An insert from a PR Article about our book, "Mountains of Grace"
By Steve Vetterlein

In the spring of ’99, I was watching a TV show about this humanitarian organization up in Canada called "Help Us Help The Children" (HUHTC). It was a whole hour long, and the scenes from that program haunted me for many months afterwards. All those sad little faces and all of the sad stories. It was heart felt and gut wrenching. The situation in Ukraine regarding these orphans needed some very serious help. How could anyone resist the temptation to do something? But I was not so sure exactly what I could personally do to make any kind of difference. What could I do to change the conditions that they live in? Something needed to be done, no matter how big or small.

The summer soon passed and then in the winter I met a wonderful new founded friend. I will never forget that stormy night in January of 2000 when Olexandra Hnypiouk and I stopped for dinner at a cozy little Italian restaurant. At that memorable dinner, I told her about the TV show about HUHTC, and we began discussing ways we could help. She is Ukrainian and an orphan who understood the situation very well. As I have ridden in many long distant bike tours, including twenty-two MS-150 bike tours, I thought why not organize a ride to raise funds and awareness for this group?

We became so excited with the idea of doing a bike ride all across Europe. Our blood boiled with so much enthusiasm. Thus the plans for this amazing trek began on that cold winters night. Understandably, they’re where numerous obstacles we needed to face even before we departed on our bicycle ride. To make a very long story short, we started the ride in July and did not return to the USA until late August.

After our journey across France, Germany and Poland, we arrived in Ukraine a little late but in time for 10 days to spend with 340 orphans from all across Ukraine. They spend these two weeks at this camp that was organized by HUHTC located high up in the Carpathian Mountains. It was an incredible but challenging experience, and an event that practically changed my life.

On our return, we didn’t know what else to do, but we needed some financial recuperation time from spending six weeks on the road. In the spring of the following year, I began to write about this whole experience. Quickly a whole year went by, and we still didn’t know what else we could do. Then in April of 2002, Olexandra went back to Ukraine for an extended stay. During that time, she visited a few orphanages and even spent a few days at the "Kriviy Rih" with several of the girls we met in the summer of 2000. A few of these kids we had written to since that memorable time.

It was most definitely time to begin something else, to help these orphans in some way. Another long trip across Europe was out of the question. I then got the idea to run a bike ride from Kiev to Vorokhta, a trip that would take several days & end up at the summer camp hopefully just in time. It would have involved several of the older orphans. But unfortunately, this plan did not materialize, as it needed much more cooperation in Ukraine, and we didn’t receive enough funding or interest. In May of 2002, I decided that it was time to start something here in Philadelphia. At that time, there was only one other Ukrainian group in existence. But for certain, there was still easily room for one more. Thus the birth of the UOCFP, or the Ukrainian Orphaned Children’s Fund of Philadelphia [This name has since changed to the current one].

Shortly afterwards, I began plans to attend another HUHTC summer camp in Vorokhta. In August, I flew to Ukraine to begin another two weeks at camp. This time I arrived on time and was to stay at a remote site called "Pihy", one of four camps scattered throughout the beautiful Vorokhta Valley. It was once again an amazing experience, and you can read all about it in our book.

The book recalls a little about our ride across Europe, and my solo experience at the summer camp two summers later. It contains 50 color photographs from both of these times. It introduces to the history, culture, landscape and some of the orphans and volunteers at camp. Hopefully, this book will benefit the orphans.

Accomplishments of the UOCFP:

With our "Ride Across Europe", we raised world awareness and caused additional attention to this worthy cause. We also raised over $2300.00 for HUHTC in Canada.

In May of 2002, we did a massive bicycle collection for the orphans in Ukraine. We collected over a hundred used bikes and they were given to "United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC)" in Philadelphia for shipment to Ukraine. At this same time, a newspaper story came out in the Philadelphia Inquirer. This story helped benefit the UUARC tremendously, and caused increased attention and donations to that organization.

