I found an interesting "letter to the editor". It is dated December 25, 2006.

In July, Friends of Our Orphanages brought eight children from Orphanage No. 9, Krivoy Rog, Ukraine. It was very difficult to get them out of the country and took us nearly two years from the first time we applied.

Few people thought we could actually do this

.......

I have struggled to find a way to thank all [donors and helpers]

.......

Jote' Thompson,
Gainesville

I tried to find additional information about Friends of Our Orphanages. The web site is nothing but a series of ads. There isn't any information there.

I did find an old news story (and an old blog) that mentioned the hosted children.

They might not have understood the language, but the fire horn got their attention.

The blast from Gainesville Fire Rescue's fire engine provoked shrieks of delight from the small group of Ukrainian orphans, who got a tour Wednesday of Fire Station 1 on S. Main Street.

The children toured the firehouse as part of a 21-day visit to the United States as cultural exchange students. Friends of Our Orphanages, a Gainesville-based organization that aids and supports orphanages throughout the former Soviet Union, brought over 11 children from Krivoy Rog, Ukraine; eight stayed with host families in Gainesville while three stayed in Alabama.

............

Carlton Boyd, vice president of the organization

.............
Touring orphans

Back on December 13, I mentioned Ukrainian babies in stem cell probe.

And the BBC news article mentioned..

Ukraine has become the self-styled stem cell capital of the world.

From: Ukraine babies in stem cell probe

I found more information on Ukraine and stem cells.

After New York City chiropractor Rich James had a stroke in February, he kept reading accounts of people with stroke-related paralysis being treated with stem cells at clinics outside the United States.

.............

Through an online stroke support group, James heard about Stem Cell Therapy International (SCTI) Inc. in Tampa, which has arranged treatment for 15 patients, most with strokes or multiple sclerosis, in offshore facilities. In July, James paid SCTI $30,000 for five days of treatment in a clinic in Kiev, Ukraine, where he received infusions of stem cells from umbilical cord blood.

...........

Sidorenko [SCTI's chief operating officer] said the company makes no guarantees about the treatment's efficacy. But he is such a believer in the procedure's safety that he underwent stem cell transfusions in Kiev in September - even though he had no medical need for it.

From: For stem cell therapy, patients call Tampa

I also found Outside the U.S., businesses run with unproved stem cell therapies.

Stem cell clinics offering unproven therapies for a range of diseases have become a multimillion-dollar industry, operating in Mexico, Ukraine, Barbados, China and elsewhere.

.............

At least three [stem cell] clinics trace their roots to the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine in Kharkov, Ukraine. Founded in 1972

.............

For nearly two decades, scientists at the institute experimented with solutions made from aborted fetuses, injecting people for ailments including diabetes, multiple sclerosis and depression.

Dr. Valentin Grischenko, the institute director who led much of the research, said many patients showed significant improvements.

In the early 1990s, Ukrainian researchers familiar with the institute's work started a Kiev company called EmCell, charging $25,000 per treatment.

From: Outside the U.S., businesses run with unproved stem cell therapies