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Karelia Trip Report
Children in Common Trip
Petrozavodsk
Travelers: Mary Jane Delgado, Dorothy Drumm, Louise Dunne, Danielle McConnell, Lori McConnell, Marina McConnell, Karen Porter
The CIC delegation from California met the Maryland CIC travelers at the train station in Moscow on Sunday, February 13th. The overnight train from Moscow delivered us to a very cold Petrozavodsk on Valentine’s Day morning. We brought MANY suitcases filled with donations- winter outer clothing, shoes, pants and shirts, underwear, sewing supplies, knitting needles and wool, hand knit vests, sweaters and socks. We were greeted at the Petrozavodsk train station by Julia Parusova, translator and Children in Common’s Russian Representative extraordinaire.
After checking in at the hotel and sorting some donations, our first official stop was to a Russian warehouse store. Yes, a Russian version of Sam’s Club. To those of us who experienced Soviet and early post-Soviet Russia, a super-store in Russia is a surreal concept. We went there to purchase fruit for the orphanages. Wonderfully, there were cases of produce available but unfortunately the same amount of fruit we bought for an orphanage two years ago for $50 now costs about $90. We bought cases of oranges, tangerines, bananas, kiwi fruit and fruit juices.
Our first orphanage visit was to Orphanage #2, established as a school-aged children’s home. They currently have 90 children. This is one of the Karelian orphanages pioneering a foster care program. Right now, there are two children in foster families and eight more families being trained.
When asked how they are doing, the director stated, “Our children are fed well, but with the rest, we have problems.” Orphanages are funded on a local level but the funding only covers the cost of food for the children and staff salaries. There is no money for “the extras” like hygiene and cleaning products, school supplies, clothing and shoes. “Clothing and shoes are always a problem.” At the time of our visit, #2’s most urgent need was for linens. With insufficient money to buy sheets, blanket covers and towels, they were contemplating purchasing muslin to sew bed linens.
Since there is no steady source for funding above the current level, the director, Alla, must find sponsors and benefactors to provide individual items or money for their purchase. Alla is frustrated since she spends most of her time searching for outside support. This takes her away from the orphanage and the kids of whom she is so proud. On every visit she tells us, “Our kids are the best.” She is equally proud of the caregivers at #2 who genuinely love the kids and train them, “even the problem children”.
At #2, they have a suite for teenagers where they can practice living on their own, independently, cooking for themselves, cleaning and caring for themselves and their environment. Although at 18 years of age, kids are deinstitutionalized and out of the system, the graduates of #2 can come back to sleep at the orphanage until they are 23. Alla speaks proudly of some of the graduates. Dima served in the army and now has a job. One young woman supports herself and her child with a steady job. Another young woman studies foreign languages at the teachers college. “Of course there are the bad outcomes. Some graduates are in prison."
Alla tries to encourage the children to take advantage of the available free higher education. In Russia, they allow lower college entry requirements for post-institutionalized kids. Unfortunately, many orphanage children are not motivated to continue schooling since they lacked role models, coming from families where there is no value placed on hard work, higher education, or planning for the future.
We visited during school hours but some of the kids were there since some kids attend school in the morning while the others go in the afternoon. We saw their sewing room and bought many of the items that were marked for sale. When we do this, a portion goes to the children who made the items while the rest is used to purchase more fabric, yarn and thread, supporting the program. We commissioned the kids to knit small boy and girl doll ornaments which we will offer for fundraising.
During our visit we were told that they are allotted 2000 rubles, every 4 months, to cover the cost of medical supplies. That is about $80 to pay for medical supplies to last four months for 90 children. We also learned that #2, for the past two years, has been assigned preschoolers too. This may not seem to be a problem until you think about it. Would your preschooler be able to comfortably function in a middle school facility? Because orphanages are closing, children are being reassigned to other orphanages, and there are not enough age appropriate institutions. School aged homes now have preschoolers, kindergarten facilities have toddlers. This taxes the facilities. They need different furniture, different sized clothing, and caregiver replacement or caregiver training so they can meet the different needs of younger kids.
Before we left, Children in Common gave Orphanage #2 money to pay for linens and towels, supplies for the preschoolers and funds to support and expand the independent living program.
Derrevannoe
Monday evening, we visited one of our favorite destinations, the orphanage in Derrevannoe, a small town about 45 minutes outside of Petrozavodsk. We named this orphanage “the poor place” after our first visit in 1998. This orphanage is housed in two large buildings. The wooden structure they use for the administrative offices and a few multipurpose rooms was built in the 1800’s. Since this was the largest building in town, it became the town’s orphanage after WWII, when so many children were orphaned and needed institutional care. The second large building is a block and tile structure where the children currently live. It was built in the 1960’s. Alexander, the director of Derrevannoe, sees the physical conditions of the orphanage buildings as a metaphor for life in Russia, “This is how we live. Everything is falling apart, little by little."
