By Jolene Farley
Twenty-two-year-old Steen resident Eric Vahl has tried to make a difference for adults and children struggling to survive in the former Soviet Union.
Vahl has traveled there for the past three summers with the non-denominational Josh McDowell Ministries, visiting different areas each time.
The Josh McDowell Ministries leads two trips a year, winter and summer, to Russia and the surrounding republics.
Ministry volunteers deliver food, medicine, vitamins and other items to needy children and families.
Vahl first heard of the mission trips listening to Christian radio while attending college. He sent for more information but had decided not to go on the trip. A phone call from the ministry changed his mind.
"They described it as Russian kids going to orphanages because parents couldn't provide for them," said Vahl. "Fathers killing themselves. I guess that touched my heart, and I decided to go deliver humanitarian aid, food, teddy bears to kids in the orphanages."
Steen Reformed Church, the church Vahl attends, made up about 50 Samaritan Purses, or boxes filled with toys, socks, hats, gloves and sometimes candy, to send on the trip with him.
"It was kind of neat," said Vahl. "The first year I went over I actually got to hand them to the kids."
One of the initial roadblocks in Vahl's decision to go on the trip was he was required to pay his own travel expenses of about $3,000. Some trip participants solicit funds, but Vahl decided to raise the money himself by working.
"If they wanted to go to church camp, they worked until they raised money," said Vahl's mother Rose.
On his first trip, Vahl flew into Minsk and was bused to the republic of Belarus, formerly a part of the Soviet Union.
The next summer he flew into Kiev and was bused to the Ukraine.
This summer on June 22 Vahl flew into Moscow and boarded another plane to Novakuznetsk, Siberia, for operation Carelift 2001. He returned July 4.
Vahl flew across four time zones with a difference of 14 hours before arriving at his destination of Novakuznetsk.
His group of 25 people was allowed to catch up on sleep the first day. The next day, however, they began their visits, with the first stop at an orphanage.
Many parents in the Commonwealth place their children in orphanages because they are unable to feed them, according to Vahl.
The government orphanages are usually two stories, with about eight rooms and 40 to 100 children. Government funding is usually at least a month behind even though institutions are allowed only 60 cents per child for food.
Children in the orphanages are categorized according to age. When they reach the designated age, they are moved to another orphanage.
Many children looked younger than their actual age, according to Vahl. He speculated that the cause is poor nutrition.
"It was not uncommon, you would think 4 or 5 [years old] and you would ask the director and the child would be maybe 10," said Vahl. "It would just blow your mind."
In the baby orphanages there would be two or three adults to care for 30 babies. Cribs had no sheets, just square cloths directly under the baby. The only attention the babies received was when they had to be changed, if they were wet or soiled, and fed.
The caregivers would run the baby under the faucet and put some clean pants on them, then wrap them up tightly in a blanket, which allowed little movement for the child, according to Vahl.
"It was disturbing, seeing all the children without parents," said Vahl. "Our main objective was to go there and shed a little love on their life."
The group also visited a medium-security prison, an elder-care facility and a government hospice facility, where drug cabinets were totally empty, according to Vahl. Many hospice patients began crying when the group gave them books.
"They were happy to see us," said Vahl. "Someone cared enough to give them something, someone they didn't even know."
After the Soviet Union collapsed, the Commonwealth of Independent States was formed.
The Russian government has changed hands more than once. Although the economy faltered after becoming a free market society, the 1998 devaluation of the ruble brought on an economic crisis. Millions of people now struggle to survive.
Mafia is also a tremendous problem, according to Vahl. The Mafia controls everything, including the government, and is involved in the sale of drugs. About 20 percent of the population controls 80 percent of the wealth.
Many older Russians were taught during the "Cold War" period that Americans were the enemy.
One commented about the mission group, "It is sure strange, you Americans come way over here and give gifts to our children and we were taught you were our enemies."