“Children’s Village Dim Anhela (House of Angel) is a place where orphans become happy,” says Vitaliy Saban, director and founder of the You Angel Foundation. Dim Anhela is a cozy place for children who have lost their parental warmth. Founded by the You-Angel charity Foundation, Dim Anhela not only rehabilitates but also gives children the most important things ‒ love and support. Here, children find themselves in a family atmosphere, find friends, and receive all the necessary help for full development. This wonderful place is located in the picturesque village of Hoshiv in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Idea of creation
The idea of creating Dim Anhela came from the need to provide orphans and children who lost their parents due to the war with not just a shelter, but a real home. After many years of experience working with state institutions where children often felt separated from family comfort, Dim Anhela was created.
According the words of Vitaliy Saban: “For a long time, we visited orphans in state institutional facilities, invested a lot of funds in supporting these institutions ‒ opening computer and training classes, sensory and rehabilitation rooms, spending a lot of money on medicines, hygiene, and food. In the summer, we took children on excursions and organized summer vacations at private estates we rented.
We communicated a lot with these children and realized that the work we were doing was more beneficial to the state institution and its administration, but not enough for the children. Children from institutions want more warmth, affection, and sincere conversation with an adult who understands and supports them. It is difficult for volunteers to implement this in a state institution, and for a child to open up. Everything is ‘by the Statute’ here: if told to sit, the child sits; if told to stand, they stand; if told to smile, they smile; if told to recite a pre-learned poem for guests, they recite it… We understood that our efforts had minimal effect for these children.”
This prompted the You Angel Foundation to create a place where every child could find their new family.
Stages of the construction process
“The construction of the village for children began with a global question: Either we do something global, or the foundation will cease to exist,” says Vitaliy Saban. Dim Anhela was created from scratch. The construction of the center went through several important stages.
First, goal was to find a good place. And we found such a place ‒ calm, remote from city noise, and among nature. It turned out to be a plot of land in the village of Hoshiv in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. And when the owners of this plot learning about the goal and future plans, decided to donate it to the You Angel foundation.
Then there was painstaking work on designing the center itself, it had to be as similar to a family home as possible ‒ cozy and warm, without reminding children of the state walls of an orphanage or children’s home. Together with the architect the team created what now makes children happy. Here they feel at home.
Children who live in Dim Anhela
Children from different parts of Ukraine, mostly from Ivano-Frankivsk region, have found refuge in the Dim Anhela. Although, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion we had orphans from Luhansk, Donetsk, and Kharkiv. Yes, the foundation focuses on orphans and children who have been removed from their families by social services due to their parents’ failure to fulfill their responsibilities. That is, children who are deprived of parental care, so they are taken care of by the state. Unfortunately, there are much more of these children than full orphans.
As for the selection criteria, they do not exist. Kids just have to behave, be active, and have no bad habits ‒ these are the only rules.
And children at the center change, for the better, of course. The tutors who come with them cannot explain why. Perhaps this is a factor in the preference for informal education at Dim Anhela: financial literacy, basic cooking skills, and self-care lessons. In addition, the village has an apihouse ‒ sleeping on beehives ‒ where children receive apitherapy, which is very calming and they like it. There is also an open-air recreation and rehabilitation pool with heated water, and a healing Carpathian tea from wild herbs. As for health, the center has exercise equipment, a bicycle park, and regular hiking trips. The house also have a modern library.
If necessary, orphans receive high-quality medical care, as the foundation cooperates with private medical clinics. A psychologist and art therapist also work with them.
Camps Organized by the Charity
The camps organized by Dim Anhela are real oases of joy and relaxation for children, and this is a small tradition of the foundation. They include a lot of excursions, workshops, trainings, outdoor activities, picnics, meetings with interesting people, swimming in the river and pool, and, of course, lots of delicious and healthy food.
Such camps usually last for 7 days, but this is enough for children to get the most out of positive emotions, new knowledge, and skills. Each shift/camp is attended by 20-25 children accompanied by an adult educator and a medical worker from the institution from which the child came.
“Last summer we managed to hold six such camps, this year we have difficulties with funding, so we have only two camps planned. If we manage to find the funds, we would like to hold at least three more,” says the director and founder of the foundation.
Accommodation is organized in such a way that every child feels comfortable and protected. Children also enjoy outdoor activities, meet new friends, and discover the world through the prism of kindness and care.
Five tranches totaling $20,000 is the amount of assistance provided by the NGO Hromada to the You Angel Foundation for 2022-2024 years!
As you know, Hromada has always actively and willingly supported children’s organizations for a good cause. And, of course, for the speedy victory of Ukraine over the Muscovites. Therefore, it becomes clear that Hromada could not ignore such an extremely important project as Dim Anhela.
Currently, You Angel Foundation is one of the largest projects funded by the non-profit organization Hromada since its inception. Therefore, we decided to talk to Vitaliy, the director and founder of the You Angel Foundation, about how we helped the center to develop.
“Thanks to the NGO Hromada, we were able to solve the issue of lighting inside the building. When we started our cooperation, the Dim Anhela was still completely “bare” inside. Much needed to be done to start receiving children. And then the war broke out, and other priorities emerged. It was not easy, but thanks to the support of our friends and partners, including new friends who became representatives of the Californian diaspora, we managed to launch Dim Anhela during the martial law period. Also, at the expense of the non-profit organization Hromada we purchased household appliances, beds, high-quality sunbeds used for the recreation and rehabilitation near pool, and summer camps for children. By the way, we have managed to support more than 100 children over the years. In addition, in 2023, we received a generator sent from them to supply electricity during blackouts,” Vitaliy Saban said.
Future plans
I understand that when there is a war in the country, it is very difficult to plan something in advance, but this is not about heroes of this article. According to Vitaliy, the director and founder of the foundation, the locals were delighted with their work. Therefore, the foundation received another hectare of land adjacent to Dim Anhela as a gift. This indicates further development of the project.
“We want to build a mini-football field and a tennis court so that children can develop and pay more attention to their physical development rather than bad habits. We also plan to build a greenhouse to teach children how to grow vegetables, take care of them and harvest them, and cook high-quality food for themselves from their own grown products ‒ a kind of occupational therapy. I would like to organize a petting zoo, so that children can also try to take care of animals and interact with them. There should also be a pond for sport fishing. It would also be nice to have our own minibus for short trips, trips to doctors, educational institutions and shopping,” ‒ the words of the director and founder of the You Angel foundation.
Community support and involvement
As our interlocutor notes, the local community reacts very positively to the project. After all, in their experience, the construction of an ordinary school takes a long time, but here, a whole village for orphans, located in the middle of the forest and built on a limited budget, and already working. Everything was made extremely quickly.
“We always say that money is not the most important thing in the charity. What is important is to have a high-quality human resource, and then the funds will be found. People who live the idea are extremely important to us. You can tell your friends and family about us, spread information about our work, projects, and our wards through social media. In the end, many people come to our campus, roll up their sleeves, and physically work with us. We have no paid employees in the foundation, everything is based on ideological volunteers and their work. Also, the local community tries to help us both financially and with their garden and labor in the town. Someone helps us with our apiary, someone comes and repair something, plant trees, brings cookies and toys,” says Vitaliy Saban.
