Closed Homes
Piotr is a 16 year old, very strong, frightened and going blind. His parents were alcoholics, and died through their habit orphaning him at a young age. Badly traumatised he was put in an orphanage where being small he was bullied and learnt to hit back as he got older. He didn’t settle into school and when a teenager the orphanage director reluctantly felt that she couldn’t not keep him any longer and a medical commission statemented him to go to a closed home.  Piotr continually runs away and is desperate to find somewhere of his own before his sight completely goes. He is invariably caught and taken back as the state has removed the necessary papers he needs to live in society. Sasha was abandoned at birth. He has a form of autism and has never been educated. This is home to him.
Facts: In Russia understanding of the needs and capabilities of disabled children and children with learning difficulties lags far behind that of Western Europe. Although in Moscow and other large cities information and education is catching up it takes time to filter through to the large rural institutions.  It will take years to change the attitudes and even though staff are fond and caring of the children their expectations are exceedingly low.
When they first visited just a few years ago the living conditions were appalling and Love Russia has been able to help with substantial changes impacting the way the children live and staff work. Proper medical centres, new accommodation with working toilets and showers, kitchens and dining rooms, sports and exercise rooms as well as the inevitable concert hall are just some of the major projects which Love Russia has sponsored on a fifty/fifty basis. Regular visits by the monitoring teams and short term mission teams accompanied by equipment has meant that new skills are being learnt and relationships developed enabling Love Russia to build a program for developing learning projects in the future, such as vocational training and transition schemes into adulthood.