For the seventh year in a row, orphaned children celebrated Christmas and New Year’s at Kyiv’s Premier Palace Hotel on Jan. 9, joined by their guardians, charity workers and some distinguished guests.
It is a one-day fairy tale for many of the 130 children from eight orphanages in Kyiv and Zhytomyr oblasts. The elegant celebration is a chance to teach children etiquette and meet their friends and larger family, says organizer Natalia Uvarova.
“Small children get a fairy tale here, and grown-up children get family and acceptance,” says Uvarova, the president of “Orphans Are Our Children” charity fund.
Oleksiy Drobot, who grew up in an orphanage himself and participated in such celebrations, brought his own children this time. He says that kids enjoy getting out of the orphanage to celebrate the holidays in a special place.
“It’s better here. When you’re in the orphanage, about five to seven people may come and give presents, but the atmosphere remains the same,” Drobot says. “Here you can have fun and talk to different people.”
Children meet various guests at the celebration, including artists, business people and diplomats. This year’s guests include Colonel Robert Peters, chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy and ambassadors of Malaysia and Pakistan.
“Every time we come here, we get to know someone and then try to keep in touch with them throughout our lives,” says Tetiana Kalinichenko, a mother guardian for over 20 children in a family-type orphanage in the village of Osychky, Zhytomyr Oblast.
There are over 21,000 orphaned children in Ukraine and about 50,000 more children without parental care, according to the Ministry of Social Policy. Worldwide, 153 million children are orphans, according to UNICEF.
