street children of ukraine
homelesschildrenukraine03
ODESSA, UKRAINE - NOVEMBER 20 2005: Street children of Ukraine. Pioneer Park Odessa. 2 different groups of kids, approx. 15 in total, live in 2 underground heating pipe chambers to the South of the Park. Pictured is 13 yr old Dennis, originally from Moldova. Dennis ran away from his alcoholic mother 2 years ago and has been living on the streets of Odessa since then. Dennis wakens up from a night sleeping on top of an underground heating pipe. (Photo by David Gillanders)
the story
In 2000 I was travelling through Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union developing a project on the transmission of HIV through intravenous drug use. I stumbled upon a group of young kids who were being chased from a McDonalds restaurant by a very aggressive restaurant manager. I intervened to prevent the manager beating the kids on the street. The kids had been removing leftovers from empty tables. This act led me into an underground world where young children live and die in the most squalid and horrible conditions I have ever experienced. Orphans, runaways, wee broken souls fending for themselves in a cruel and unforgiving world.