After the death of his mother, Luke entered the orphanage: today he is creating a new life and making his dreams come true.

The boy spent two years of his teens within the walls of a foster home, but later discovered a new residence that Luke said he liked right away.

“The child rights officers suggested that I inspect the Youth Homes owned by SOS Children’s Villages in Lithuania. From the first day I realized that I would like to live in them, so without expecting anything, I moved to them in a few weeks ”.

Autonomy was learned in adolescence

Luke assures her that he likes life at the Youth Home. All the young people who live in them are motivated and pursuing their goals, according to a press release.

“It is not difficult for me here because I learned independence while still living in a school dormitory. Of course, the beginning is the most difficult, it takes time to get into everyday life, get used to the prevailing rules. Probably the hardest part is to agree with other residents of the Youth Home, because each of us lives our own life.

Participants in the SOS Children’s Village Youth Programs are young people who have reached the age of 18 or have decided to start living independently. Those who grew up in the SOS Children’s Village at the age of 16 can move to a Youth Home where they prepare for independent life, gradually gaining more and more freedom for it, demanding more and more responsibility for it. They help them get an education and establish themselves in the job market. Even after moving out of the Juvenile Home and moving to live independently, it is still possible to participate in youth programs designed to enable the young person to take care of himself. As of 2015, not only children raised in SOS Children’s Villages can live in the Youth Home and participate in the programs. So even though Luke grew up in other orphanages, he found more help and support at the SOS Children’s Village.

The boy is happy that, although he is independent and capable of making decisions for himself, he always knows that the staff of the Youth Home, the social workers are always there and can advise him on all the issues that concern him.

“As far as possible, I try to do without the help of others, I understand that I have to take care of myself. Of course, there are really difficult situations, but I only ask for advice and help when I see that I will not be able to do something on my own.”

I hope to become a great programmer.

In a youth home, Luke often spends time preparing assignments or scheduling. Programming is his great passion, which interested him since he was a child.

“I discovered programming when I was eleven years old. The brother had a computer and occasionally allowed him to play a variety of games. It was during the games that I met several people who suggested that I create a shared game server with modifications. Now I have moved from gaming to website and server programming, ”says Lukas.

Seeing Luke’s enthusiasm and desire to connect life with technology, SOS Children’s Villages found an opportunity to improve and achieve its goal. He had the opportunity to deepen his knowledge and attend programming courses organized by Code Academy. SOS Children’s Villages is pleased that these courses have been donated to Luke by the academy and the Tesonet technology campaign.

“Being one of the leading technology companies in Lithuania is not only a great joy, but also a responsibility. By employing many talents on a daily basis, we constantly think ahead: the education of the younger generation and their prospects in the job market. We understand that your future depends on education and acquired profession, therefore, after meeting Lukas from SOS Children’s Villages in Lithuania and his dream of becoming an IT specialist, we could not remain indifferent. After consulting with Code Academy, we gave him a basic beginners course and we hope that the learning process will be interesting and open the way for him to dream about future work, ”says Monika Okmanė, Director of Human Resources at Tesonet.

Code Academy professor Lukas Vaičekauskas, who also married the aforementioned beginners course, says that Lukas is a great student who already has a good foundation in the field of computer science: “Lukas did well in his studies, he was very employee. He was active in the courses, he quickly absorbed new information and the tasks presented did not seem easy.

Luke himself says that he is doing everything he can to make his dream come true and is happy to have the opportunity to improve with IT professionals: “Right now my main concern is 12th grade exams and coding courses. After I graduate from school, I’ll see where programming takes me – there are many different ways. The most important thing is not to give up and keep investing time in this area that I like ”.