Vashchenko and friend Photo: Brooks Kraft

PEACE & LIGHT

TLC for Orphans

Growing up in Mykolayiv, Ukraine, MARYNA VASHCHENKO lived not far from an orphanage that housed 150 young children. The more she learned in her doctoral studies in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, the more she realized those orphans had a raw deal: no consistent caretakers, no one to answer their cries, and no toys to play with. She decided to do something about it. In September 2007, with help from two professors and funding from Tufts’ Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, she set up the Big Sister Orphanage Program. The program has hired four social-work students from Mykolayiv State University to act as caregivers. Each student spends time with a particular child five days a week. Now Vashchenko is raising money to hire more students to nurture more orphans. “We will keep working hard to provide at least some normalcy in the lives of these kids,” she says.