Ukraine has a very homogeneous population. Based on a 2001 census 77.8% of the population is Ukrainian and 17.3% are Russian. The remaining 4.9% are Belarusian, Moldovan, Crimean Tatar, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Jewish and Other.


The African and Korean people of Ukraine fall into the Other category.

While many people realize there are Rom children available for adoption, they don't realize children of African (Black) or Korean ethnicity are also available. They are rare but at any time there are around 20 to 30 African or Korean children in the Ukrainian orphanage system What does rare mean..... 20 children out of a total of 125,000 in the orphanage system.


Many times African or Korean children can be found in large University towns or cities with ports.


I know of an African child who was in a Kharkiv orphanage in 2003. And here is a link to a child who was adopted from Odessa in 2002. And I know of a Ukrainian single woman who has adopted around 20 African children from the orphanage system over many years.

...Beriozka orphanage [in Kyiv]......


At the orphanage, we were warmly received by the director, Mr. Alexander Alexandrovitch. After visiting various rooms where the children were grouped according to categories (age, etc.) amidst discussions, he directed us into a small room where five small children were sitting on chamberpots. Among them was a mulatto (African-Ukrainian) named Carlos.


from: Every Child - a Gift of God dated November 26, 2003

And there is a well known African musician in Ukraine.

Myroslav Kuvaldin is a very popular television presenter and a musician in Kiev, Ukraine.


As one of the very few black Ukrainians, he can never really blend into the country of his birth but in his media career, this distinctiveness has proved an asset.


from: Stranger at home

Jennifer O'Riordan and her husband adopted 2 girls from Kherson, Ukraine in 1993. These adoptions were disrupted a year later. While at the Kherson orphanage they met Denis a Korean child. They decided to try and adopt him. This turned into a long adoption attempt as Ukraine shut down international adoption from from 1993 to 1996. The link to the full story of Denis' adoption is located at here.


Ukrainian Adoption was closed and reformed during this time period due to a baby selling scandal. Here is how the baby selling scheme worked.... A woman would give birth to her child. A doctor would tell her the baby died. And then the very-much-alive baby would be given fake papers by corrupt government officials. Then money would change hands and the baby would be available for adoption.


And then there was the 1993 problem of the Ternopil children and the Chicago families which impacted Ukrainian adoption laws. Link to story can be found here. In the end 54 Ukrainian children were adopted in Chicago. These children had arrived on tourist visas for a brief vacation and their "foster parents" decided to adopt them. It was a big political mess.


The Ternopil/Chicago story is complex and I cannot do it justice in the short paragraph above. But I believe the "foster parents" were told it was OK to adopt the children.


Finally in 1997 Jennifer O'Riordan and her husband were able to adopt Denis.

Here is a link to a family who adopted 2 Ukrainian/Korean boys in 1999. The link will take you to a picture and little story.


And in 2002 I was in email contact with an Italian family who adopted a Korean boy from Ukraine.


Because African or Korean children/adults are so rare within the Ukrainian population, African or Korean children within the orphanage system tend to think they are the only Black/Korean child on the planet.


One more link... I decided to write this because of the following story.


Buckner Seeks African-American Families to Host Black Orphans from Russia


FYI: The picture above is just a composite of several children that I pulled together to represent children from Ukrainian orphanages. I have many photos of Ukrainian orphans, but I don’t have permission to post them….. so I made the composite from freely available photos.