Crisis Pregnancy Center

Here in Ukraine, we volunteer with a non-profit organization called "Hope & Life". We want to give you an update on some new things that are happening!

1. Opening a 'Crisis Pregnancy Center' is one of the newest things on the agenda.
The abortion rate in Ukraine is quite high. This is from the World Health Organization (WHO) website: "... Eastern [European] countries (in this case: Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovakia and Ukraine) have the highest estimated abortion rates in the world. In 2003 there were more abortions than live births: 103 abortions per 100 births."

The goal of the Crisis Pregnancy Center would be to provide a safe place for women to receive pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, counseling, encouragement to continue the pregnancy, education, etc...

In April, a team of American women came to Uzhorrod to assist with some "ground breaking activites". These women have years of experience in establishing and running "life" pregnancy centers in the US.
Activites included:
- Informing/educating area churches about the abortion issue
- Press conference that included post-abortion stories/recovery process from the US team
- Training leaders to hold post-abortion bible studies

Oksana, who is Hope & Life's president, has also traveled to Kiev to receive some special training at a Crisis Pregnancy center there!

We'll keep you updated as things move along!

Below, are photos from our time with the US team. The first few pics were taken at our intial meeting with the US ladies at the Hope & Life office.
The next few pics were taken at the girls home in Pavlovo. We joined the ladies there for dinner one evening.