Rag trade bypassed to nurture street kids

Two homeless children enjoy their meal in Vladivostok. Photo / Supplied

Aucklander Rachael Hughes once wanted to be a fashion designer, with work paraded on catwalks in Paris and Milan. But a chance encounter cemented her place in the other end of the continent, in the cold, drab streets of a city in the far east.

Rachael was volunteering for a Russian Jewish organisation in Vladivostok, Russia, 12 years ago when she caught an 8-year-old boy attempting to pickpocket her. Taking pity on the grubby, homeless child, she fed him, and began a chain of events which sees her today feeding and trying to build a future for dozens of street kids.

Initially she began handing out fruit and sandwiches, feeding a group of 30 children three times a week. She made Russia her home, enduring the scrutiny of the KGB and life in a harsh post-communist city.

Vladivostok is a port city which lies near Russia's border with China. Though surrounded by pretty peaks and peninsulas, its gritty urban centre can drop to -20C and lacks new infrastructure and housing.

In this unforgiving setting Rachael registered the Living Hope charitable trust in 1999.

The trust's programmes, which include a day centre, mobile soup kitchen and summer holiday camps, are not just a means of survival - they took on children who lived in abandoned buildings and rubbish dumpsters and channelled them towards futures in carpentry, economics and computing.

"We now have these kids talking about the future - they have dreams and aspirations," Rachael said.

"Street kids were just pariahs and were just a given in the city culture when I arrived. Now, people are challenging that paradigm and recognising that kids deserve better."

The appalling living conditions for many children in the city, and Russia's slow economic grind out of its communist past, mean Rachael's mission is an ongoing one, run on little money and much Kiwi generosity.

A shelter purchased in April 2007 lay empty for six months, before being partly furnished by Kiwi volunteers.

"It was a wonderful and terrible moment, at the same time," said Rachael. "We finally had achieved our dream of having our own building and shelter for the kids, but in purchasing it, we also used up every last penny of our financial resources. We had the building, but we couldn't afford to do anything with it."

She aims to house 30 children every night in the shelter, and has returned to New Zealand this week to garner support for further development. She will return to her new home, 10,000km away, in two weeks, hoping she has raised the funds to complete the shelter in Russia's summer months.

The Living Hope Charity Fundraiser is tonight at 6.30 at The Blue Stone Room in Durham Lane, Auckland.

Email admin@livinghope.org.nz for more details.