Jeanne Dorr

Children’s Hope

Easter and spring are a time for rebirth and renewal. There may still be a chill in the air but there is hope that soon the trees will bud and the flowers will begin to bloom again. But how many children and how many families never have a spring because they have no hope.

For these families, their children will always live with excruciating pain. Their children will never run or catch a ball. They will never be able to be left alone, even for short periods of time, regardless of their age. These are the children who were born with horrendous orthopedic problems; these are the children who suffered terrible burns over much of their bodies. Thousands cannot be helped; they are trapped in their bodies.

For a very small fraction of these children, there has been a miracle. That miracle came to them through the Shriners' Hospitals in Chicago, Los Angeles and St. Petersburg. The miracle has also come through Lithuanian Children’s Hope and the volunteers who keep the program going. Several years ago I wrote about my trip to Chicago and the children I visited there. I introduced you to the children and their parents. We talked about their hopes and their dreams. I also shared with you their fears.

I took my second trip to Chicago not too long ago. This time I wasn’t hysterical about being forgotten in the airport. It’s the strangest thing, I have no fear of flying to Lithuania alone, but the thought of traveling to Chicago is enough to cause me to lose sleep for a week. My mission was three-fold: to attend a meeting of the entire board of Lithuanian Orphan Care; to visit the children and their mothers who were currently at Shriners'; and to visit with my dear friend Regina Svoba, whose daughter was one of those children.

My trip was uneventful -- although going home would be another story. When I arrived at "Seklycia", the building that houses the Lithuanian restaurant as well as the rooms where the children and their parents stay, I found five children and their mothers. One child would be coming back from the hospital the next day, another would be going back to Lithuania in two days, and three new ones would be arriving from Lithuania the following week. Take my word, this is not a program where things are at a stand still.

The Volunteers…

Children’s Hope was started in 1991 and is part of the Division of Human Services of the Lithuanian American Community, Inc. In reality, Children’s Hope and Lithuanian Orphan Care are "sister" organizations. The president of Children’s Hope is Grazina Liautaud, and the day to day organization is in the capable hands of Birute Jasaitis, as is every facet of Human Services.

Let there be no doubts, the heart and soul of Children’s Hope are the volunteers who staff the program. All the money and all the organizational skills in the world cannot replace these faithful people who drive into the city day after day and make these children and their parents part of a family. It is the volunteers, who at their own expense, drive the children to Shriners' Hospital, which is a difficult drive and almost an hour each way.

It is the volunteers who sit with the parents during the surgery, sometimes as long as fourteen or fifteen hours, not saying anything, but just holding the parents and drying their tears. Imagine these parents being so far from home and family, many unable to speak English, and knowing the seriousness of the surgery their children are undergoing.

These are the same volunteers who spend hours translating back and forth from Lithuanian to English and the reverse in the hospital. It is the volunteers who help not only with the physical therapy but also with the mental therapy. These children suffer a tremendous amount of psychological damage and many hours of therapy are necessary, as well as physical therapy.

The philosophy at Shriners' is that it is as important to heal the mind as well as the body. All of this falls on the shoulders of the volunteers. Yet when I spoke to some of them, they all told me the same thing -- they receive tremendous pleasure and gratification from helping the children and their parents.

Since 1991, more than 100 children have abandoned their wheelchairs and walked to the plane on their return trip to Lithuania. For others, they were no longer ashamed or embarrassed to look in the mirror because of disfiguring burns. Is there any greater satisfaction than to see the smiles of these children? Is there any greater satisfaction than to hear them laugh? But the volunteers also hear their cries of pain. How much agony can a small body tolerate? How much agony can a mother endure as she sees her child’s body wracked in pain?

The Children…

I would like to introduce you to some of the children I met in Chicago. Since it was my second trip in several years I knew what to expect. Above the Lithuanian restaurant are the offices of Human Services. I use the term "offices" rather loosely, as the room contains several desks, a computer, a few phones, a fax machine and more volunteers. It also contains reams and reams of papers. Around the bend from the "office" are the bedrooms of the mothers and children, all containing donated furniture and donated linens. There is a kitchen where the parents take turns helping, as well as a combination playroom/television room.

