Phoenix Camp Ukraine is a mentoring program that helps to establish lasting relationships between children living in the village orphanage and university students through participating in summer camp and yearlong educational activitiesaimed at improving children’s social and life skills.

During the first part of the program that took place in August 2007, students from several Ukrainian universities and several international students from USA, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan taught classes and organized all-camp activities for 6 days for around 60 children from the village who have parents and also children from the orphanage. The aim of the camp was to facilitate positive basic life skills, teach them about healthy lifestyle, encourage team and individual work, as well as encourage them to pursue higher education after graduating from the orphanage.

The second part of the program is currently being implemented and consists of pen-pal communication between children and students and a series of recreational and promoting health/leadership seminars conducted at the orphanage by university students. Also a trip for a group of children from the orphanage is being planned by the students to visit one of the city universities in order for children to attend an educational seminar on the prospects of higher education.

The project is implemented with the support of Active Citizen Summer Fellow grant from the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, an NGO International Outreach Coalition (USA) and Petro Mohyla University in Mykolayiv (Ukraine). 

The program will run until May 2009, when it will be reevaluated and improved to be continued during the academic year of 2009 - 2010.