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Adoption dream unlikely at Russian orphanage

Posted in: Truth in the Research|No Comments

Moscow, Russia (CNN) — Though Oksana is 4 years old, she is much shorter than other children who are a year younger. She barely talks, and yet doesn’t hesitate to climb up in her puffy dress to sit next to a visitor on a couch, after flashing an impish smile.

Administrators at Children’s Home Number 59 in Moscow say Oksana was found by police, after apparently being abandoned. She was then delivered to a hospital and eventually ended up at this orphanage.

Of the more than 83 children registered here, Oksana stands the best chance of being adopted — simply because she is one of the youngest children here.

Darya Tatarenko is a young child psychologist who works at Children’s Home Number 59. The 22-year-old graduate of Moscow State University has a deep personal interest in adoption: one of her sisters was adopted.

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Kitezh: A legendary village becomes a real-life dream

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During the last week of my stay in Moscow this past May, I decided to head out to Kitezh where a friend of mine was living for the summer. I caught a ride with an 18-yr old kid who was making money off bussing people out to Kaluga in his dad’s minivan. He made the three-hour drive in two, and dropped me off at the bus station where I waited for a minibus to take me another two hours to Baryatino. From there it was a taxi ride out to the tiny, isolated village of Kitezh.



Kitezh is the name of a magical town in Russian folklore and the village that has adopted its name is itself a surreal experience. A tiny communal group created specifically to foster orphaned children, they are almost entirely self-sustaining and are raising these children in a very healthy, familial environment. The entire village is involved in the education and social development of the children, they eat all their meals together, are involved in building, farming, etc. They put me to work as soon as I got there and I loved every minute of it. It turned out to be a very educational and eye-opening experience for me on alternative solutions to the issue of orphans in Russia.



For more information on this innovative approach to assisting orphans in Russia, check out these two articles [one and two] and their website.

Russia Through A Train Window

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The Trans-Siberian Railroad is every bit as long and grueling as its reputation boasts. Turns out, this trip is in no way for the half-hearted traveler looking for an easy vacation. It takes absolute dedication from the minute you begin the visa application to the moment you realize you’re stuck in a 6×6 cell for seven days.

My grandpa and I had chosen to ride the train in May hoping the weather would be neither too cold nor too hot, which, aside from occasionally being too toasty in our coupe, was exactly what it was. But Spring had not quite arrived in most of Siberia and the Far East, and the trees remained bare and the landscape somewhat grey and dreary in some areas. Still, there is a definite beauty that pervades even in those scenes of overcast skies and wasteland—a very Russian-type beauty accentuated by the occasional village that seems the perfect stage for a Dostoevsky novel or a Chekhov play.

We started in Vladivostok and as we rolled from town to town and city to city across this vast country, I was intrigued by the fact that the general development and modernization of these places seemed to correlate with how close they were to Moscow. I had long heard the quip that in Russia “the money stops in Moscow,” but taking in the entire stretch of the country in a single journey like this offered a unique snapshot and seeming confirmation of that assertion. And economic development aside, civil society is still in relative infancy in most of the cities across Siberia and toward the Far East. In this regard, Yearn Foundation’s focus in the regions of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk is especially justified: thousands of miles from Moscow—that is where the need is.

Since the early nineties, thousands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have come into existence in Russia and have played a vital role in the development of Russian civil society while being funded, in large part, by foreign donors. While active NGOs have been effective in covering a wide range of issues, the efforts and funds have been focused primarily in the West of Russia, namely Moscow. Even considering the perspective populations, Moscow still has five times as many NGOs per 1,000 people than Vladivostok or Khabarovsk. Thus, there has been a lot of attention and financial aid given to face the social issues of the West producing greater opportunities for development and success. The Far East, on the other hand, shares most of the same social concerns, including the plight of orphans, but has not had the opportunity to develop successful institutions or programs.

The situation of orphans in Russia has become a national crisis with “400,000 children living in institutions and an orphanage system that does nothing to prepare these children for successful adulthood” (MiraMed). When an orphan reaches the age of 17 and leaves the orphanage, all too frequently he or she resorts to a life of crime, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, poverty, and, in many cases, eventually suicide. Few programs have been successful in preparing these children for life outside the orphanage. The vision of Yearn Foundation includes a focus on social adaptation for orphans and efforts for developing self-sufficiency. Our longterm aim is to create a program to teach basic life skills to orphans preparing to leave the orphanage institutions, including specifics on how to live in their town or city, and provide mentoring and psychological counseling. Together with our partner organizations, we will continue to work to create opportunities for orphans and help them build successful and meaningful lives.

Kidsave International

Posted in: Other Programs Doing Good|No Comments
In 2001, Kidsave launched its first in-country program in the Smolensk region of Russia, connecting Russian orphans with Russian families who hosted them during the summer, holidays and weekends. Today our programs are operating in Moscow, Smolensk, St. Petersburg, and on Sakhalin Island. To date, nearly 1500 children have participated in our three primary programs. Read More

Yearn Foundation in Russia in 2006

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In 2006, Brent spent time in Moscow conducting research into the adaptation of orphans into society. He interned with a well-respected program entitled “Women and Children First,” under the facilitation of an established American NGO (MiraMed Institute – www.miramedinstitute.org).

Brent’s research is based on course and curriculum evaluation of “Women and Children First,” first hand observation of their program and some limited involvement.

They have a great deal of crucial curriculum. By researching the program, “Women and Children First,” Brent gained a greater understanding of how such current programs utilize their curriculum and how they work and interact with orphanages in order to prepare the orphan for integration into society.

This research helped Yearn in answering the question – How we can better address the tragic cycle of orphans in Russia once they leave the orphanages unequipped for life?

The objective for this research was to make baby steps towards better understanding that issue.

One of the best solutions is prevention, and this research into the adaptation of orphans into society helped expose what we can do in the here and now, to help the then and there.

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