Ira Kohank is 12 years. Today she lives with her new foster parents: Juri and Larissa. As a little girl Ira was sent to the streets begging for money to be used for her mother`s alcohol addiction.

Many times she was brought to Lutsk Orphanage by people who knew her, but her mother aiways brought her back again. A this time Ira lived alone on the streets.

Often the temperature was between minus15-20C degrees in the winter-time. At last the custodian authority of the mother was taken from her and Ira could  finally start school two years late.

Ira is now joining the 5.th class and she is doing fine.- The first 3 years were difficult, she tells us.

- No one visited me at the school, but then I met Juri and Larissa during a summer camp for orphans. They gave me an offer to live with them in their home, and I have been staying there for the last 3 years, says Ira.

Juri and Larissa, who are parents to 2 children of their own, do not have the costody of Ira - meaning no public support for her, but they have to pay all the expenses themselves.

Of course this is difficult for us, Juri says, but at the same time the love for his new daughter is radiating through him, and Ira deserves a good upbringing.

he photo shows Ira standing together with her new father, Juri.