For some of the children this can be home for as long as two years. For most, many months will pass before they see their families in Lithuania. Holidays will come and go for the mothers without seeing the children they left behind.

Yet always, making life more bearable, are the volunteers. Children and their mothers will be driven to stores and parks. They will be invited to the homes of the volunteers and treated to the many Lithuanian functions that take place in Chicago. Birthdays will be celebrated, as well as departures back to Lithuania.

A Trip Home…

I was fortunate to be there for a departure celebration. There was an air of excitement as the volunteers began to arrive carrying platters of food and for the children, boxes of pizza (their favorite). People spilled over from the kitchen into the playroom. Fourteen-year-old Megle and her mother were returning to Vilnius. They had been in Chicago for three months and now Megle couldn’t wait to see her eleven-year-old sister.

The trip to Chicago took much preparation. Grueling medical tests had to be performed in Lithuania. The many documents and medical forms had to be completed. Children’s Hope had to arrange for plane tickets, as well as transportation from O’Hare Airport. Regardless of how you look at it, the trip from Lithuania is an exhausting experience when one is healthy. I cannot imagine the hardships the children endure on such a long and arduous journey.

Megle suffered from a spinal problem. She was also born with a deformed chest. Her surgery lasted for twelve hours, and for the entire time her volunteer remained with her mother. Her hospital stay was ten days, and again, the volunteers were there to visit every day. The remainder of her time in Chicago was spent going back and forth to the hospital for physical therapy. Megle knows her ordeal is not over. When Dr. Lubicki and his staff from Shriners' examines her in Vilnius, he will tell her when it is time for her to return to Chicago for more surgery. But for now, Megle was happy to be walking on her own and to be returning to her homeland. When I asked Megle what impressed her the most about her trip, she didn’t hesitate to say it was the people she met and the museum where the volunteers took her for a day trip.

Our second Megle is the seventeen-year-old daughter of Regina and Jonas Svoba, who work so hard to help Lithuania’s forgotten children. Regina is the president of Countryside Children. Regina came to Chicago with no illusions; she knew there would be no guarantees. Her only hope was that Megle would be able to stand and perhaps walk a few steps; she knew her daughter would never be cured.

Megle suffered a trauma at birth. In fact, from what her parents could piece together, she was dropped in the hospital. This was during the "old" days in Lithuania. One did not complain when things went wrong within the system.

Megle is confined to a wheelchair. She attends school in Lithuania but, the system there still has a long way to go. Her parents fear for her future. In Chicago her feet were straightened as much as possible. Megle exercises faithfully for an hour a day. My heart broke as I watched the perspiration dripping from her face as she stretched on the floor. And once again, the volunteers were praised to heaven for the many hours they gave to mother and daughter.

Nine-year-old Zivile had been in Chicago for three weeks. Her mother expected their stay might be as long as three years. Zivile suffered from tremendous spinal pain. At this point it was affecting her lungs and her bones. Readers, can you imagine a nine-year-old child having to endure such pain? There would be several operations and many, many hours of therapy. But Zivile was a happy child, and she had no problem telling me her story. She told it without feeling sorry for herself. It was Ziviles mother who broke down in tears in the next room. She could not bear to see her child suffer.

Fourteen-year-old Dovile and her mother had been in Chicago for two months. Dovile was in constant pain from a spinal problem but there were no complaints from her. She did admit she missed her father and her sixteen-year-old brother. To me, it seemed she suffered as much from homesickness as she did physical pain.

As was the case with all the children , they had hope in the Shriners' doctors, and they were willing to endure anything. Some were on crutches, others had walkers and wheelchairs.

Kotrina and her mother.

The youngest one always steals the show. Perhaps this is because they have no inhibitions. and they are free to be themselves. Two-year-old Kotrina was one of the most beautiful children I had ever seen. I just didn’t want to put her down. I wanted to keep holding her, and I guess in some way, protect her.

Kotrina lives not far from Vilnius and has a year-old sister. Kotrina's grandmother and her father, a policeman, are caring for the sister. This beautiful child had her first operation in Lithuania when she was six months old. Now she would have several operations in Chicago. Her two knees would be operated on, then her two feet, and finally both her hands. Kotrina cannot stand up. Her hands and her feet are turned inward, and she scoots all over the floor on her little bottom. Actually, she is quite fast. She is a friendly and outgoing child, and she loved the playroom. The other children, those with crutches, would get down on the floor and play with her.

