The Pavlenko family founded a family-type orphanage in 2007. They did it on June 1, Children’s Day. During this time, Elena and Oleg became parents to 25 orphans and children deprived of parental care. Olena says that after the birth of her son and daughter, she and her husband decided that together they could make many more children happy. Currently, the family raises 9 boys and girls. The eldest daughter Alina is 15 years old, the youngest son Matviy is only 2. The names of the heroes have been changed for security reasons.

“When we took our first child, Olenka, it was June 1, 2007. She was then 10 years old , ”Olena recalls how it all began.

The Pavlenko family orphanage was originally located in a small town in the Kherson region. They later built a house in Kherson  itself , now a temporarily occupied regional center. The family could not move to a safer place before the arrival of Russian troops. Although the father of the children Oleg says he had a bad feeling. Three weeks before the Russian invasion, he asked local authorities for evacuation:

“We have been accused of panicking. This is not the end of the matter, because we have not calmed down. We still started to make our way to Kolikhayev ( Igor Kolikhayev – the mayor of Kherson, – ed .). And we were not answered in writing to our written request. We just got a call and were told that we were “talking to Kyiv” and everything was resolved. So that we do not worry and panic. If hostilities begin, we will be evacuated. But they can’t say where and how, because this is secret information, and a whole special operation has been developed . “