Severely Disabled
Elena lives in a large traditional Russian village of wooden houses. She was taken to a closed home for disabled children with learning difficulties when she was two years old and spent the next three years just lying in a bed. Nobody spoke, cuddled or played with her. Elena was disabled and her carers assumed that she was not able to do anything more than lie down. Following expertise introduced into the home by Love Russia, Elena is now mobile using a walker and communicating, has learnt to feed herself and greets everyone with shrieks of laughter and smiles.
Andrei just sat on his bed for hours and hours. With misshapen hands and a shrunken body this eight year old seemed doomed to a life without colour or shape other than the four walls of the dormitory and the cot around him.  Love Russia has helped him to know that he is lovable and able to feel so much more. 
Facts:  Carers in such institutions try their best for the children but lack of training and cultural attitudes hamper them in every way. Directors have little funding towards educating their poorly paid helpers.
Love Russia helps in practical ways by providing basic equipment to help both children and carers, sends skilled practitioners to work with the children; encourages the carers to change attitudes and to see the difference that this can make. Although the soft play, physiotherapy, walking and play equipment is important the provision of disposable nappies to keep the children dry has completely transformed the lives of children and carers. Love Russia helped support an initiative to make individually formed chairs for the children so they could sit comfortably off their beds for the first time. The doctor in charge in one of these homes told Love Russia that to see the differences in the children now is a miracle she could never have imagined a few years ago.