The Children of the Svirstroy Orphanage
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The Children of the Svirstroy Orphanage
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December 2005 Update
Jacque, my friend and the executive director of Children of Sosnovaya Street, recently returned from her latest visit to Russia. She attended the wedding of one of the young ladies who grew up at the orphanage, and she wanted to make sure Olga had a “proper wedding.” That’s pretty typical of Jacque, flying halfway around the world to make sure someone will have the wedding they deserve. Jacque also visited with over a dozen of the children who have left the orphanage while she was in St. Pete, along with another half dozen when she visited the town near the orphanage. All are still scraping by as their jobs are always being terminated (Russia's version of capitalism) and, due to government bureaucracy, their housing situations are always up in the air.
The last part of the trip included a visit to the orphanage, where Jacque met with the staff and had a chance to speak to some of the older kids there about their plans for the future. She also saw the 50 mattresses that you helped to purchase being used at the orphanage. Every child now has a brand new, clean mattress on which to sleep! The new clothing has been distributed as well, and the children were quite pleased. They were very excited to show Jacque the mattresses on their beds, with all of them throwing back their sheets so she could see them.
What Happens When Kids Leave the Orphanage?Nine of the children from the orphanage were forced to leave this summer since they turned 16. This is the first year where the kids at the orphanage while I worked there had to leave. While I had a glimpse of what happens to kids when they leave by visiting with “Jacque’s kids” during my last trip, it has been difficult for me to think about “my kids” being out there on their own. They are all 16, they have an eighth grade education, they have no job skills, and they have nothing but a very small government stipend ($39) for living expenses.
My young friend, Ruslan (he is the boy who took most of the photographs on my website, and the older brother of Artyom, the cute little boy in the videos), was among the nine who left. His journey since is quite typical of what happens to these kids. He initially went to school in a town about halfway between the orphanage and St. Petersburg to study truck driving (sounds like the Sally Struthers school of Russia!). This is pretty typical. Most of the orphans are sent to technical schools to study for jobs that simply do not exist, sort of like teaching kids here how to repair 8-track tape players. The kids don’t realize this until after they get out of the technical school and cannot find a job. So Ruslan went off to school, all happy. He quickly realized that “they don’t like us kids from the detski dom [orphanage],” and he had a great deal of difficulty there both with the teachers and the people who ran the dormitories. He decided to quit and return to the town near the orphanage. There, he entered another technical school (again to study truck driving) where he likes it better. Unfortunately, he can only live in the dormitory there until March. At that point, he needs to find his own housing. Every orphan is entitled to a flat of their own (provided by the government once you wade through the paperwork and red tape), but these flats are generally uninhabitable without significant renovations—little things like installing actual doors and windows, furniture and appliances, etc. Are you starting to see the dilemma? They get a flat but they have absolutely no way to make it livable. Without our help (more about this later), Ruslan will be on the street in March. Jacque has spent the past five years helping these kids renovate their flats so they have somewhere to live. In Russia, you are forced to live where you are registered. You cannot receive government health care or purchase another place to live if you are not in the place where you are registered. No jobs available there? Too bad. You can move somewhere else, but you will have nowhere to live nor health care. This is the economy the eggheads from Harvard brought to the Kremlin in the 1990s!
Updates on Some of the Kids
Katya, the young girl that I told you about in my spring email who has finished the eighth grade at the local school and now travels 30 minutes each day to attend another school to prepare herself for college, is still looking forward to pursuing a career in the medical field. Jacque shared with Katya that we would make sure she had everything she needed to make her dream come true. She will likely have to go to St. Petersburg in the spring or summer to take the entrance exams, and orphans have huge disadvantages. It is a six hour bus ride (and we aren’t talking a Greyhound!), and they must leave the night before the exam in order to be there in time. Unfortunately, they have nowhere to stay, so they usually wander the street all night or sit in an Internet café and hope they are not asked to leave since they don’t have the money to buy anything. Obviously not a surprise why the kids, especially the young girls, are not willing to head there to take the exams! We will make sure Katya is driven by taxi to St. Petersburg, that she has a hotel room to stay at, and that one of our contacts in St. Petersburg meets her to insure she is taken care of and can focus on doing well on the exams.
Vitya, one of our brightest prospects from the orphanage, applied to a prestigious military academy in St. Petersburg. The first time I met him, he was walking through the nearby town reading a book. He is the only kid at the orphanage I ever saw read! He passed all of the exams, but he was refused entry. The official reason was that he had some form of gastritis (shocker given his diet for his 15 years of life), but the reality is that orphans simply do not get into schools like these. He was very disappointed as you can well imagine. When Jacque arrived, he had given up hope of going to a university. She sat him down and told him that she simply wouldn’t allow him to give up. She is having her contacts look into some alternatives for him, and we hope to see him being able to take new exams in the future.