In June of 2002, the UOCFP holds its first meeting. The next several months were spent trying to promote this cause and trying to get more people involved.

Also during 2002, Steve decided to write a book about our European bike trek, and eventually about his second trip to Ukraine to help these kids. As it was rather difficult to get people involved in this cause, it was decided that if a book was written, maybe this could help us drum up some interest. This was also the year that Steve won the "Humanitarian Award" from the "Ukrainian American Bar Association".

In 2003, we struggled, as we could not get the necessary amount of people seriously involved in this cause. Most of this year was spent writing and re-writing the book, and writing stories about the orphans in various publications about this cause. But we did help to promote and organize the "AIDS Awareness Weekend" held for 2 days in May @ the "Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center (UECC)" in Jenkintown, PA. This event brought doctors, religious leaders, government representatives and even Miss Universe together to discuss the serious problem of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine.

In 2004, the book was finished (after several re-writes) and it began its long publication process. We also held our first major fundraiser at the Ukrainian League of Philadelphia. Still we struggled greatly to get more people involved in this cause.

In June of 2004, our Makiivsky Orphanage for HIV/AIDS children project began. This was basically a forgotten and very poor orphanage in Eastern Ukraine. We made it a priority to cause world attention to this orphanage and began a major relief effort. Although we only raised $1700.00 for this orphanage, our story and our coordinating efforts did a whole lot more. As this story about these orphans was published in numerous media outlets, it brought so much world attention and relief even we were stunned. Broken washers and dryers were replaced; tons of clothing, medical supplies and foodstuffs were eventually received. Groups in the USA, Canada, England, New Zealand and Australia began to collect and send these much needed items, even by the container load. This was our most major accomplishment to date.

The "Orange Revolution". In late 2004, we participated in many events held here in the USA, to show our dissatisfaction with the political events that were going on in Ukraine. *Normally we will not get involved in anything political, but if it can bring about a positive improvement to the sad situation concerning these children, we will do whatever is necessary. Plus we support the now President Viktor Yushchenko, as back in 2000 we personally met him at the HUHTC summer camp for orphans. He and his family have a genuine interest in these children and he has done a lot for them since the time he was Prime Minister of the country (before he was ousted by the then corrupt and inapt Government).

We are avid supporters of democracy in Ukraine, and know first hand the after effects of years of corruption and greed of the former Government. A change was much needed, as the state of the union affects the children in the orphanages, and what leads many of them to enter these institutions in the first place. We participated in the protests in Washington, DC at the Russian Embassy and other events held in the Philadelphia area. We also did a "Bike Ride to Philly" in which I read my poem "tears are rolling down my face" in front of a large audience of other protesters.

A few months after the new election in Ukraine and the fraudulent vote was recanted, our Government was threatening to reduce the Ukrainian aid package by half, from $60 million to $30 million. As this reduced aid would surely effect the children living in the already under funded orphanages, and finally Ukraine was leaning more towards the west and was distancing itself from Russia, it was needing our help more than ever, we began a massive letter writing campaign to U.S. Senators, Congressmen and even the President of the USA himself. For certain, if it wasn’t for us and many other concerned groups and individuals in the U.S., this could had passed and the orphanages would have surely suffered even more.

Finally in early 2005, our book was published. All royalties go towards funding our projects. In June of this year, I did a humanitarian trip to Ukraine. We visited "Camp Forest Bell", a summer camp for over 100 disadvantaged youth, and we visited the "Koropets Orphanage" in Western Ukraine. We also began our documentary film " A Great Tragedy" to be shown on Public TV. The film was finished at the end of the summer, and was released for sale to help benefit the UOCFP. In mid summer, we began the long process of becoming a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity. We also began our Board of Directors and began to hold regular meetings.

