“I am writing as though to my father whom I don’t want to see. Daddy, you are in prison now, because of me. It is bad there, isn’t it? You used to beat me for nothing. You used to bully me whether you were drunk or sober. Finally, you broke my hand and I wore a cast for a long time. You left a nine-centimeter scar on my hand, which will never go away. Dad, did you have to do that? After all, all I did then was eat one piece of crackling.”
This is a fragment from a letter that forms part of a composition entitled The Crackling, written by a 10-year old pupil of the Berdychiv Orphanage School, Oleksandr Andreichuk. Sashko, like many other children, sent his work to the nation-wide competition A Big Heart of a Small Life, in which he described a family that he does not have.
On Dec. 15, 100 competition finalists gathered at the Kyivan Cave Monastery from every corner of Ukraine to receive their prizes and greetings. The competition included only two nominations: “Best Literary Work” and “Best Art Work.” Sashko Andreichuk won first prize in the literary competition. He received $1,000 and many souvenirs from the organizer of the competition, the Foxtrot Company Group, sponsors, and the Children Social Aid Mission of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The drawings of 17-year-old Ivanna Repina from the Kyiv Children’s House Maliatko (Baby) were acknowledged to be the best in the fine arts nomination. “I submitted four works to the competition. I painted them in different years and moments of my life,” Ivanna explained. She also competed in the literary part of the contest because she writes wonderful poems, including the one she sent to the competition, entitled “Mother.” “I write when the muse comes to me,” Ivanna says. She graduates next year and wants to become a journalist.
Sashko has not made up his mind about his future occupation. The main thing, the boy says, is to be a good-hearted person. “The child is very responsible,” explained Iryna Kovalchuk, the director of studies at the Berdychiv Orphanage School. “He came to the school only a year ago. Before that he was living on the streets. He was homeless and he couldn’t even write. Now studying is Sashko’s favorite activity; he grasps everything in a second. And when he hears kind words, he is eager to do anything.”
Unfortunately, there are thousands of children with broken lives in Ukraine. They all dream of a family, love, and kindness - this is evident from their works. There are images of mothers or angels practically in every poem, story, or picture.
More than 13,000 drawings were submitted to the competition and 100 received awards. Tetiana Kondratiuk, Deputy Minister of Family, Youth, and Sports Affairs hopes that this project will become a good tradition. I hope that Ukrainian companies will start helping our children, when the state is not capable of doing this. The exhibit of children’s works at the Ukrainian Folk Art ended on Monday.
