There are many teenagers in Dasha’s Open Hearts Youth Group on the verge of independence.
Karolina is one she needs to watch. At 17 years old, her motivation is to impress and interact with the boys; her need for affection heightened by the loss of both parents to alcoholism and spending her childhood in an orphanage. She currently lives with a foster carer, but they have not bonded. Karolina is adamant she will leave the moment she turns 18, choosing to be homeless rather than stay in a situation where she is unhappy. Currently, the crisis centre does not have space to offer her an alternative.
Daniil (pictured above), 16, is another tricky teen who's constantly on the lookout for girlfriends. He is at college now having returned to Volkhov and the crisis centre where his mum was helped with her addiction. Without this place, he would be homeless.
Daniil's older brother Maxim, who also came to the centre with his mum, is now 18 years old. He is too young to live at the men’s centre and it’s inappropriate for him to be sharing bedrooms with other mums and their young children at the Women's Crisis Centre. The WCC building is meant only for women and their children, with the exception of vulnerable elderly people they occasionally encounter.
Youth with nowhere to live is a problem our partners, Dasha and her mum Alina, are seeing more and more. They have been praying and trying to find an answer and we ask that you would too pray so a viable solution can be found. For every difficulty set before them in the past, there has always been a solution and God has faithfully provided. Please help us support this group doing an amazing job of nurturing some very vulnerable children and young adults.
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