Capturing Grace | Little Ruslan – With the World Without Orphans Cycling Team in France

28 Oct Little Ruslan – With the World Without Orphans Cycling Team in France

Posted at 07:00h in Child Sponsorship Stories, Humanitarian Photography, Orphan Ministry, Travel by rdmosley 0 Comments

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During our time with the World Without Orphans Biking Team, one of the cyclers that made a lasting impression was twelve year old Ruslan.

Sitting her in my hotel room in Ukraine I am thinking about little Ruslan with his happy smile, endless energy and tremendous enthusiasm. I miss his thumbs up accompanied by “perfect!” to everything that he encounters.

Ruslan’s world is indeed perfect compared to what it was only five months ago. At that time, Ruslan was in an orphanage for disabled children, even though Ruslan is in no way disabled. The government profits from children in this institution and Ruslan had become a part of this corruption.

Gennadiy Mokhnenko found out about the plight of 12 year old Ruslan and fought for him. Now little Ruslan is in a family of twelve with Albert as his adopted Dad. As a member of the World Without Orphans Cycling team he just completed a ride from Germany, through the Swiss Alps and ended at the Atlantic ocean in France. Perfect Ruslan, just perfect!

DETAILS ABOUT THIS TRIP-

I am so excited to photograph The World Without Orphans Bike Tour as thy make their way from Paris to the Atlantic Ocean. In just two days from today I will ride with this team as they make their way through Chartres, Le Mans, Angers and Nantes, ending at the west coast of France in the town of Saint-Nazaire.

“This bike campaign is organized by partners in the World Without Orphans movement and is being led by Gennadiy Mokhnenko, pastor and director of Republic Pilgrim, which is the largest rehabilitation program for street youth in Ukraine. Gennadiy and his wife Lena are parents to 32 previously abandoned children.

“My adopted children used to live on the streets. Some of them were as young as 4, and we knew if we didn’t take them, most would end up dead or in prison,” Mokhnenko said.

Gennadiy understands that his own family is not the typical example for adopting children, but he believes strongly that everyone can do something. See the beautiful video about Gennadiy Mokhnevnko’s story of adopting these thirty two children. I highly recommend watching Almost Holy as well, a full length movie about Gennadiy and his life’s work in Ukraine.

The World Without Orphans around-the-world bike tour seeks to advocate for orphans in need of families, encourage national adoption in the countries where they ride, and encourage the development of solutions to end orphanhood worldwide.

The World Without Orphans Bike Tour began in 2011 when a group of Ukrainian orphans from Mariupol started riding eastward to raise awareness about orphans. Their quest continued on for 4 summers, and led them to far-east Russia, covering a total of 15,000 kilometers. Tens of thousands attended gatherings that were set up as part of the tour, while hundreds of thousands heard the message about adoption through local media campaigns. As the team continued on in their ride east they regularly heard news of families who had stepped forward to foster and adopt children as a direct result of the campaign.” – From the World Without Orphans website

This year these courageous young bikers started in Bochum, Germany on July 16th and have made their way through Germany and Switzerland before this years tour ends at the west coast of France. While on the tour, the group will speak at public events, hold press conferences, and meet with foster and adoptive parents throughout Europe.

[In August my daughter Carissa and I set off on a 26 day, 11 flight and 4 country adventure, Capturing Grace with our camera’s as we journeyed through France, Ukraine, Russia and Spain. I am now back at home in the US, posting about the experience of those twenty six days from my journal]