Masha became a social orphan at  four years old when her mother was serving a prison sentence for being involved in drug induced crimes. Masha was beaten so badly that she could hardly see. Her drunken father attacked her after she asked for food for herself and her three year old brother when they were hungry. Fortunately a neighbour heard them screaming and intervened. Masha and her brother are now in a care home which benefits from Love Russia. Her parents have lost their rights to care.
Sergei’s father was killed in a car accident when he was six. His mother turned to drink when life became too hard and died from alcohol poisoning. Sergei went around local villages offering to work for farmers in order to get money to pay for food for his sister and himself before being found and put into an Internat orphanage which benefits from Love Russia.  Sergei is a true orphan.
Facts: These stories are repeated thousands of times by children in care in Russia. Between eighty thousand and one million children are officially in care, possibly three million are on the streets. In the last twelve years the number of children being born has fallen by  fifty percent but the number in care has doubled. Alcohol, drugs and poverty are all contributory factors in a society which has struggled through the transition years. In 2007 Love Russia work is benefiting more than three and a half thousand children and continues to grow.