A Dacha Story

“Everyone in Russia has a Dacha story…” with these words Cathy Newman begins her article Russian Summer in the July 2012 issue of National Geographic.  Sadly, this is not true for orphans. Not only a dacha, but even just a place to live is something orphans are unlikely to ever afford. But with your help Orphan’s Tree has been changing it and giving orphans a chance to write their own Dacha story.

Alexei L has been an active participant of the Kostroma Dacha program from the very beginning and put many hours to helping with remodeling and improvements in the house. He worked closely with Josh’s team on building the addition and continued working on the house and the Banya after the team left.

A few days ago a local journalist interviewed Alexei and Michael M, our program director. Alexei shared that he loves the Dacha. He feels at home here and is planning on bringing his family (Alexei and Marina have just had a baby boy David) here in  the future. Alexei then went on dreaming how he would be teaching his son to be a handy man and grow food in the Dacha garden.

Now Alexei and many other young people who grew in orphanages have their own Dacha story. We’re thankful to you all for enabling them to write it.