Aid to Children, Youth and Families (New Hope International)

Provides Christian training, orphan care, education (marriage, family, AIDS, STDs, alcohol and drugs) and other aid to children, youth and families in orphanages, schools, camps and conferences in Eastern Europe.

Why do we exist?

Christ wants us to “bear one another’s burdens.” (Galatians 6:2).  In 1968, this verse of Scripture made an impact on Hank Paulson, our founder, when he traveled to Eastern Europe for the first time.  At a secret meeting of Christian believers in the former Soviet Union, Hank was the first Christian from the West they had ever met.  With only two Bibles for more than 200 people, they asked him to return one day and “bring God’s Word.”  As a result, Hank began smuggling Bibles into Communist Eastern Europe and three years later founded the organization that today is “Aid to Children, Youth, and Families,” also known as New Hope International.

Aid to Children, Youth, and Families provides Christian mentoring, orphan care, education (marriage/family, prevention of AIDs, STDs and substance abuse), and other aid to at-risk children, youth, and families throughout Eastern Europe.

In most Eastern European countries, churches are prohibited from partnering in any way with public schools, state-run orphanages, and other social agencies. But because Aid to Children, Youth, and Families is registered as a non-profit religious/social agency in these countries, we are able to link those in the church with the desire and ability to reach out with the local schools, orphanages, and social agencies who desperately need their support.

What have you accomplished?

Our reach in Eastern Europe is vast. For example, as of mid-2010 we have placed almost 300 orphans in loving adoptive or foster families in Ukraine. Aid to Children, Youth and Families runs dozens of Christian training seminars, camps, vacation Bible schools and leadership development conferences to train thousands of children, youth, families and pastors throughout Eastern Europe. We have a successful mentoring and public school outreach in a number of countries. Our work with at-risk teens in Moldova who desperately need transitional housing after “graduating” from orphanages is expanding rapidly.

Aid to Children, Youth, and Families has become the largest publisher of Christian resources for children, teens, and families in Eastern Europe.  Our translations are read and passed on from one person to another, thus multiplying the good that comes from each book.

Maxim, a young boy in a Lviv (Ukrainian) orphanage, experienced deep emotional problems which resulted in poor, unacceptable behavior. When Oksana, the director of our ministry’s orphan care program, visited this orphanage, she was captivated by Maxim’s haunting eyes. She and her husband already had a child and she was busy helping to launch this orphan care program, so she had no intention of adopting a child. But every time she visited the orphanage, she was drawn to Maxim. She found herself thinking about him and praying for him every day. When she finally inquired about him, the orphanage director discouraged Oksana from even considering this child due to his poor behavior.  But Oksana persisted—and she and husband brought this needy boy into their home. The last several years have been anything but smooth and easy, but today Maxim is a handsome, happy, healthy pre-adolescent with a protective younger sister and a loving mom and dad and extended family. This is just one of our hundreds of orphan care “success stories.”

Read more about our accomplishments at our website: www.newhopeinternational.org.

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