“This is not a store — what matters is feeling that you can be a parent to this child”
A couple from the Khmelnytskyi region is raising six children, three of whom are foster children.
Olena and Andrii from the village of Dovzhok in the Khmelnytskyi region spent years regularly visiting residential care institutions as volunteers. Communication with children who were growing up without parental care gradually changed their understanding of the real needs of these children and the kind of support required.
“Your heart breaks, because when you arrive [at an institutional facility], 40 children run up and all ask: ‘Are you my dad? Are you here for me?’” Andrii shares.
“We saw that children need more than just a celebration once a week. They need a family—every day,” Olena adds.
The decision to create a foster family matured over about five years and was mutual for both. At the same time, Olena emphasizes that they had no illusions—they understood it would not be easy.
After completing special training, the Children’s Services suggested the family take in three siblings—two boys, Ruslan and Yaroslav, and a girl, Veronika, aged six, four, and two. At that time, Olena was pregnant, and together with her husband they already had two biological children. The first years of living together were difficult but became a period of building trust.
“This is not a store. What matters here is feeling that you can be a parent to this child, and that the child can accept you,” Olena explains.
For the second meeting, Olena and Andrii brought their biological children—Ania and Dmytro—to see how they would connect. The meeting went very warmly, and soon they all went home together.
“It’s very important that the whole family agrees to accept the children,” Olena is convinced. “We were also lucky that all our children—both biological and foster—are about the same age, so the approach to upbringing is the same.”
Andrii recalls that the first years were especially challenging, and at times they even felt like giving up, but joint efforts and mutual support gave them the strength to keep going.
“For example, with our eldest foster son Ruslan, who was in first grade at the time, we spent six months learning to read the syllable ‘MA.’ I thought I wasn’t capable of teaching him to read. But by New Year, we finally managed to read the word ‘mom,’” the father says. “And now Ruslan reads better than all the other children.”
The foster mother admits that over more than 10 years of living as a large family, they had to completely renovate their house so that everyone would have enough space and feel comfortable, as the children grow and their needs change. Financial assistance provided by the RM “Caritas-Spes” with the support of UNICEF helped—they were able to update the kitchen appliances.
“We are people who never sit and wait for someone to help us. I work, my husband works. And when we received this support, I was very grateful to God,” says the mother of many children.
Andrii and Olena try to give their children a real sense of childhood. Both work hard so that their children can travel and see the world.
“We need to give at least one orphaned child a chance to live in a normal, healthy family—where there is a father, a mother, and a positive atmosphere,” Andrii emphasizes.
The project “Better Care for Every Child: Development of Social Services and the Child Protection System in the Khmelnytskyi Region” is implemented by RM “Caritas-Spes Ukraine” with the support of UNICEF and financial assistance from the European Union and the Government of Canada.