Vitya’s sister, Sveta, moved from the town near the orphanage to St. Petersburg and is living with one of the older orphanage graduates there. This is something Jacque and I are trying to encourage. We want the older orphans to help the younger ones find housing, get into school, and find jobs. Since they don’t have families to turn to for help and support, we hope to instill in them a belief that they can help each other. Denis, who left the orphanage in August, is studying at the National School of Traditional Culture, and he recently won a television in a Thai kickboxing tournament. He is probably the kid with the best prospects for his future.
Yuri, a kid that can command a room the moment he enters it, was swindled by his fiancée. She made him spend a good deal of the money he had earned from teaching classes at the technical school he attended on her flat, then she promptly ended the engagement and told him she wanted nothing to do with him. I met her when I was in St. Petersburg, and though he lost a good deal of money, he’s probably better off! The list of kids is long. Most are dealing with housing issues and trying to find work. Most are in technical schools, and although they are not being prepared for the jobs that exist, they at least get temporary housing.
We did receive sad news that one of the children at the orphanage passed away. Sasha was only 15. For five days, we did not know who had died, only that someone at the orphanage had died, supposedly from epilepsy. Neither Jacque nor I had ever met Sasha. Of the 59 kids still at the orphanage, I know 55 of them. The other four are either new or were not there when I visited. Sasha was one of these kids. That was a difficult 5 days, not knowing. It made me think about the state of medical care in Russia, which seems to still be in the Dark Ages. I do not look forward to the day I receive similar news about one of the children there that I do know. It does make one feel quite powerless…
Fundraising Update We had two recent fundraisers. My friend and fellow teacher, Keri Harbrecht, organized a garage sale with her family and donated all of the proceeds. We also worked with an online company, Angie's List, which donated money to CoSS in return for our friends and families submitting reviews of local service providers. We are currently setting up an account with eBay to sell donated goods. eBay has a special program for charities where it does not charge any fees. We are working on a new website to replace this one to both help with fundraising and to spread the word about these kids. We are working with a number of other small charities that are doing work in Russia to see if there are ways for us to support each other. Jacque and I are also making arrangements to meet with a group that has a post-orphanage program in St. Petersburg during our next visit. The program is quite small, but we hope we can find some way to partner with them to provide support to at least some of the kids as they leave the orphanage. We are still on the lookout for companies, church groups, and fraternal organizations that are interested in working with us so we can expand beyond our friends and families who have been the bulk of our supporters. If you know of any leads, don’t hesitate to share them with me. I’m pretty good at rejection!
So What Is Next? Jacque and I decided to make another trip together. I was supposed to go in April to visit the local school where the kids from the orphanage attend. We think, however, that we might wait until summer when we will both have a bit more time. Getting there takes the better part of three days, so an 8 day trip in April might be trying to bite off more than I can chew. My more immediate concern is Ruslan. His roommate from the orphanage, Kolya, is now on the streets, addicted to drugs. He was at the same technical school Ruslan originally attended before he was thrown out. I do not want to see Ruslan follow the same path. My goal with Ruslan has always been to help him become someone that can take care of both himself and his little brother. I’ve shared that Artyom is considered “slow” by the staff at the orphanage, so his future is even bleaker than that of the other kids there. If we can help Ruslan, maybe Artyom has a chance at a future. If not, we lose them both. We may not be able to solve the orphanage problem in Russia, but we can certainly try to help two special kids who deserve better than the hand they were dealt. We also intend to put things in place so that Katya has a shot at attending the university. Our fallback plan is to insure she gets into a technical school that offers nursing, from which she can then transfer to the university. Likewise, we want to make sure Vitya is given the opportunity to take advantage of his academic skills.
Jacque and I have been very fortunate to meet some great people in Russia who have helped us and the children. Our interpreters—Jambul, Lucia, and Malik—have taken it upon themselves to do what they can to help these kids. These three are all attending the university where they study languages. All three are fluent in English, Russian, and at least two other languages. They all grew up in rural Russia, Lucia in the town near the orphanage and the boys from the region bordering Chechnya. The oldest is 21, and they face many of the same problems
the orphans face—housing issues, jobs, school. Jambul is working on his PhD while working full time while trying to help us. When I was 21, I was in college pondering which bar had the best drink specials, and here are kids who have huge problems of their own willing to help us with the kids from the orphanage. It really tells you something about the kind of kids they are. We are trying to help Jambul win a Fulbright scholarship so he can come to the United States.
Again, I want to thank each of you for the support you’ve given me. Meeting the children at the orphanage helped me realize how fortunate I am to have a loving family and friends. While we may not be able to “fix” their lives, we can give them a sense of family and love. Jacque and I write to the children between our visits (I just sent 7 letters yesterday) to help them realize that we do care and that we are there for them. They are so amazed when I tell them about how my friends and students ask about how they are doing. They wonder why Americans would care since the people in Russia seem to distrust and dislike them. Thanks to all of you, we are making a difference, one orphanage and one orphan at a time... |
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Find out how to make a donation to help these children Return to the introduction page For additional information, email me at [email protected]
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