Street Children in Tallinn, Estonia: Lighthouse Care Center

Story and photos by Mall Tamm

Lighthouse Care Center children work together on a puzzle.


Martin [not his real name] came to our Lighthouse Care Center when he got very hungry. His mother had left him when he was just a couple of years old. The boy lived with a mostly-absent father. His father’s girlfriend was an alcoholic. When the father ended up in prison, the woman turned to prostitution, and Martin found himself on the streets of Tallinn, where he stole, drank, and smoked. He didn’t go to school and slept wherever he happened to be. When he couldn’t find food, he came to the Lighthouse Care Center. With us he found more than food, clothing, and a shower—he found compassion and care. In our center, he began to develop physically and mentally. We discovered he was quite musical and quick to learn languages. Today he has been baptized, has given up many bad habits, and envisions a future for himself that he couldn’t imagine before.

Maria [not her real name] came to us after she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Her mother was aware of this but blamed her daughter for what happened, so Maria felt entirely alone with her shame and distress. She became psychologically unstable, no longer attended school, and lost her trust in all adults. Eventually, she learned to trust one staff member at our center and confided in her. Together with the social workers, we worked out a program for her that included treatment in a psycho-neurological hospital. Today, Maria is a stable and joyful teenager who is actively involved in one of our programs, has made a good friend here, and manages at school quite well.

The Route to the Streets
Martin and Maria are just two of the children with whom we work at the Lighthouse in Tallinn, Estonia. These children and teenagers are from broken homes: often they don’t have a father, and sometimes they don’t have a mother either. Some who lived with an alcoholic and/or violent stepfather experienced abuse. Parents whose children end up living on the streets are unable to care for their offspring for a variety of reasons. Some are poor, antisocial, unable to cope with social pressures, unemployed, overworked, or simply careless. Sometimes children do not have enough food at home or decent clothing.

In some cases, children on the streets are brought to us by social workers from the city’s social department. In other cases, the children themselves invite other children, which happens with families that live in the city illegally; the city’s social department does not have any records of these families.



Children try their hand at drama in the Lighthouse Care Center


Lighthouse Ministries
We work together with the municipal government, organizations for child protection, police, hospitals, and churches. Our aim is to find ways to help families, but too often the families don’t want anyone to intervene. Undocumented immigrants are afraid that they will be deported. Our center tries to create a network that gives support to the child, helps with education, and especially exposes the child to different alternatives in the world, where there is care, love, and joy. We offer them various activity groups where they can learn skills and develop trust. We also tell them about the Bible and Christian principles.

Lighthouse Care Center was created in 2001 as a United Methodist initiative in Estonia. Today it is sponsored by various United Methodist churches in the United States, the local municipal government, and other sources. The staff includes seven persons, but a number of volunteers contribute their time, expertise, and energy for the children. The center’s list of children is 60 names long, but on a normal day, we work with about 20 to 25 children. For more photos and information, visit our website (and click the English button): http://www.lastekeskus.ee.

*Mall Tamm is the director of the Lighthouse Care Center in Tallinn, Estonia, a ministry of The United Methodist Church in Estonia.

This article was first published in New World Outlook, November-December 2005, by the General Board of Global Ministries. Used by Permission. To receive New World Outlook, as a bimonthly subscription, visit our website: http://gbgm-umc.org/nwo or call tollfree: 1-877-881-2385.


Street Children in Eastern Europe
A number of United Methodist leaders in Eastern Europe weighed in with their opinions on the definitions, causes, and church responsibilities regarding street children.

Bratislava, Slovak Republic
An abandoned child is considered to be an orphan in the Slovak Republic. It well may be that his/her parents are still living.

Street children are not a real problem in Slovakia. Abandoned children
are public welfare cases and are placed into so-called "children’s homes" run by the state. There are approximately 5000 children in the children homes of Slovakia.

The UMC in Slovakia helps orphans in several children’s homes through Christian programs of word and deed. Our congregations and individuals prepare programs for children’s homes on special occasions (Christmas, Easter, VIM-team visits). The most systematic work is held in Sered, directed by Mrs. Milena Belkova. This work has been supported by United Methodist churches in the United States over several years. Programs often involve the distribution of various gifts to children (such as Bibles, books, clothing, and school supplies).

Submitted by Superintendent Pavel Prochazka for the UMC in the Slovak Republic.

Novi Sad, Serbia/Montenegro
An orphan is a child who has lost both parents or just his or her mother. We have children who are beggars on the street during the day, but they have parents and a place to sleep at night. We have some teenagers who run away from home and sometimes they live on the street.

State and government institutions or social centers are responsible for homeless children here. Sometimes the children live in orphanages, but they can be placed with families who are willing to adopt children and care for them until their 18th birthday.

State institutions are good at resolving the problem of homeless and orphaned children and we as the church can do only so much to improve the whole issue. We can only offer humanitarian aid to the social centers and orphanages from time to time, which is what we have done for the past 10 years.

Before World War II, The United Methodist Church in (then) Yugoslavia opened an orphanage, but it was nationalized and the children at the time were placed in state orphanages.

Submitted by the Rev. Jarmila Kalko for the UMC in Novi Sad/Serbia-Montenegro.

Budapest, Hungary
Orphans in Hungary live in state-run orphanages. However, this kind of preparation for life is poor, and children who leave the orphanage upon their 18th birthday often end up on the streets. They get some financial support from the state, but they were never taught how to deal with money, and they may lack fundamental (moral) values.

Street children are not necessarily orphans! But because of structural changes in Hungarian society and a growing number of unemployed people, there are more and more children and teenagers living on the streets (12 percent, according to a recent statistic).

The United Methodist Church in Hungary has no ministry of its own with or for street children. Some individual congregations (Szolnok, Szekszard, Dombovar) work with children in state orphanages and children’s homes. In Budapest, the capital of Hungary, a Christian Working Group for Street Children was founded in January 2005. This group consists of committed people from different churches, two of which are United Methodists. The group works with teenagers who live more on the streets than at home.

Submitted by Ms. Christiane Hecker for the UMC in Budapest, Hungary.

The above statements were gathered by Urs Schweizer, assistant to Bishop Heinrich Bolleter, and Ullas Tankler, GBGM Executive Secretary in Mission Contexts and Relationships, Europe Desk.