Over 50% of orphanage leavers still turn to crime, become prostitutes, drug addicts and alcoholics. Many of the girls quickly become young mums but want to keep their babies from growing up as ‘social orphans’ like they did. Here’s what one of the young mums Yan and Nadya help said;
“My mother is an alcoholic and I never knew my father. Age 9 I was placed in an orphanage. When I left, I soon became a mother of two girls. My circumstances meant I had to move into a small apartment (a room) with my alcoholic mother. I’ve never known love from her and she now treats my children with the same hatred and hostility. I’m afraid for my children to be around her, as she’s often drunk and invites her alcoholic friends to our room. At a life skills class with Yan and Nadia I met Christians and noticed a completely different way they treated each other. They were strangers who loved and cared for me and my daughters when they did not have to. It touched my heart and I want to know more of this compassion that I’ve never known before and my family cannot give.”
While living in an orphanage, young people have a bed and meals and go to school (at the orphanage). They are told what to do each day but do not learn how to grow, develop, manage emotions or gain life skills. They did not grow up with any role models of family because their parents are alcoholics, drug addicts or worse. Most of them never experienced a mother or father’s love and the orphanage system cannot give it to them. Only God’s love can make a difference.
If you'd like to help support orphanage leavers in the St Petersburg please pray for Yan and Nadya's ministry.
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