Story and Photography by Russ Dilday


Sweating and panting, the summer missions volunteers rounded the last turn of the dark three-story staircase with their burdens: several 70-lb. bags of diapers, detergent, medicine, health supplies and other aid destined for use by the doctors and staff at Orphanage No. 15, a hospital and assessment center for street kids in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The group, most from First Baptist Church of Longview, cleared the last step and began divulging the bags’ contents, much to the delight of No. 15’s director, Anatoly Zheleznov.

“What is very touching is not the quantity of their help or how long it will even last, Zheleznov said. “What is especially touching is the soul intentions, the spiritual aspect of this giving. To the people who have problems right now at the moment, it’s this attention and care for them, especially when the needy people are kids.”

Zheleznov, a pediatrician, noted that the bags of aid were given in addition to a container full of detergent, diapers, health products and clothing sent by Buckner Orphan Care International earlier this year. “The things that were provided will probably last for a year for the orphanage, the stock that was received in the last container.”
Several of the 39 orphanages that care for an estimated 3,500 children in the St. Petersburg area have come to rely on aid from international aid organizations like Buckner to make up for severe shortfalls in government financial allocations to the orphanages.

To provide that help, BOCI has instituted several ways for caring Americans to send aid to children overseas, including Gift from the Heart (providing for everyday items such as medicine, diapers and coats), Friend of Orphans (providing for larger ongoing concerns and equipment), Ongoing Staff Support (supporting indigenous Buckner staff) and Shoes for Orphan Souls (which sends new shoes to orphan children).

Overwhelming Needs
For many orphanages not only in St. Petersburg but also in other parts of Russia and in Romania, China and Kenya, orphanage leaders have formed coalitions with groups like Buckner to help the children who live in conditions of extreme poverty in institutions that can barely afford to feed and clothe them.

“I have been a doctor for over 27 years, but every time when I see these eyes, I see this ocean of grief in children, I want to do something else, just something so they feel a little bit better and to put just a little bit of glimpse of hope for all of them,” Zheleznov said. “When there are people who will bring (aid) to them…then there will be hope.”

Meredith Neal, BOCI missions coordinator for Romania, said the needs in orphanages there are extensive. When I walk into a Romanian orphanage and I see the needs, it’s almost overwhelming to see these children with old clothes that they don’t even own with their beds falling apart.



New cribs for Leaganul Orphanage
in Targu Mures, Romania


Donated sewing machines at
Svir Stroi Orphanage, Russia

“We try to do anything that can be done to replace those items,” she said. “The medicine that they need is very expensive, as well as the beds, school supplies, clothes and diapers for the babies – they are so expensive here. Any of these items would make a world of difference to these kids.”

Like the group from Longview, a missions team from Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth brought bags of aid to orphanages in central Romania, but also brought money to purchase beds at “Big Blue,” a children’s orphanage in Targu Mures.

Wedgwood team leader Patricia Wood said the church “gave $2,500 to the Buckner Gift from the Heart program because we, as a church, have seen the need firsthand that these children have and we really wanted to do something to provide for these kids and we felt that the Gift from the Heart program was one of the most effective ways to do that.”

She said the congregation chose beds because “a bed not only helps the children get a good night’s sleep and comfort but it also in a way makes them feel that they have some worth and that people from another part of the world care for them and want to do something for them.”

Wood’s husband, Kelly, noted the need to improve conditions at Big Blue and other orphanages. “I guess what I found to be the most shocking thing were perhaps the conditions. It was a bit sad that some of the kids would have to be raised in an environment like that. We spent a lot of time out in what is basically a parking lot. That’s where they have their free time. I know that their resources are limited, but it was kind of sad to see that that’s the way they have to spend their days.”

Azada Vasilavich, director of Orphanage No. 32 in St. Petersburg, credits Buckner supporter and Dallas businessman Steve Spencer with giving the children a new outlook on life – through new plumbing.

When she was appointed as director two years ago, she said she was “horrified” when she saw the condition of the bathrooms. “For years they did not do any repairs. It was not possible to use them. The pipes – you could touch them and they would fall apart. There were no showers at all, just a shower room on the first floor. Now in every bathroom we have a shower and a toilet.”

She admits pride in the new bathrooms because “I believe that people need to live decently. We want children to respect themselves and feel comfortable. We’re not talking about luxury, but just the elementary level of comfort we need to provide for the children.”

“You need to walk into a bathroom with a good feeling and not be horrified getting in there, and have something you can treat with respect,” she said. “Like the psychologists say, ‘If the corner is white, you don’t want to spit into it.’”

‘Environmental’ Responses
Like No. 32’s new bathrooms, many of the projects Buckner takes on in orphanages it serves may seem mundane, running from large infrastructure fixes to sending containers of diapers. Mike Douris, vice president for Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services, agreed that many of the humanitarian aid projects targeted by Buckner “aren’t flashy, because one of the ways you demonstrate your love for kids is through the quality of the environment you put them in.

