This very special place was set up 15 years ago by women from the local Pentecostal church. Since then, it has grown substantially and is now run by the local authority. Every day it provides meals to as many as 50 disadvantaged children who would otherwise almost certainly go hungry. There are also regular activities such as outings to the countryside and Christmas celebrations. The children come from difficult backgrounds – some are orphans, and others have alcoholic parents – but, in this stable and caring environment, they are happy, polite and eager to learn. Thanks to staff at the centre, some are eventually fostered or adopted.

Most of the children who visit the centre also attend the Sunday School at the Pentecostal church. Here, their eagerness to learn is very apparent, but the staff at the centre explain to the Bible Society visitors that the children greatly benefit from having appropriate biblical material to reinforce their learning. They need everything from Bible-based colouring books to New Testaments and Bibles for the older children. The visitors promise to do everything they can to meet this need.

Galina, 45, has experienced at first hand just how important the work of the centre and the Sunday School is. She lives with eight of her 12 children and her alcoholic husband in an apartment which has only two rooms apart from the kitchen. She bears sole responsibility for the children and is determined, despite her poverty and her difficult domestic circumstances, to ensure that they receive the best possible upbringing. The centre is a key source of support. Her children come here five days a week to receive a meal and on Sundays they all attend the Sunday School.

“Galina has a heart of gold,” says Mrs Antonovna. “What she achieves under extremely difficult circumstances is a miracle.”