On a sunny Saturday morning, Irina and Igor rake wood debris and leaves around an old house on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. At ages 12 and 13, the two are remarkably enthusiastic as they go about their task.

"This is our new home and it is really wonderful," Igor says, grinning broadly as he brushes wood chips off of his shirt. "I always wanted a family, and here we are very much like a family."

Until recently, these two youngsters were among some 100,000 abandoned and homeless children in Kiev, sleeping under bridges or in heating shafts and begging or stealing food to survive. Their lives changed when they were taken in by a children's shelter founded by American ex-patriates Jane Hyatt and Barbara Klaiber. Given a warm bed, clean clothes, healthy food, and frequent hugs, the children were also able to attend school for the first time.

That was two years ago, when the shelter, aptly named "the Ark," first opened. Since then both the home and its children have progressed. Irina has made it through the third grade, and Igor has passed state exams to enter the fifth.

The Ark has gone from a cramped rental house to a 10-acre property with eight buildings, thanks to a Swiss grant and donations from charities and individuals in the United States, including Monitor readers. Although the site, a former sanatorium, is in dire need of renovation after 20 years of disuse, eight children have already moved in. Once the compound is fully reconstructed, which will cost about $350,000, the Ark will be able to take in as many as 100 children.

"There is fresh air here and a lot of room to build forts and ride bikes," Igor adds, while he watches Ms. Hyatt trot around the makeshift playground bouncing 9-year-old Pav-lina on her shoulders. "I am going to plant a garden with cabbage and carrots, so we can have a few rabbits.

"There is sure a lot of work to do," Igor adds. "The roof on the kitchen has a big hole in it, and several of the buildings are really falling down, but we will fix it all up."

Igor points out where he lives in the one fully functional building on the property. He and another boy share a room with a bunk bed, a compact bathroom, and a window with a forest view.

In the cozy common room, Alyosha, an older boy, plays hymns on a piano. A hand-drawn sign on the front door bears the names of the children and the message "We're home!"

For Igor, whose mother abandoned him to beg on the streets of Kiev for three years, that is no small boast. Irina, too, found herself on the streets with her two sisters after their mother was put in prison when she was six years old. The three girls spent the next six years struggling to survive on their own during Ukraine's darkest years of economic upheaval following the USSR's collapse. All three are now at the Ark.

"I am glad we are away from all that and that my little sister is safe here," she says. "We can go to school here. We aren't hungry any more, and also the caregivers here are kind to us."

Sergei Mikitin, one of three Ukrainian adults hired to care for the children, says Irina has changed a lot since she came to the shelter.

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