Olga Rudneva the Director of the Elena Franchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation reports on the orphanage benefitting from the
Queen + Paul Rodgers concert in Kharkov, Ukraine.
Orphanage “Zelenuy Guy” is located in the suburbs of Kharkov. Back at the beginning of the 20th century, the premises were uses as housing for railway workers. In 1967 these buildings were refurbished to accommodate an orphanage. In 2004, when the problem with HIV-positive orphans became evident, a group for children born to HIV-positive mothers was formed. HIV-positive kids were placed in the 1902 constructed building. It is difficult to identify all the modifications that took place within the building over the past 106 years, but it is documented that there was no national budgeting allowing for any reconstruction works over the last 18 years. All small renovations were done at the expense of private donations from various sources in order to slightly improve the state of the building.
A the moment there are three sub-groups of kids born to HIV-positive mothers: those who receive ART, those who are under monitoring and those who proved to be HIV-negative; in total 17 children (of 87 living in the orphanage) are currently in this group. The eldest child is 11 years old and the youngest is 18 months. The orphanage is for children from 0 to 4 years old, but boarding schools refused to accept HIV-positive children, leaving them all at orphanages intended for pre-school children.
This orphanage had to adapt to become a home for HIV-positive school children as well as toddlers and some of them already require a personal space needing privacy to study. It was decided that all money donated by the VIP guests at the Queen concert will be directed to the reconstruction of the building for the HIV-positive orphans. The sum of USD150,000 is being invested in full to the reconstruction and by mid January 2010, the children will be able to return to more comfortable accommodation.
Apart from the reconstruction of the building, the children need clothing, furniture, and a minibus to be able to visit their surroundings.