Crimea is a peninsula that is almost an island, on the north shore of the Black Sea. The Black Sea is just north of Turkey and south of Ukraine. Crimea is an Autonomous Republic within the country of Ukraine. There are beautiful mountains along the south coast, the rest is rolling or “plain steppe” as it is locally known.

Yalta, almost directly south of Simferopol, Crimea’s Capital City, was the site of the famous Yalta Conference where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met after WWII to decide the fate of Europe. On the west coast, directly west of Yalta, is Sevastopol, the base of the Black Seas Fleet and the where the Crimean War was fought. Remember “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Florence Nightingale? These are immortalised English memories of that difficult, costly and rather unsuccessful war. Out east on the southern coast is the ancient port on the Great Silk Way, Theodocia (God’s Gift) or in Russian “Feodosiya”. The Russian language does not have a ‘th’ sound. Though Crimea is part of Ukraine, it is about 79% ethnically Russian. So Russian is the lingua franca here.

Crimea is as far south as you can go in Ukraine. It is one hour’s flight from Kiew, Ukraine Capital and seat of Government, twenty one hours train journey but decades away from the attention and effects of government aid and assistance. Meanwhile the people coult perish but for the intervention of NGO’s.

We seek to serve the Republic’s orphans, street kids, invalid and poor children in the villages. At the beginning of 2002 we registered a new Foundation, “Light of Crimea”. It is an outgrowth of the Charity Foundation for Humanitarian Initiatives and is based in Simferopol.