Russian Ministry Visits AIDS Orphans in Kiev
A U.S.-based Christian ministry working in the former Soviet Union visited an orphanage for children with AIDS on World AIDS Day, delivering backpacks filled with gifts to orphans living in Kiev, Ukraine.
A U.S.-based Christian ministry working in the former Soviet Union visited an orphanage for children with AIDS on World AIDS Day, delivering backpacks filled with gifts to orphans living in Kiev, Ukraine.
Peter Deyneka Russian Ministries – a group promoting indigenous evangelism, church-planting, church growth and humanitarian aid in the former Soviet Union by developing partnerships between nationals and Western Christians – delivered Backpacks of Blessings to orphans on Dec. 1. The backpacks – filled with school supplies, small gifts and Christian literature – were delivered by Russian Ministries’ national workers.
In addition, the national workers on World AIDS Day also handed out AIDS prevention literature to 70 drugstores in Kiev and displayed posters promoting Christian moral values around the city that will be seen by estimated 120,000 people.
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“Tragically, babies and children – the youngest of the Next Generation – are victims and outcasts of AIDS,” Russian Ministries wrote in an article.
According to the Ministry of Health in Russia, some 1,500 children of the 21,000 born to HIV-positive mothers have been abandoned. The Russian ministry reports that many mothers believe that they and their children will soon die and abandon their children as a result.
Russian policies and laws require that abandoned babies spend the first three years of their lives in “baby houses.” However, many of the orphanages refuse to take in HIV/AIDS babies, fearing that other children or the staffs will be infected as a result. Therefore, the babies often remain in the hospital for a period of time or are isolated from other children if they are accepted by orphanages.
Overall, the deputy health minister of Russia, Vladimir Starodubov, says that about 330,000 Russians have the HIV/AIDS virus. But according to UNAIDS experts, more than one million people in Russia have the virus.
“The looming HIV/AIDS epidemic could cost as many lives in the future as Stalin’s purges did in the past, especially since 80 percent of those infected are less than 30 years of age,” the Peter Deyneka Russian Ministries article noted.
The ministry also noted that usually they help deliver gift-filled shoe boxes from Samaritan’s Purse to orphanages such as the one in Kiev, to street children and needy children, but the Russian government has prohibited the entry of thousands of Samaritan’s Purse show boxes this year.
“We just received this final, sad news, which means many of these children may receive no Christmas gifts at all,” the ministry reported.
“We especially ask for your prayers and anything you can do to help us put Boxes of Hope and Backpacks of Blessings, which will be packed and delivered inside Russia, into the hands of these children.”
Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, AIDS has been spreading through Russia at an alarming pace due to weak anti-drug and prevention programs as well as programs that promote healthy, moral lifestyle choices. Since 2004, Russian Ministries and local churches have been holding Time to Live! festivals. These festivals have been lively celebrations that promote healthy, moral lifestyle choices and point to Jesus as the One who makes this possible. Since November of 2004, five festivals have taken place (three of these festivals were in the St. Petersburg region) and over 8,000 young people attended.
