In just two weeks £5,000 has poured in for a campaign to equip a safe house for ten destitute street children in the Ukraine.

Westmorland Gazette readers have rallied to a call for help in a £20,000 offensive to transform a village haven on the outskirts of Kiev for homeless waifs and strays.

Aid guru Pat Wright said support for her Kendal-based New Beginnings charity, which found £20,000 in a year to buy a first home for desperate youngsters, had been staggering.

"I cry every time the post arrives," said the MBE charity volunteer.

"People have been so generous and kind. Many donations come without addresses, so I can't even send thank you letters, but I do thank everyone from the bottom of my heart."

In a race against time, Mrs Wright hopes £20,000 can be found before the end of March. It will mean a safe sanctuary, well away from the filth and despair of Kiev's sewers - the winter refuge to many of the city's 8,000 street children - can be adapted and kitted out.

"There is no time to lose if we are going to save ten children from having to spend yet another winter in a desperate city, where temperatures drop into the minus 30s," said Mrs Wright.

The house called Genesis will signal a new start for children who face a bleak future and daily fight for survival.

Some are sold into prostitution, others turn to vodka and glue sniffing, to give brief relief from the grinding cold, hardships and dangers, which stalk every single day. The youngest abandoned child found so far was just three.

Two weeks into The Westmorland Gazette-backed campaign New Home, New Beginnings to buy crucial items from a £20,000 shopping list, generous readers have already found a remarkable £5,000.

Brendan and Mary Walshe, of Windermere, immediately wanted to help after reading about the appeal and offered to pay the £500 for plaster and cement.

Irish born Mr Walshe, who heads Walshe Plastering Ltd, was orphaned as a young boy and from the age of six to 16 stayed in boarding schools.

"Growing children need every bit of help they can get. This was something my wife and I wanted to support, he said.

Kiev Christian couple Sasha and Oleana Donsky, whose son Andrey is living with Mrs Wright while completing his education in England, have agreed to become the first house parents in Genesis.

The church elder and his English teacher wife will undergo intense specialist childcare training, to equip them to deal with the severe problems of youngsters who have never had a proper home before.

The children's rehabilitation will have already started in an existing unit, which mainly deals with a handful of saved street children, scheduled for adoption outside the Ukraine.

February 13, 2003 16:30