In April 1997 the members of the congregation found a group of nine children wandering all alone out in the night in one of the most dangerous region of Tallinn. The children looked awfully ragged and dirty, and they were very hungry. These children lived in a gang and on the whole there were 15 of them. Since that very night the people from the church brought the children some food. And so - step-by-step - they earned the kids' trust and love. Later on, in June the children started attending to the activities of a project at Peeteli Church, led by congregation diaconie worker Nelli Vahter. It was named They Do Exist. This project was financed by the Ministry of Social Affairs, but the Government did not support the follow-up project next year any more. During 1997 the children got food packages once a week (Christians from the congregation drove by a small bus to their living-place in Kopli). Several times they also organized picnics and trips out of the town for the kids.

Daily Care Center

In September 1997 some members of the congregation started to renovate the previous flat of the pastor of Peeteli Church (the building is designed the way the church, congregation rooms and vicarage are situated under the same roof). By the end of the year the works were finished and on the 23rd of December, just at Christmas time the Daily Care Centre for the street-children has been consecrated. There the children could (at the beginning once a week, later on twice and even more often) get warm food, some new warm clothes and simply to communicate and play. But there were no washing conditions - the bathroom and toilet were old and in disrepair and the repairing works would have been very expensive.

In 1998 Inge Ojala started as the project leader. The project was named Children in the Lines. The kids could come to the Daily Care Centre four times a week; in summer they spent 40 days in Saaremaa, in an old manor house rented for the camp.
On the 25th of October 1998 the demured church windows have been opened again - several boys from the same street children group broke open again the windows demured during the period of soviet occupation. With the help of the sponsors from abroad there were placed the window frames as well.

Christian Children Home

In January 1999 in the same rooms there has been established the Christian Children Home for the same children. They could choose on their own if they'd like to live there or not, for there are certain conditions and rules to be followed, in case one decides to stay in this home. First and most important is that every child there must go to school.
The children, who did not want to or could not go to school, still attend to the Daily Care Centre.

In 1999 the children from the Children Home spent 45 days and in 2000 two months in summer camp in Saaremaa. In 1999 they have been at a camp in Finland and in 2000 they were in Norway for the whole month of June. All their school holidays in winter as well in spring they have been resting in camps outside of Tallinn.
In summer 2001 the children have been in a summer camp in Norway again. Some elder girls from the Children Home had practical training in Finland.
In July the renovation of the cellar of Peeteli Church has been started. The rooms were meant for the Daily Care Centre for the street children.
On March 31st 2001 the Daily Care Centre was opened and at present there (in the night shelter) live 9 children and every day come to the centre 20 children to have warm food, wash themselves and their clothes, do their home task, to communicate and play.
All this has been possible only thanks to the support of the congregations, organizations and firms and also due to the personal donations from individuals in Estonia and many other countries from abroad.

Since April 1st 2000 Tallinn Health and Social Department is buying from the Centre of Pastoral Care the children home service and since April 1st 2001 the daily care centre service. In co-operation with and due to the help of the Danish Embassy it became possible to negotiate with local authorities, town region authorities and the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Since 1st of January 2000 in Peeteli Church there has been created the Centre of Pastoral Care. It is a non-profit association and its sub-structures are the Christian Children Home and the Daily Care Centre for the Street Children.
The vision of the Centre lies in an ethical, healthy and secure society, where the church possesses clear social orientation, vision and meaning. Our common mission is - renovation of Peeteli Church, daily care centre for the children, support to the unemployed, Christian Children Home and Daily Care Centre for the Street children, socialization of the street-youth, pastoral care and the Services. At the same time it works as the model to follow for the Church on the whole.

The aim of the work with the street children is to help them by offering them the services of the Daily Care Centre, the night shelter and Christian Children Home, thus avoiding them remaining in the streets and at the same time integrating them into the society.
There are still quite a few of children lacking parental care and wandering about in the streets - the problem needs quick solution.

BETHEL'S DAILY CARE CENTRE and
NIGHT SHELTER for the
street children

In July 2000 there has been started the renovation of the cellar. The renovation of the rooms has taken about 8 months. In the course of these works the elder boys - previous street kids, who have been living in the church for 2,5 years - have demolished 430 m² of concrete floor and digged out 220 m³ of surface. These late street boys have completed all the preliminary works of the renovation.
The Daily Care Centre and the night shelter of the street children have been opened on March 31, 2001. The leader of the Daily Care Centre is Fea Üprus. There are working also 4 educators, 2 night educators and a teacher.
Since 1st of April 2001 the Tallinn Social and Health care Department is buying from us the daily care and night shelter service.
The activities of the Daily care Centre run are the following: finding the children who do not go to school, lack parental care; there must be established good, trustful contacts with them and we have to keep these contacts offering them possibilities to have at least once a day warm food, wash themselves and their clothes; give them some clean warm clothes. Finding out what is the health condition of the child, take him/her to the doctor's if necessary. Finding solutions to the problems of the child - restoring contacts with home (if possible), helping the child to go on with his/her studies at school or helping him/her to do their home task at the Centre (usually in case of these children there is no conditions at home to study). Offering different kind of developmental and social skills teaching activities at the Centre. Offering them the model of a pro-social grown-up to follow by our own example.
In defining the risk factors we have to centre at the following fields - community and neighbourhood, family, school, personal characteristics, the friends of the child.

There are 9 kids living in the night shelter in the cellar and 20 children coming to the Daily Care Centre every day.
The youngest of them are brother and sister Kätlin (5 years old girl) and Kristo (3 years old boy). We have made an agreement with their parents and the social workers that they will not return home until the parents have cleaned and renovated the flat; installed water and electricity into the flat; they must also drop using alcohol etc.
There are also two bigger girls - Ljuba (12) and Marina (11). Both the girls have been living in the streets about 1,5 year and they also have not gone to school during that period. It took almost 3 months before they accepted the rules of the Centre and feel here at home now.
There are also 5 more boys in the shelter at present - Vasja (14, Ljuba's brother), Zenja (12) and Dima (15), Eduard (15) and Slava (11). All the boys have been in the streets at least about a year. Since 1st of September all of them go to school again.
During the six months the Daily Care Centre has been active, there have been several other kids, who stayed here for some time and who by now have found their way back home or gone to another children home.

The summer has been most exciting for our children.
All the children from the Children Home stayed in the countryside in Estonian farms for about 1,5 months where they could learn Estonian.
In the end of August all the children from the Children Home were in a summer camp in Finland.
The children from the night shelter were to a Christian military camp organized by a chaplain of the Estonian Army.
For the second time Norwegian Christians have organized for the street children a summer camp in Norway. This year it took place in two small islands in the Norwegian Sea. The children have been fishing, swimming, paling football together with local children and enjoying their holidays. Altogether there were 22 children in Norway.