“When those environments have toilets that don’t work, roofs that leak or when the orphanage smells like urine and feces, the children take that as a reflection about how you care about them,” he said. “Before you get into the spiritual needs of children living in these orphanages, you need to take care of the physical needs – then you can make an eternal impact on a kid’s life.”

Humanitarian aid and improving facilities are two of a four-part strategy being conducted by Buckner Orphan Care International. The other two include mission trips for evangelism and discipleship and program development through assisting orphanages in providing the best type of care for children, such as foster care development or staff training.

But it is in the mundane, everyday improvements that have caused many of the orphanage directors to praise Buckner for its help. Ivan Khadugin, director of the orphanage at Svir Stroi, a rural community four hours from St. Petersburg, said that Buckner recently provided his orphanage with 130,000 rubles “to be able to fix the sewage system. The pipes had not been working for years. As of today, it is functioning perfectly.
“We are not flooded!” Khadugin exclaimed, showing the pipe renovations. “We had water coming in prior to the help.”

He also pointed out other Buckner-funded improvements, including new linens, sewing machines, computers and software, a van and a plowed, one-hectare (about 2.47 acres) field full of potatoes.

“If not for Buckner, we would not survive. We didn’t have any way to get the food from the city to the orphanage. Everyday we remember Buckner. If not for Buckner, the kids would not have even seen computers except on television.”

And ask Maria, director of the Leaganul Baby Orphanage in Targu Mures, Romania, how Buckner has made a difference at her orphanage, she will talk about new cribs, diapers and other aid, but proudly points to her institution’s new kitchen, complete with new stoves, tile and paint, refrigerators, sinks and pantry.

“All your help is very good for us and I hope you can help us in the future, too, because we need your help for the children to have a better life here in the institution – because they don’t have a very easy life,” she said.

Pediatrician Olla Fedosiva, director of Orphanage No. 16, a St. Petersburg hospital for children ages birth through 4, said she could not “find the words to thank” Buckner or “to express in one minute how much has been done in the last five years, starting with the repairs of the building itself. A number of things were renovated inside the orphanage itself, most were rooms for the kids, where the kids are. The rest is medical supplies and all kinds of supplies for the kids: Lots of toys, baby food. The help was so big.”

Even with the help, Fedosiva points to more needs experienced by orphanage staff, including the need for a fire alarm system, the removal of large trees on the orphanage grounds, the renovation of the sewage system and flooring and for winter clothing for the 100 children in her care.

Perhaps no one in the St. Petersburg orphanage system knows more about the needs of orphans than Anatoly Ulianov, director of Orphanage No. 9 and head of the board of directors of the 39 orphanages and four boarding schools under the Ministry of Education that care for 3,500 children (An additional 15 baby homes under the Ministry of Health care for about 1,600 infants).

He said one of his main priorities for children is their ability to function in society after they are released from the orphanges. He added that it’s a problem Buckner has helped him answer.

“It is Buckner that provides scholarships for students…enough for them to get their education but not enough where they don’t know the value of money. I think we provide what is necessary for them to grow up as normal people so they know and appreciate the money and so they can distribute the money as well during the month, because unfortunately the experience shows, when a student gets a scholorship, he thinks he can buy the world, and in one day he just buys it – and in two days he doesn’t have any money left.”

He also knows what happens to kids without an education, commenting that many of the 300 children who graduate from orphanages annually in his district “are turned out, and what happens to them… they are immature because they constantly looked to an adult on the orphanage staff who was regulating his relationship with society. Now he is on his own and he cannot do it himself, so as a result, he easily loses his housing and he’s thrown out the street. He’s homeless,” Ulianov said.

In addition to the scholarship, he said Buckner has provided funds at No. 9 for a medical clinic, youth center, a group home, fencing, new shoes through the Shoes for Orphan Souls initiative – and prom dresses left over from a prom dress giveaway at Buckner Children and Family Services of North Texas.

But it is another clothing item, shoes, that provides BOCI’s largest ongoing contribution to humanitarian aid in other countries – 500,000 pairs in 23 countries last year – given through the annual Shoes for Orphan Souls drive.

Team members both in Russia and Romania brought new shoes for children attending summer camps on behalf of the Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls drive.

Scott Hensley, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Tulia, Texas, said “the moment that struck me the most was looking at the little children’s feet as they took their old shoes off to receive the new shoes. When I saw the pile of old shoes and the pile of new shoes, it reminded me of taking off the old and putting on the new.

“And that is what we are trying to do here with these kids in teaching them about Jesus: That there is a new life if they will but take it and go with it,” he said. “But right now we are planting seeds in their hearts and hopefully they will take on the new life.”