In January of this year (2006) I made a second trip to Koropets and met the new Director. We also began a second documentary film in January of 2006. We also officially became a 501(c)(3) charity. Our most recent accomplishment is collecting 16 large boxes of stuffed animals for the HIV/AIDS orphans at Makiivsky and another HIV/AIDS orphanage in Odessa.

An overview of our current major programs:

*UOCFP Scholarship Fund:

This is not a true scholarship, as it is free for Ukrainian orphans to attend state run colleges and Universities. This is a "stipend". What is not supported by the government are the students living expenses; things like housing (in some cases, but not all), food, clothes and shoes, textbooks, school supplies and medical costs like Doctor, Dentist or Optometrist visits. It also covers any prescriptions or eyeglasses if needed. So this fund is more of a stipend to cover actual living expenses. This is an on-going project into the unforeseen future. Our annual goal is to sponsor 10 orphans.

*Summer Camp Project:

This project helps support a summer camp for orphans in Western Ukraine. The camp, called "Forrest Bell" is home to 100 children ages 4 through 17. The summer camps throughout Ukraine are essential as many orphanages close down, or have very limited services and activities for the orphans during the summer months. It is common for some orphans to travel to different ones during the months of July and August. This year we bought art and crafts supplies, pens, pencils, writing paper, books, toys, sports equipment and personal items for these children.

*Film Project:

This project was started during our 2005 Humanitarian trip to Ukraine. Our goal was to make a 30-minuite documentary film (DVD) about the situation in Ukraine concerning these children. The film was finished in the fall and was sent our to various media outlets. WYBE of Philadelphia will show the film. Currently we are in the editing stage of a second film and will be available soon. We will need to distribute it and get it out to the general media to promote our cause. We feel that this project is extremely important, as there have been only 2 others made that we know of, and we must keep the subject of these children in the spotlight. We know first hand how few people care about them, how few will step forward and work towards ways to improve their lives.

*Makiivsky Orphanage for HIV Children:

[Please see our story above]

*Ukraine Humanitarian Treks:

We have made several but need to make many more. There are over 135 institutions (that we know of) and most are in urgent need of help. But with our very limited funds, there is only so much we can do. It would be worthwhile to visit many more and begin to help with some kind of plan of helping these children find some kind of future. At the age of 17, they must leave the only home many have known for years, and they are prime targets for the sex trade, crime, or a terrible life in the streets. It was once estimated that up to 800,000 children are homeless in Ukraine.

*Project Rebuild:

As we have seen on our visits, the orphanages are in bad shape and many need extensive repair and modernization. This project fund will cover the costs to rebuild, fix and repair, purchase new things like the worn out mattresses, broken windows, bad plumbing and more. If we are successful with receiving any grants, as this project will require many funds, we will start it in 2006 and our first orphanage will be "Koropets", near the town of Buchach. We do have honest and worthy individuals in Ukraine who are ready to help us make this project a reality. This is our most ambitious project as of yet, but it is one that really needs to be implemented as soon as possible.

Why do we need to do more?

There is still political turmoil in Ukraine and life still hasn’t changed for the better for the majority of Ukrainians. In fact, it has even gotten worse for many. There still remains a constant flow of children entering the orphanages, and a constant flow of them coming out with no hope of a future. The children are still suffering greatly. Unfortunately, we haven’t even touched the surface in the past 6 years. We can see that the existing problems will not change for many years, in fact, probably decades. The need for us, and people like us will not diminish. And there is a great need for more things to be done.

Up to this point in time we have only been a volunteer group, and unfortunately can only spend a very limited amount of time on the UOCFP. If we are ever going to make a real difference, much more time and energy is needed. Now is the time to move forward and become a more proficient and beneficial charity. In the near future, we need to accomplish so much more. Most of the quarter of a million children living in these Government institutions really don’t have much of a future. These places have been sometimes referred to as " Warehouses for Children" or even worse, "Children Concentration Camps". And every June, more children will be left out into the streets to fend for themselves. It’s a tragic and sad situation and we need to give it 100% to make any kind of substantial difference.