Samaritan's Purse UK team brings love to children in Ukraine
A team of ten volunteers from Samaritan's Purse in the UK are working alongside Association For Spiritual Renewal/Russian Ministries to share Christ's love with 55 children facing the stigma of HIV and special needs during a summer camp in the town of Poltava, 200 miles east of Kiev, Ukraine.
The team is working alongside Association For Spiritual Renewal, Russian Ministries' national affiliate in 10 countries in the Former Soviet Union, who run an on-going HIV/AIDS project called To Know Is To Live, in the Ukraine which has one of the fastest rates of the pandemic in the world.
"The problem in Ukraine is not so much with statistics, but the stigma and discrimination towards people with HIV, which is not just from normal community members, but even from the people that should be helping them, who should be best equipped and most willing to help them, from medical personnel from government officials, from the church unfortunately," explains Rachel Schupack, communications coordinator for Association For Spiritual Renewal/Russian Ministries.
She added: "So that's why this project has a two part strategy. One is to help these people directly affected by HIV and AIDS and the other is to change attitudes in the community. We have now started over 20 action groups in local churches throughout Ukraine. They run seminars in local churches to inform these churches about the problem and to motivate and envision the churches to get involved in this area of ministry to show them the importance of it and show them what they can do and how they can do it to equip them." 
(Rachel Schupack - ASR/Russian Ministries Communications Coordinator)
Schupack says the main reason for this discrimination is ignorance: "People don't understand the basic things, like means of transmission. For instance in many churches people do not want to drink out of the same communion cup as people with HIV because they have this irrational fear of being infected. They just don't understand. They don't want their children to be in the same Sunday school class, or Kindergarten pre-school class with children with HIV because they just don't understand and so that's why it's so important to inform people about HIV. In the West actually there is a very high level of information available."
However with 10 volunteers from the UK working alongside 20 Ukrainian volunteers, 55 children who daily face this discrimination are enjoying a very special summer camp, where they can hear Gospel presentations and learn about Paul's journeys in the Bible through songs, stories, crafts and other various activities.
"We're working very closely with the church. Many camps that I've been involved with in the past, we've been running the whole thing and being with the kids 24/7, but here the kids are coming in the morning and the church is running a program throughout the morning where we're doing some songs, Bible stories and crafts and activities and we've been providing the crafts and activities, although we've been teaching them quite a few songs as well, which has been really fun," said Samaritan's Purse team leader Chris Thomson. 
(Chris Thomson with kids from the camp)
"We run the camps each day until just after lunch, but what has also been very special is in the afternoon we've been going on home visits to visit kids with cerebral palsy and other difficulties and pass on some help.
"We visited a child today with cerebral palsy. The team member I was with knew a few exercises that would help the mother and help the child as well; helping her strengthen her muscles and legs that was really good to see and the child was also keen to meet us and sing songs to us and just have fun with us. It also gives mum and dad a little bit of a break as well.
"Quite a few people visited young adults who have disabilities and again some of the moving stories have come back. It's been a humbling experience for every one of us, but it's been a joy to be with them and show that we care for them, and we'll take these stories back to the UK and let people know what's going on."
Chris, who is a Samaritans Purse UK Regional Manager for Scotland and Northern England, says to have a long-term impact in Ukraine, it's vital to work in partnership with the local church and organisations like Russian Ministries.
"We want to encourage the church so that they will feel a sense of partnership with us so that when times get tough for them they won't feel that they're on their own. That they know, we are there to give advice and hopefully come again next year and there may be other churches in the community here that can be drawn in to help out or go on training courses and we can pass on advice to them. It's a huge job we've got on our hands here. The disability rates are not what we're used to in the UK and there's a lot of ground work being done by the folks out here.
"It's my first experience of working with ASR/Russian Ministries. I've been involved in various other Eastern European countries over the years, but it's great to know there's a partnership going on here and there's people on the ground here really searching out those who need help, searching out churches who want to partner with us that want more information and involvement. It's great that people like Rachel are here and others who work for Russian Ministries who are trying to strengthen the churches and really extend God's kingdom here."
By Peter Wooding
Europe Bureau Chief for ASSIST News Service
If you would like to read more about Samaritan's Purse teams visit our Discovery Teams page
