History of Program For humanitarian Aid

Program for Humanitarian Aid is an organization that is involved in benevolent humanitarian aid projects in Ukraine. In 2000, it began with one man deciding that he was going to do all he could to help improve the conditions of the underprivileged of Ukraine. Its work includes providing hearing aids for deaf children, assisting orphans and at-risk children and orphanages, assisting rehabilitation programs for disabled children, and exporting medical equipment from the USA to hospitals in Ukraine. Program for Humanitarian Aid is a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization chartered in the State of Texas.

Over the past years Program for Humanitarian Aid has shown its dedication to helping the poor, sick, hungry, and vulnerable in Ukraine through a variety of ways. PHA has provided help to orphans, disabled children, and hospitals in Ukraine. PHA has provided resources and support for groups and individuals in Ukraine who reach out to improve the quality of life for many of their countrymen who are struggling from years of communism and economic hardships. PHA’s focus has been helping those the world has forgotten: orphans, children with handicaps, the elderly, and the sick. PHA has also provided support for compassionate and dedicated men and women who work with troubled and orphaned children. In addition to this continual local work, PHA has sent teams to provide humanitarian aid and to teach moral values and life skills to the children. These teams have provided for water wells, planted orchards, developed gardens, and provided aid that improves the quality of life at the orphanage. PHA has routinely acquired medical equipment considered obsolete in US hospitals and shipped this equipment to hospitals in Ukraine. After the equipment arrives, teams of medical professionals are sent to train Ukrainian doctors on the uses of the equipment. PHA has provided a means by which interested parties can experience the blessings that come from doing good for others.

In 2013, PHA assisted with the building of a church in Makeevka. This facility not only served as a church, but as a clinic, community center, and playground. The church was established in 1998 by Ukrainian Christians but burned down in 2012. PHA was able to assist not only to rebuilding it, but also to drastically extend the reach of the lives served by this facility.

While meeting the need for humanitarian aid, PHA observed that the orphans and at-risk children living in the rehabilitation centers and orphanages have some very specific and dire needs. These needs have occurred because of the neglect, abuse, abandonment of their parents, and the conditions of the orphanages. Many of these children have also spent time on the streets. These are all basic needs that they have been deprived of. Therefore, it has created a situation that makes it near impossible for them to survive once they leave the orphanages.

In order to address the needs of orphans, PHA began its Transition Program. A program that enables older orphans to transition from orphanage life into successful adulthood. By addressing these basic needs of orphans and at-risk children, PHA hopes to break the cycle of “orphans” and “at-risk children” by providing the support and environment these children need to have a new way of life.

Through the efforts of Ukrainian Christians, the transitional program was established in the Karlovka Regional Children’s Rehabilitation Center, located in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

In June of 2014, the conflict in the Eastern part of Ukraine led to the evacuation of the children from the Karlovka orphanage and the relocation of PHA’s Transition Program to Zaporizhia, Ukraine.

In December of 2014, PHA opened its day center, Domik, in Zaporizhia. Domik serves as a place for older orphans to learn life skills such as how to cook, how to clean, how to maintain a home, and how to make and use a budget. They also receive tutoring and legal help. Through a network of local Christians, they receive mentorship, learn about healthy relationships, and most importantly, are shown Christ’s Love.

In April of 2016, PHA opened its second, day center, in Poltava. Domik Poltava not only served orphaned and at-risk youth in and around Poltava as a place to hear Bible lessons and learn life lessons, but it also served as a meeting place for church members who mentored, guided, and provided a community of local Christians that the kids were able to be a part of. Domik Poltava served through 2021.

In January of 2019, PHA opened its third, day center, in Kamenskoye. Domik Kamenskoye has a strong team of local Ukrainian volunteers who help to provide English lessons, craft projects, Bible classes, and life lessons to the orphaned and at-risk youth in and around Kamenskoye.