Teens who graduate from orphanages in Ukraine face immense hurdles. They struggle to obtain housing and find employment. They sometimes lack even the ability to cook a simple meal or use public transportation. They often slide into alcoholism, crime, sex work, and suicide.

In 2018, Ukrainians Vlad Doruda and Andriy Stefurak and American Robert Hay began what they thought might be a small project to mentor two or three Ukrainian orphans as they prepared to live independently. By opening themselves to the possibilities they encountered as they began, they watched that small idea grow to a community of people helping orphans and people with disabilities all over Ukraine. Now, during the current crisis, the Community has provided humanitarian aid to thousands of people in need.

The three began by supporting a local Ukrainian organization which ran a mentoring program for teenagers in difficult circumstances helping them develop independent living skills. This effort later spread to other regions in Ukraine. Then, in 2019, they began working with a college now known as the Kamyanets-Podilsky State Institute which had started 40 years earlier to serve students with disabilities. The growing Community financed construction work which finally made the college wheelchair accessible. Since then, the Community has supported a variety of projects to help the college and its students.

Dearest to the heart of the Sunflower Community are a few young people who have experienced truly horrific misfortune and exceptional physical and emotional suffering in life. For them, the Sunflower Community provides specific material and moral support. Incredible as it may sound, they are a terrific source of joy as we marvel at their conquest of adversity and indomitable spirit.

There are a number of dedicated people who are currently part of the Sunflower Community. To learn more about some of our partner organizations, click here. To read more about our current work visit News and Updates.

In order to enable people in the United States who wished to support the work of the Sunflower Community to obtain a tax deduction for their donations, the Sunflower Community Fund, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization, was created in 2020.

The core characteristics of the Sunflower Community are:

• Seeing beyond labels based on age, nationality, religion and disability.
• Allowing young people to experience the joy to be found in serving others.
• Striving to serve in a manner which demonstrates that those we serve are the masters. They tell us how to help. We try not to impose our ideas, plans or theories on them.
• Working as a community and not merely an institution. We respond not with a utilitarian calculation of the effectiveness of any proposed action but as people giving a loving response to neighbors.