Readers, I wish you could see these children. Every child takes care of every other child. Somehow they manage to find one that is a little worse than they are. And every mother takes care of every child. Our little party was almost over, and the volunteers began to leave as the children started to yawn. Only Kotrina was still going strong.

An Outing…

The next day some of the volunteers returned to take some of the mothers and the children to a grand opening of a nearby store. You can’t imagine what this encounters. There are many steps and the wheelchairs have to be taken downstairs. At the last minute, it was remembered there was no car seat for Kotrina. Before anyone could blink an eye, one of the volunteers ran out and returned with one. When she was offered money for the purchase, she simply shook her head "no." This was her gift to Kotrina.

There was such an air of anticipation. Everyone who was going was excited. Kotrina’s seat had to be assembled, mittens and scarves had to be found. This simple outing charged the air with electricity. For some of the participants, it was their first "grand opening."

At last the group was out the door and the rest of us relaxed around the kitchen table. Some of the children and their mothers talked about home. Others told me about all the wonderful people they met and the places the volunteers took them.

It seemed we had just sat down, when our little group returned; all of them talking at the same time. They told of the things they saw and what they did. Of course, everyone held their precious little grand opening gifts. But what affected them the most was the fact that Chicago was starting to light up for Christmas. They couldn’t say enough about the decorations, but without the volunteers there would have been no outing to the store, and deep down inside the mothers and children knew that. Yet the volunteers put it in such a way that the children and their parents were doing them a favor by going to the store with them. How fortunate that we have such people who know how to help others forget their problems, if only for a few hours. As for Kotrina, she was just happy to see her crib.

The Program's Outlook…

The program has been an overwhelming success. All the children are doing well, except for one child. She was a "poster child" from Kaunas. Several years after she returned to Lithuania, she contracted pneumonia and died. Needless to say, this saddened everyone who is involved with the program. They felt they lost a family member. The children and their families keep in touch with Children’s Hope and the volunteers.

As for the volunteers, they are about to become "grandparents." Several years ago, a young girl was turned down for surgery. The chances of her becoming totally paralyzed were 95% if the surgery was unsuccessful. The girl threatened to kill herself. She could no longer live with the pain and ridicule from others. After much deliberation and more consultations, again explaining to the girl and her family that chances of success were very slim, the doctors agreed to operate.

Miracles do happen and this young lady is walking proof. The surgery was successful, and today the miracle child is married and awaiting her first child. Another child who was unable to walk off the plane when she arrived in Chicago is a diving champion.

But success is expensive. Children’s Hope calculates that it costs $1,000 a month to keep a mother and child here in the United States. This includes airfare, lodging, and food. If you knew your donation could help a child walk or remove scars from burns, would you even think twice about making a donation? I know so many of you through the mail, and I know you would not hesitate for a minute to help these children. No one person can do it alone, but together, we can and we will make it happen. We will bring as many of Lithuania’s children here that Shriners' can handle.

There are no adequate words to thank Dr. Lubicki and the staff of Shriners in Chicago, as well as the staff of Shriners in Los Angeles and St. Petersburg. What can you say to such dedicated people who give so much of themselves? To the volunteers in all three cities, you have our heartfelt prayers as well as our thanks. A special thank you to the people who administer the programs in Los Angeles and St. Petersburg.

To Grazina Liautaud and Birute Jasaitis, thank you not only for your organizational skills, but also for caring and worrying about each and every child who is involved in Children’s Hope.

According to Confucius, "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." We are helping one child at a time, and we will not stop until we have helped every child that can be helped. I know that the you, the BRIDGES readers, will take these children into your hearts.

Please become a part of Children’s Hope by helping with your donations. If you prefer to have your donation directed to Los Angeles or St. Petersburg, please send a note with your check and it will be forwarded. Write your tax deductible checks to:

Lithuanian Children’s Hope
2711 W. 71st St.
Chicago, IL 60629

All photos from Jeanne Dorr