Russian Orphan Outreach

My daughters amaze me in their kindness in which they have a sincere love and desire of wanting to help other children, in hopes that they are happy and feeling healthy.

Recently my oldest daughter participated in a volunteer activity where she gathered books and games for a local children’s hospital. After helping in the gathering, she shared with me that she wanted to do more in helping other children. At that moment, I promised her that we would start doing various activities where we would help others, not that we have not in the past, but to honestly make it a part of what we do as a family. It may be making something handmade for someone, donating toys, books, etc., but an honest-to-goodness effort to help another person and for it to be a project that the girls have a hand in selecting, creating and giving.

Among the three of us (my two daughters and me) we decided that we would have our first project making handmade bracelets through a group called Craft Hope for the Earth.

Craft Hope is a love inspired project designed to share handmade crafts with those who need them. It is Craft Hope, hope to combine their love for crafting and desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world. The first project included a total of 27 dresses and four pairs of shorts for the Pan de Vida Children’s Shelter in Mexico, and now 13 projects later various organizations have been the recipients of the love of Craft Hope.

Craft Hope has one or two projects that take place at one time, benefiting one or two organizations. Each project is for one organization.

Our service project is Project 12, where Craft Hope is partnering with Orphan Outreach and sending them with a little love to take to Russia. This time families, Girl Scout troops, elementary classrooms, etc., will be making bracelets for Orphan Outreach to pass out to kids. Bracelets are a huge hit with kids of all ages — hemp bracelets, beaded bracelets and friendship bracelets made out of embroidery floss.

Orphan Outreach will be working with the St. Petersburg’s Crisis Center 15 — a triage for children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned. The children who are brought to the center range in age from infant to teenagers. They’ll be reaching out in a variety of ways to help meet their physical and emotional needs. The Outreach will also be visiting orphanages in the region on Leningrad.

The deadline for making the bracelets is June 15, 2011 (to have them physically in hand). Our family goal is to make 50 bracelets (or more) by the end of this upcoming week, and to place them in the mail by June 6.