Dear Sponsor,
This is Solomiia’s mother, Olesia, writing to you.
Solomiia is now in the first grade. We are a large family with four daughters. We live in a rented house in a village —a beautiful place surrounded by nature. My husband, Volodymyr, works repairing various tools. Solomiia has two close friends, Sulamita and Diana, and they love playing hide‑and‑seek during school breaks. She usually travels to school by bus. She enjoys learning letters and numbers, and her favourite subjects are English and Art.
Her favourite foods are noodle soup and potatoes with cutlets. At school, she eats buckwheat with meat, pasta, potatoes with cutlets, juice, and fruit. During Christmas, she especially enjoyed fruit salad, dumplings, ice cream, and jelly. Over the holidays, she visited her grandmother, helped with cleaning, went caroling, and attended church services. In the summer, she loved swimming in the village lake and walking with her sisters and friends.
In her free time, Solomiia enjoys drawing, dancing, crafting, and sometimes playing games on her phone. She dreams of becoming either a seamstress or a police officer.
We are sincerely grateful for your support of families like ours. Your kindness reminds us that God still works through compassionate people. If you are willing, please tell us a little about yourself, how you are doing, where you live, and about your family. Thank you for everything. May the Lord richly bless you and your loved ones.
With gratitude,
Solomiia’s mother, Olesia, and our family
Caseworker’s Comments:
Solomiia is a cheerful, active, and bright little girl. Though she is shy with adults at first, she quickly warms up once she feels safe. She is friendly with her classmates, stands up for herself, and loves Art and Music. Drawing, crafting, and dancing bring her joy, and at home she helps by tidying the room, making beds, and folding clothes. She is healthy, curious, and full of life.
But behind her joyful personality lies a family carrying a heavy burden.
The family is a large, low‑income household with four children. Solomiia’s father volunteered in the military during the first year of the war, while the family fled to Poland for safety. The family has since returned to Ukraine and the dad is now demobilized and repairs tools for a living, but because so many men have left the region, work is scarce and his income has dropped significantly. Her mother is on maternity leave and cannot work.
Both parents come from deeply broken backgrounds. As children, each was abandoned by their mother after the death of their father and grew up in orphanages. Despite their painful past, they have built a loving home and are raising their children with devotion. They do not drink or smoke, and the mother and children faithfully attend their Evangelical church every Sunday. Their faith is a source of strength, and the church supports them as much as it can.
The family’s financial situation is extremely difficult. They survive on small state child payments (2,960 UAH / ($92 CAD per month) and the father’s modest income, which must also cover the cost of renting his workshop and tools. After expenses, very little remains for the household. One of the older daughters, Viktoriia, suffers from frequent bronchitis and asthmatic symptoms, requiring ongoing treatment the family struggles to afford.
Their living conditions are extremely deplorable. They rent a very old house with two small rooms, a tiny hallway, and a mini‑kitchen. The walls are damp, the windows and doors do not hold heat, and the home requires constant wood‑burning to stay warm. There is no bathroom or toilet inside. Water must be carried from a spring in the park, and in winter the hose they use freezes, forcing them to haul water in buckets. The furniture is old and cannot be replaced, and the children sleep on two sofas. The washing machine and boiler cannot be used due to the lack of running water, so the mother washes everything by hand. This is the fourth time the family has had to move in 12 years, and their own furniture has fallen apart over time.
Despite these hardships, the family works tirelessly to improve their situation. They are repairing the summer kitchen to install a shower, clearing the garden, and planting vegetables. Their church is praying for them and hopes to help them secure a permanent home one day.
This family is doing everything they can, but the weight they carry is far too heavy on their own.
Solomiia is growing up in poverty, without the stability and comfort every child deserves. Your support could bring hope, dignity, and a brighter future to Solomiia and her family—showing them the love of Christ in a very real and practical way.
