Kateryna Dolhova believes that family is the only institution that can preserve a child’s dignity and give them strength.
Mrs. Dolhova currently has nine foster children, but she has fostered many more, some of whom are now adults with families of their own.
She receives support from the Orphan Care Center in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv; its staff offers pastoral care as well as caregiver and material support.
Brother Andriy Kharkiv, chaplain with the Orphan Care Center, says paid and volunteer staffers work with about 20 family-type children’s homes and foster families.
“We try to visit these children several times a week,” he says. Some of the children have parents in the military.
He says that when he was their age, he prayed “for a dog, for good weather, for friends.”
“When you come to them and pray with them — in church or at home — you see what they pray for,” he says. “They pray for the soldiers, about the war, for victory, and constantly for missiles not to fly.”
Watch the video by Anna Klochko:
Read more about how adults are helping Ukrainian children in “Stepping In,” in the September issue of ONE magazine.