Due to the war conflict going on in the east of Ukraine, many people lost their homes, lost their dear people and had to leave their places. Mariupol as a city by the frontline has received many displaced people. A lot of families with kids started to settle there from zero and it is an incredibly hard task. The center of children’s rehabilitation “Republic Pilgrim” has also got into gear with the displaced people.

After winter camp in Odessa the pilgrims made good friends there – the Prilutsky family from the Victory Church. And now they have helped to organize the summer recreation for the children of the center of children’s rehabilitation “Republic Pilgrim”. The kids could enjoy Odessa and the shore of the Black sea for 2 weeks. Beside the goal to temper and to improve health of the kids there was an important goal to obtain some tourist skills and to learn to survive in extreme conditions. Such rehab tourism is an important part of restoration of a person’s identity.

The Vasilenko family serves children with special needs. They have been living in their new house in The Pilgrim Village for the second summer now. Now they have the opportunity to be engaged in farming and to arrange well life and this is what greatly improved the psychological state of the children and in general impacted the lifestyle of the adoptive family.

2 years after the purchase of the house in “Pilgrim village” the adoptive family Kovalenko could finally move in. The family has 4 kids, 2 of them have finished 1 st grade in school this year. The youngest daughter is still in the nursery school. In their garden they have a special playground and even their own small house and a tiny vegetable garden.

Anton Kopytin, a famous classic singer in Mariupol and Donetsk, has become famous all around the country. The Ukrainians in their vote of the project “The Voice” gave their preference to Anton – a Christian with three kids.

The holiday house project “Datcha” of Republic Pilgrim had started only 1 year ago but within this year so much was done. The house itself and the front yard were significantly improved, the vegetable garden is ennobled, they planted fruit trees and bushes and made a flower-bed. And special reason to be proud of is “the banya” (sauna) which is being built.

The “Day” newspaper begins to publish a series of reports from battle line places of Donbass.

On April 16th in New York, the US at one of the largest documentary festivals Tribeca Film Festival the long -awaited premiere of the documentary movie «Crocodile Gennadiy» will take place. This film will show the whole world society about social work of Mariupol Charity Fund “Pilgrim” and ist leader, pastor Gennadiy Mokhnenko, adoptive father of over 30 kids.

There are new kids in Republic Pilgrim they come regularly and each of them have their tough life stories. Many of them have seen in their lives what very few grown ups saw. However, lately not only difficult teenagers have been coming to Pilgrim but also the children of the refugees. The name of one of them is Christina.

He had conquered one of the highest mountains in the world – Kilimanjaro, rode 9300 miles on his bike having started his way in Mariupol and having finished it in Vladivostok. He didn’t give up when all the life circumstances were against him. Who is this strong- willed and outstanding young man. His name is Sergey Kucheruk, he is an adopted son of the Pastor Gennadiy Mokhnenko. The story of his tough life moved me up to tears.