A family with new backpacks ready for school to begin.

During the summer of 2010, we had the opportunity to host several dozen children from surrounding villages to come to camp at Pine Branch Christian Camp.  These are all children who are being monitored by the Department of Social Services.  During some follow-up visits with children and their parents after camp, we were shocked at the situations we found.

One tragic situation was the lives of one particular family were one of the children had been severely burned when his father put him on the gas stove to teach him a lesson.  The boy suffered first degree burns on his legs and hands.  Sasha was hospitalized for 10 days and his father jailed briefly.  As a result, our ministry team has kept close contact with the family and has tried to minister to the children and mom in whatever way possible.

In September, Jeremiah’s Hope began a new initiative called “The Sasha Project” in response to the situation we found Sasha living in. While the Department of Social Services is charged with watching after and providing for these children, they just don’t have the resources to do it. “The Sasha Project” aims to help meet some of the basic needs of children in the Ivankiv region. Over 30 children were registered with our ministry during the first month.  Since then, we have registered even more kids and today, we serve over 80 children on a monthly basis.  Their homes lives are riddled with alcoholism, neglect, abuse, abandonment and poverty.

Food parcels and blankets ready to be delivered to some of the children we minister to through "The Sasha Project."

Each month, Jeremiah’s Hope staff visit these children and make reports to Social Services. Additionally, we will be providing families with simple food packages (bread, macaroni, rice, cream of wheat, cooking oil, butter, eggs, cheese, sausages, cabbage, carrots, onions, apples, oranges, juice and milk) to help meet the need of providing for these children. We also provide school supplies and other material needs like blankets and warm clothing for winter.