from Kiev to Nikolaev for one week, to work with older orphans who spend their summers at a camp that holds 650 orphans from the Nikolaev region of Ukraine. Each day leaders met with the same small group of young people and taught lessons from the Life Skills Curriculum for youth, a unique curriculum which was developed by staff at the CBN World Reach office in Kiev to meet the growing needs of orphaned teens. Each day the lessons focused on important topics that the youth will need to consider as they transition from living life in the orphanage to independent living. Lessons at the camp included information on identity, social skills, love and sex, job skills, and time and money management.

To the surprise of the leaders, each day the kids would rush to the lessons and sit attentively- excited to learn new information from these new friends. Natasha was among these eager students and never missed one lesson! On the first day, the leaders gave out workbooks to each of the students which contained the lessons and worksheets for the entire week. On the second day of class Natasha came back and said, "This is all so interesting and helpful I read the whole book already!" Clearly Natasha’s dream of becoming a teacher is on its way to being realized!

The six days of camp flew by and at the end of the week the leaders were amazed at how much these orphaned teens had opened up and shared with them the stories of their broken pasts, and yet their hopes for the future. 15 year-old Nastia, who could not control her emotions or tears on the day when the leaders were leaving, cried out, “Why do all the uninteresting and boring groups come for the whole summer and then the really wonderful people who care about us come for only a week?” Plans are already being made to return to these youth next summer for a two-week camp!

Though a week is a short time to touch the hearts of youth who have spent the majority of their lives in an orphanage, it became evident that God was using the light shinning through his servant leaders to shine hope and encouragement through the tool of lessons in life skills.

Thanks to the support of Operation Blessing, summer camps like the one held for the older orphans in Nikolaev are made possible each year and young people like Natasha are being encouraged to follow their dreams.

If you want to help this person, please, contact Operation Blessing Ukraine at OB.Partners.ua@cbn-cis.org

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