Our friend, and fellow American, Jason, asked Mike to write a guest-post for his blog and give an update on the Children's Hospital in Chop. I thought I would also share it here as Mike is definitely a more eloquent writer than I am.
"My wife Annie and I are full-time missionaries, living in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. I've primarily been teaching English as a second language, playing in worship bands with musicians from a couple of churches, as well as casually mentoring a couple of young guys and occasionally preaching in churches. Annie is an Occupational Therapist and uses her considerable gifts in that field to help in the rehabilitation of disabled children, the elderly and others recovering from injuries. Although we have rather different talents and ministry focus, we are always looking for opportunities to serve together.
One opportunity presented itself earlier this year when Annie read on Facebook of a friend's visit to the abandoned babies' ward of a small children's hospital in the nearby town of Chop. That friend was Jason Wiser, who had made the visit in the company of some folks from Church of the Living God in Radvanka. Annie got in touch with Jason and made a visit to the hospital with Jason's wife, Lera, and Ernest Brugosh, youth leader of the Radvanka church. Her impressions were of a hospital that was functioning with a great deal less resources than what they needed. And, of course, there were the kids. Annie was surprised that they were all just lying in cribs in a single common room, when some of them were suffering from conditions that clearly warranted treatment in a neonatal intensive care unit. But, as anyone who has lived in Ukraine will tell you, such is life in the under-funded, under-staffed world of public health care. In this environment orphans, abandoned children and children of the poor are the ones who suffer most. The average American would simply be shocked and ask, "why?" and the average Ukrainian sadly shrug their shoulders in resignation. However, it's in these conditions that God's people - of any nation - are called to ask "how can we be Your hands in this place?"
Upon returning from a brief visit to family and friends in the US, we made it a priority to visit the children's hospital in Chop on a weekly basis. In the past four months since then, our leader on each trip has been our friend Ernest Brugosh. Most of the time it's been him, Annie, our 2 year-old daughter Solomiya and myself. Occasionally others have come, usually a friend of ours or another of the youth leaders from the Living God church in Radvanka. One of the great things about working with Ernest is seeing the way that he humbly and effectively works with the staff at the hospital. Prior to each trip, he telephones the head nurse, Hanna, to tell her that we'd like to come and to ask what we can bring. Usually it's packages of Pampers, baby wipes and some bananas. Other times, the needs have been more unusual (but not surprising when you realize the "shoestring" budget that this small hospital has to work with). They include portable fans for the sweltering abandoned babies' room, new mops and buckets, so that each of the rooms on the floor can have dedicated cleaning equipment, bulbs for the light fixtures and paper for the printer in the nurses' office. Other times, we have purchased medicine, nail clippers and thermometers. You might ask yourself why a hospital couldn't supply some of these basic needs itself. The answer (according to a friend who's a cardiologist in another village hospital in our region) is that each year, these government-funded hospitals are given an even tighter budget that they must work with for the calendar year. This means that doctors must supply their own stationery, pens, pencils and other office supplies and that they need to allocate the minimal funds they are given to the most-needed items in the hospital. When the end of the year rolls around, things like fans and mops - especially in an abandoned baby area - are low on the priority list.
Returning to our friend Ernest's winning ways with the staff, I need to say that before setting foot in the abandoned babies' room he always looks for the head nurse and talks with her to ask how she and the staff are doing. Hanna and her staff are always grateful for whatever we have brought them and freely update us on what's new with the kids, letting us go in - unsupervised - to play with and/or hold them. I firmly believe that his consistent politeness, respect and deference to the staff is what has opened the door for our regular visits.
Typically, there are three or four children in the room, ranging in age from two months to one six year-old, Larysa. Larysa has been there for as long as we've been visiting. Having been signed over to the state by her mother, she's in limbo. She's much too old to be with the infants and toddlers and should be in an orphanage for older kids. However, it seems that because she has some developmental difficulties ("cognitive issues", in Annie's words), she can't be sent to a regular orphanage. Therefore, space must be found in an orphanage for special needs kids. It certainly doesn't help her physical or emotional development any to be stuck in a crib most of the day, with no kids to play with and only occasional trips to play outdoors. Annie has been able to do some special exercises with her and give her legs a massage, but some good old-fashioned running around outdoors would go a long way. Larysa instantly lights up when we enter the room and demands to be picked up, held and played with. One of our favourite activities is to lift her up so that she can watch people walking by on the street below. Sadly, for the last few weeks, she'd been the only one in the room, without even the company of the usual infants. Even so, we can tell that she's loved by the staff and we're sure that they spend time with her during the day.
The other "sojourners" in the small abandoned babies' room have included sick young babies left off by parents who were unable to care for them at home. Happily, some of these were eventually taken home by their parents upon regaining their health. The most heartbreaking cases we've encountered were the infants with hydrocephaly. One was a two-month old little boy who was taken away from his parents and arrived severely malnourished due to their neglect. All we could do was pray for him as he laid in pain and cried in his crib; he was too weak and delicate to even pick up and hold. Amazingly, he survived two weeks in the hospital, and was sent to another hospital in the region, in hopes of receiving some sort of special treatment. Another boy with hydrocephaly lasted only a few weeks and passed away.
For the future, our hope is continue our regular visits to Chop, bringing supplies and playing with whichever kids happen to be there. After one visit, a friend of ours with plenty of experience volunteering at orphanages and other hospitals, has expressed a desire to come along on future visits. In any case, we'll always go in the company of our friend Ernest, to whom we are grateful for introducing us to a very special ministry."
