Our trip to Russia, was a very interesting trip. We flew into Perm, Russia – which is actually Siberia. With the new luggage allowances – we were only allowed 2 pieces of checked luggage – each piece not to exceed 50 lbs plus one carry on. That is very restricting when you are packing for the orphanages but we were able to take 400 t-shirts, hundreds of toothbrushes and toothpaste plus wooden toys, which were made here in Kamloops by Judge Terry Shupe. In our personal luggage, we had extra gifts.
As we headed out on this venture to a land where we had never been – we had great excitement and anticipation as to how the logistics of our trip would unfold. We took 350 lbs of goods for the orphanages in Siberia, and at customs in Perm, the bags were taken and all the goods were not returned to us. It was quite an abrupt beginning to a trip that we had prepared and planned for, for a number of months. When we talked to other foreigners there, they had heard of other occasions that this had happened. We worked on retrieving the goods for 4 days but only got our hockey bags returned. We had some things in our personal luggage for the orphans so we did not go to the orphanages empty handed.
Our 1st orphanage was the baby orphanage. Here we observed a great need for commodes for the small children. They were sitting on small cans, and to see a 1 year old enduring this hardship, it moved my heart to see what I could do for these children. When we returned I started working on providing this orphanage with 25 commodes for the children. We have a contact person who is in Russia, and they will purchase the items and take them to the orphanage. Orphanages are so extremely thankful and appreciative for everything that is brought to them. We took 50 pairs of baby booties, candies, and some toys. This orphanage also handled brain-injury children.
An interesting thing is that the orphanages in Russia, only keep the children until they turn 14 and then if they don’t have any family, they become “street children” and they have to steal to eat or exist, thus they end up in jail. We drove past a very large prison and noticed many young girls, and I asked our translator, why they were there and he told us the story. He himself was an orphan, and then became a street child and had gone through prison and was subjected to much cruelty but eventually someone took him in and nurtured him. He is now a good citizen and has changed his lifestyle, from his upbringing. Sad to say, not all children end up with a happy ending to their lives.
The 2nd orphanage we went to, had children ages 5-13 and they had a 1-hour program for the children, which we sat in and watched. The children enjoyed stories and songs and at the end of the program, we gave them toys and items we had brought in our personal luggage. The children were over-joyed to receive a gift from Canada. The workers at this orphanage all thanked us, over and over again and asked if we would return again, and visit them.
After you leave one of these orphanages, your heart is moved and the feeling of what we can do to make a difference, keeps running through your mind. We will certainly return to Siberia and we do have information on how to get our goods to their destination the next time.
If you wish to give towards the “potty’s” or commodes that we will be purchasing for the small children in Perm, please contact me and make your check payable to
I.H.H.S. We are budgeting approx $ 250usd for this project. Thank you for considering this need!
Evelyn Picklyk,President
I.H.H.S
