By COLlive reporter
The “Mishpacha” Children’s Home and Orphanage in Odesa, Ukraine, welcomed two new Jewish children this week, who joined the 125 children already residing in the orphanage.
The two children, a brother and sister aged three and a half and one and a half, arrived at the orphanage in a severely malnourished condition. Their mother, a single parent, had raised them alone since their birth.
Due to the harsh war with Russia, the children’s health deteriorated. Just before the Ukrainian Ministry of Welfare removed the children from their mother’s custody, a Chabad Shliach from Kyiv heard of the situation and intervened to help. Authorities agreed that the children be placed in the “Mishpacha” orphanage.
“The mother was truly in a dire state,” explained Rabbi Avraham Wolff, Shliach and Chief Rabbi of Odesa and Southern Ukraine, who heads the orphanage along with his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya. “One of the children is in very poor health, which led us to assign him a medical nurse until noticeable improvement is seen.”
The children of the “Mishpacha” orphanage fled at the beginning of the war, two years ago, from Odesa to Germany, in a miraculous rescue journey. After a year and a half in ‘exile,’ they returned home to Odesa where they participated in the inauguration of a new and spacious building at 15 Italian Boulevard – in the city center. The new building will host the children’s educational system, alongside enrichment educational programs throughout the day.
Mr. Igor Shatkhin, Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Southern Ukraine, said, “Following the war, we continue to admit more and more children to “Mishpacha” and provide them with a warm home. It is impossible to imagine their future without the orphanage.”
