UKRAINE: Ukrainian nouveau riche hold charity auction to benefit home for juvenile offenders.

The banking elite of the west Ukrainian city of Lviv organised the first local charity auction on Tuesday (December 26). All proceeds will benefit the Gorodok School of Social Rehabilitation, a reform school for juvenile delinquents located about 20 kilometres away. Like many other post-Soviet countries in eastern Europe, Ukraine is trying to deal with the legacy of a dismal system of state orphanages and correctional facilities. While conditions have improved since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of these institutions still face financial troubles. Even though staff are dedicated, money is often not available to buy all the necessary equipment to give the children a proper education and headstart in life. Most of the children at the Gorodok School of Social Rehabilitation are from broken families and abusive environments, usually plagued by alcoholism. The children often runaway from home and end up on the streets and take to a life of crime. To help these troubled youth, about 100 wealthy citizens of Lviv crowded into the atrium of the Lviv Banking Institute to bid for 12 lots that ranged from the T-shirt of the strongest man in the world, Vasily Virastyuk, to books from the private library of Ukraine's First Lady, Katerina Yushchenko. All together, the Banking Institute raised 43,000 hrivna, or about 8,600 U.S. Dollars. "This event is like a fairytale that should come true,'' said Tamara Smovzhenko, director of the Lviv Banking Institute. "And precisely in these days before New Year's and Christmas, everyone of us want a small fairytale.'' Most people in Lviv, a medieval city of about 733,000 inhabitants close to the Polish border, are either Christian Orthodox of Greek Catholics, both of which celebrate Christmas on December 7. "We need to help these children in order to get them on their feet in the modern world,'' said Lubov Lutak, director of the Gorodok School of Social Rehabilitation. "I hope that the event that the Banking Institute has organised will be a great gift to the children and to our entire school.'' The Banking Institute hopes the auction will become an annual event, and that the city's more prosperous citizens will increasingly share their good fortune have with those in need.

ITN Source | December 29, 2006

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