Orphaned children in the FSU need your help

In the former Soviet Union, there are thousands of orphaned or abandoned Jewish children living under the worst conditions imaginable. Many suffer from debilitating poverty, malnutrition, and physical and emotional disabilities. Some live on the street, while others live in state-run institutions where abuse and neglect are common. Through Isaiah 58, these desperate young people are provided with safe places to live, food, clothing, medical care, and other essentials.

Isaiah 58 Success Stories

Leonid: Receiving Much-Needed Care

Leonid lives with his mother in the former Soviet Union. The twelve-year-old boy does not know or remember his father, and has asked his mom about him hundreds of times. His mother hasn't known how to answer her son — how to tell this young boy that his father beat her one night and later violently attacked a neighbor. Leonid's father is now serving a sixteen-year prison term for his crimes. Read More

Nikita: A Young Boy Receives Essential Nourishment

Nikita was born in 2003 to a Jewish family in a small town in the Ukraine. Just a year after his birth, his mother's health began to deteriorate. For a long time doctors could not figure out what was wrong with her, and her condition continued to worsen. She was eventually diagnosed with heart disease brought on by a serious heart defect. Read More

Marina: A single mother tends to her sick child

Marina's father left their family when she was 13 years old. Her mother, a teacher of Russian language and literature, could barely make ends meet. Even as a child, Marina made a vow: She would make every effort to prevent this tragedy of living like orphans with a living father from repeating itself in her own family someday. Read More

Ilya: A Destitute Teen Receives Much-Needed Aid

Ilya, 13, lives with his mother and grandmother in a small run-down cottage on the outskirts of a small town in Uzbekistan, one of the countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU). There is no running water — only an old pump and an outhouse, which Ilya must cross a courtyard to reach. Read More

Isaiah 58 Helps a Family Ravaged by Alcoholism and Abuse

When Olga was born five years ago in Ukraine, her family was happy. Her mother was a baker for a private bakery and her father was a mechanic for an agricultural firm. Problems entered their home virtually unnoticed. In just a few years her father's habit of having a drink before bed transformed him from a skilled expert to an unemployed drunkard. Read More