Imagine going to see the doctor or to the hospital and the shelves were bare - no medicine or medical supplies at all, not even a stethoscope. Imagine giving birth on a wooden bench and the hospital toilets were metal buckets that were emptied once a day. Imagine not having a local pharmacy and over-the-counter medications and supplies available. This is life for the Ukrainian people and orphans. This photo shows the only medical supplies available in a local hospital. This same hospital had one syringe and one needle for injections - and only two small vials of medicine in a small refrigerator to treat the local populace...and we complain about conditions in the United States!

Imagine living in a large orphanage with no medical or first aid supplies - no Advil or Tylenol for high fevers so you suffer through them - burning, thirsting and shivering. Imagine no antibiotic ointment for cuts, scrapes and Impetigo infections (highly contagious skin infection). Lice outbreaks end in shaved heads. Even soap is limited! One tube of toothpaste is a luxury that arrives each Christmas in the Joy bags along with a new toothbrush - and is the only dental care most children receive, with the one tube of toothpaste needing to last an entire year. As an orphan, you are one in fifty or a hundred or more - any contagious disease is spread rapidly through the other children leaving you as exposed as all the rest - how frightening that would be, so helpless and alone.

What if you were this child? What if you were this child and your orphanage was supplied with Advil and Tylenol, with soap and antibiotic ointment to treat and prevent Impetigo? What if your orphange was supplied with lice shampoo to treat the outbreaks instead of shaving heads? What if there actual Bandaids available for cuts and scrapes - the first you had ever received in your life? And what if all these and more were provided by people you would never see, in a country half-a-world away who were thinking of YOU and praying for YOU and sending simple, basic items to make YOUR life easier... Wouldn't you, for just a brief moment, feel special in a crowd of other orphaned children? Wouldn't you consider that yes, there really is a God and He loved you and was providing for you through the help of others who cared?

On our end all these supplies are readily available and often discounted in stores. We take them all for granted and never think twice about their being available when needed. Would you be willing to purchase two tubes of antibiotic ointment and send one to the Ukraine? Two boxes of Bandaids and send one to the Ukraine? Purchase a bottle of lice shampoo and thank God that your children don't need it, but send the bottle to the Ukraine for children who do need it?

Such simple things to do - and we can help fulfill Matthew 25:34-40, "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

We may not be able to physically go to the Ukraine and help those in need, but we can send medical supplies, clothing and other items that can be dispersed to those in need.

These two photos show two children with Impetigo - which is highly contagious and difficult to treat without the very basics of simple soap and water and antibiotic ointment. With those two things, Impetigo can be prevented or cured quickly. Instead, the boy's face has severe damage - the holes where the Impetigo are seen are deep and will probably leave scars after they have healed. There are two healed areas on his cheek that show scarring. 

The little girl no doubt was rubbing her nose, possibly while she had a cold and the area was raw and sore already, and she picked up Impetigo very easily. Both could have been cured at a very early stage with antibiotic ointment!!! Yet it advanced enough to show up readily in these photos.