Raisa Skakun
PER
Raisa Raisa Skakun
12-year-old Raisa Skakun, was welcomed to America as a winner, with balloons at Kennedy International Airport, the hugs of long-lost relatives and a billionaire's pledge of financial support. Immigration officials had reconsidered her case, urged on by an outpouring of concern after Raisa's story was detailed in an article on Oct. 14 in The New York Times. Shy at first, Raisa, a slim, dark-haired girl, was soon chattering happily in Russian as she explored the two-bedroom public housing apartment in Coney Island where she will live with her grandmother and her 17-year-old half-brother, Alex Krylov.