Our Group Homes
A roof and reliable meals are important but our group homes provide much more. Heart for Orphans’ group homes have four distinctives.
- Overview
- Distinctives
- Homes
The transition from orphanage to trade school is frightening.
Ukrainian orphans face a frightening life transition when they leave the orphanage to enter trade school at age sixteen. The dormitories of these schools are fraught with crime, drugs, alcohol, and despair. Without love and guidance, many kids fall through the cracks and make poor, sometimes deadly, choices. How can teens raised in an institution learn to make wise choices if they’ve never seen life modeled?
Group homes support orphaned teens searching for hope.
Heart for Orphans shares Christ through Christian group homes where young people learn to live with love, respect and dignity. Each home has mature Christian house parents who love and disciple teenagers. Under their guidance, Ukrainian orphans learn to put Christ first in life and to live together in community.
Will you help us?
Your donations allow us to purchase, renovate and maintain our group homes. We need recurring monthly support to honor long term commitments to our house parents and the orphans in their care. If you would like to support this project, contact us for more information.
Currently, we have five homes - two in Kherson, two outside Berdyansk and one located halfway between Kherson and Berdyansk. Each home is at capacity with a list of teens waiting for their chance to experience the nurture and love of a family. We want all young people who meet Christ in the orphanage or trade school to have a safe place to grow in their relationship with the Lord and to perfect their life skills.
Group Home Distinctives
- Homes of Christian discipleship
- Our homes teach young people what it means to walk with Christ on a daily basis. Our house parents model their relationship with Christ and with each other. The goal is to give young people a model of Christian living.
- House parents are all Bible teachers in the orphanages.
- Our house parents already have relationships with the kids in the orphanage so many kids want to live with them. These couples have demonstrated maturity in Christ. They are committed to transforming the lives of orphans.
- Houses are kept small and family-like
- We want young people who have grown up in an institution to learn how to live in a family. This is one of the biggest challenges orphans face! Most have spent their lives in a government institution and don’t understand how a healthy family functions. For this reason, we don’t allow our home to become too large.
- Partnership with the local church
- The local church is the larger community where our kids will continue to grow and mature in Christ when they leave our homes. The church is their support system. We want the local church to know our kids and our kids to know them.
Joshua’s House
Home for Boys in Kherson, Ukraine
Joshua’s house is the largest and the most beautiful of our group homes. Renovations were complete the summer of 2009 and four teen-aged boys moved in right away. Andrei says that he can’t believe that God would give him such a beautiful place to live! For the first time in his life, he has things that belong to him only: clothing he doesn't have to share, a bed and a bicycle! His story is typical – an abusive early life, time in the orphanage and, after graduating, struggling to stay alive. He came to Christ recently, and now he studies the Bible diligently. Andrei wants to be a pastor.
Last Christmas, a director of a local trade school called our ministry partners to say he had ten orphan boys with nowhere to go over the holidays. Did we have any idea where they could stay? We invited them to Joshua’s House! Within two weeks, half of them repented and gave their hearts to the Lord!! When the holidays were over, most of the boys asked if they could stay. A few moved in permanently while the others come every weekend and throughout the summer, returning to their trade school in the fall.
More boys from the trade school would love to live here full-time but we are at capacity. Joshua’s House has a large unfinished attic that could accommodate more boys. Will you help us expand? Will you provide monthly support?
We would also like to pave the driveway so the boys don’t track in so much mud.
Mel’s House
Home for Boys near Berdyansk, Ukraine
Mel’s House is a traditional Ukrainian cottage in a village outside of Berdyansk, in southern Ukraine. It is home to house parents Andrei and Alyona and eleven young men between the ages of 15 and 19. The boys attend a trade school in the village and are learning construction skills. Several of the boys developed a relationship with Andrei and Alyona when they taught Bible classes at their orphanage. The couple led them to the Lord and the boys were eager to move into a Christian home with them when they graduated.
The house has a large garden the boys cleared to grow vegetables. There is an orchard of apple, peach and cherry trees. The boys also raise pigs, ducks and chickens. We hope to build a greenhouse and grow food during the winter. We also plan to convert out-buildings into a wood shop and an auto shop.
Most importantly, the boys are happy and appreciate living at Mel’s House! They formed a soccer team that whipped the village team! There is a spirit of peace here. As a visitor said recently, “They are like a little family”.
Your monthly support means a lot to Andrei, Alyona and the boys.
Ruth's House of Grace
Home for Girls near Berdyansk, Ukraine
In the spring of 2010, several girls began to show up at Mel's House for Bible studies. One was a sister of one of our boys, a couple were friends from the same orphanage and others were attending the local trade school. As the girls began to hear the Gospel, several accepted Christ and their lives began to change! It quickly became clear that the girls had nowhere to go. Some slept on the floor in the house parents' quarters and others moved into the "summer kitchen" – an outbuilding on the property without heat or water. Heart For Orphans and the kids prayed for God to provide a home for the girls. Soon, a house that bordered the property became available, and in November 2010 God miraculously provided the money to purchase the house!
Now nine girls call Ruth's House home. Seeing the transformation is amazing! Girls who came to us with heavy hearts and sad faces now have bright smiles, and they are optimistic about the future. The staff of the Trade school cannot believe how the girls have changed, and how happy they are!
The Mel's House/Ruth's House property has pigs and chickens, a fruit orchard and they grow their own vegetables. The girls are learning to grow, harvest and can fruits and vegetables. They are also learning to raise livestock. Recently the girls attended a commercial sewing class with their Housemother. Now, armed with a contract to produce blankets, they have launched a sewing business! God is good!
David's House
Home for Boys
David's House is a country cottage in a picturesque village, several hours from any city. It is surrounded by farmland. House father ,Viktor, teaches bible at the local trade school. He is so close to the boys that they look up to him as their own father. Kindness just radiates from him!
Viktor and his wife Ilona have adopted five small children from the local orphanage, in addition to parenting the David's House boys. David's House sits across the field from their home. Currently, three boys live there while studying farming. The boys are developmentally disabled, and without David's House, they would spend their lives in an institution. Instead, they are loved and treated with respect.
Viktor is also a pastor. This village, like most in Ukraine, does not have a church, so a room at David's House has become the village chapel where Viktor preaches and holds Bible studies. The villagers have become so intrigued with David's House that it has become a testimony to God's goodness to them!
Esther's House
Home for Girls in Kherson, Ukraine
Esther's House is currently a city apartment in downtown Kherson. It is home to Ira, Oksana and Natasha and beloved house mom, Nadyezda. The girls are lively, animated and love to laugh but they have heartbreaking stories about their lives before Esther's House when they were homeless. Now they are so excited about having a real home! Nadyezhda says she is blessed to have three new "daughters". They keep her young and keep her laughing! The girls tell us that for the first time, they have someone who loves them unconditionally and cares about where they go and who they're with. They no longer feel alone in life because someone is there to ask advice, teach them basic life skills like cooking, and simply pray with them when life gets tough!
Esther's House is small, and at capacity. We have other girls who wish they could live there, but there is no room. We are currently looking for a house to buy and praying God will provide money to help other girls who desperately need it.
Will you provide monthly support? A house for girls like these?
Daniel's House
Home for Boys in Rivne, Ukraine
Daniel's House is our newest house in Rivne, a city in western Ukraine. It is a rural area on the outskirts of the city. Three precious, young men live there and have recently given their hearts to Christ. They want to learn to learn to live a new life — life in a Christian family! Housefather Miroslav is an evangelist at heart and was an orphan himself. He is engaged to be married, and he and his new wife plan to work in ministry to orphans. They love these young men.