Derrevannoe has 40 children now and being another orphanage chosen for the foster care program in Karelia, has placed six children in foster care. The money guaranteed by the government for the foster care program has not been paid on time, creating a hardship for the families and the orphanage, which is ultimately responsible for each child’s welfare, their food and clothing, and supporting the foster families. Again, the money provided by the government for the running of the orphanage covers salaries and food but nothing else. The orphanage’s social worker told us of seeing the director pull out his own wallet to give a worker money to buy powdered soap for cleaning. Their budget is a daily allotment per child of 65 rubles- about $2.50. Also, the government has only disbursed operating funds for six months of the current year. The director is unsure when or if the rest of their funding will come through.
When we asked Alexander to tell us what they needed, he shook his head, and raised his hands as he asked, “How can you list needs when you need everything?” With some encouragement, we did make a partial list, which included school supplies, office supplies, clothing, shoes, boots, summer clothes, toothpaste, soap, detergents, feminine hygiene supplies, and shampoo. One of the group asked if we bring things they don’t need like socks or underwear to which he replied, “You can never have enough socks and underwear!"
The director has faith that the change in orphanage funding moving it from the local to the federal level will help their situation. They are in the same position as #2, having to find additional funding, and sponsors for the orphanage. Aside from the monetary support from Children in Common and clothing and occasional gifts from a group in Finland, Alexander finds it difficult to find consistent support. When businesses do give to the orphanage, it tends to be a single item, “one thing here, one thing there”. He does manage to bargain with the market vendors. Knowing he needs items in quantity, they make deals. Unfortunately, the quality of market items is not always good. Alexander admits to begging for the sake of the children.
"There are times when you want to sit down and do nothing because there is nothing to do.” In past years, Alexander has felt that way but he feels like this more and more this year, at times ready to give up. But then he sees a need or thinks of an improvement.
Tne of the smaller wooden buildings belonging to the orphanage, situated between the two main buildings is the canteen where all the cooking is done and both kids and staff eat communally, at long tables. The director would like to change this and institute the concept of small group living where each group of children (typically eight to twelve kids) has their own kitchen area. The children would cook two meals a day for themselves. His plan is to divide the current dorm rooms (each built for twenty children) into small group living space. Because of the condition of the administrative building (sagging and rotting stairs, gaps around window sashes, no indoor plumbing) they would like to just use the newer building for both their offices and housing the children.
The children were very excited to see us. Most of them know us from our past visits and we have seen many of the kids grow up. They also know we bring food and clothing and supplies and for the past two visits, we have brought a Polaroid camera and enough film for everyone’s picture to be taken. They love receiving photos of themselves and having their pictures taken with their friends. When we went to the sewing room, there was a boy knitting and girls there who proudly showed us what items they had made. We purchased the items that were for sale, making the sewing teacher and the children very happy.
The woodworking program is in a separate out building and we did not visit there this trip. The director is discouraged with the program. While they have been successful in teaching the boys how to use the equipment, they haven’t been able to produce items of sufficient quality to sell to support the program and benefit the orphanage. In that respect, the sewing program has been more successful. Also, the sewing program has enabled the kids to interact with the townspeople. They sell items they make, and children from families in town go to the sewing room after school to “hang out”. The children from the orphanage now have friends, increased self esteem and a new status where before they did not want to go to school, a place where they were ridiculed and where they failed.
Again, we brought fruit and juices, clothing, coats, shoes, underwear, toys, school and sewing and knitting supplies, hand knit sweaters, vests, and socks, and some gifts for the workers. The director was overwhelmed by the money given to the orphanage by Children in Common representatives (from both the east and west coast). In past years, CIC money has been used to establish their woodworking and sewing programs, build indoor bathrooms (toilets with stalls and showers, one for the girls and another for the boys), buy hot water boilers so they could use the showers, and pay for renovations in the newer building. On our next visit we will see changes, perhaps some “small group” suites.
Kondopoga
After our visits to #2 and Derrevannoe, we knew to buy cleaning and hygiene supplies for the next two older kids’ orphanages we were to visit. We bought the same amount of fruit and cases and partial cases of soap, cleaning detergent, dish soap, sanitary napkins, shampoo, sponges, and toothpaste. (After these “extra’s” were purchased, we knew their cost and before we left Petrozvodsk, we gave Julia enough money to buy the same amount of cleaning and hygiene supplies for both Derrevannoe and #2.)
Kondopoga is a town about and hour and a half north of Petrozavodsk. The large paper mill is the main employer of the town and fortunately, the mill helps the orphanage.
There was a new director of the orphanage in Kondopoga, an orphanage with 45 children. She is an advocate of adoptions and the summer programs where kids live with a family for several weeks and some are adopted. She traveled with a group of children two summers ago, and was very impressed with the friendliness of Americans and how warm and kind the families were to the Russian children. She was happy to visit with previously adopted children, too. “No matter how good an orphanage is, it is not a family. A child needs a mother and father."
She did express concern about the adopted children losing their Russian heritage. She loves when children return to Russia. She knows some who have visited birth relatives, given their birth families money to help them and visited the graves of departed relatives. She told us that by seeing where they came from and how they lived in Russia, the children left extremely appreciative of their new lives. She has seen that children who had a “worse time” or harder life in Russia forgot the Russian language and acclimated to their new lives faster than those who had an easier or less traumatic early life.
She says that most children “are difficult” in some way and it is the challenge of the orphanage’s caregivers to find the individual approach the will work for each child. They make use of the town’s new sports center where the kids play basketball and soccer. She showed us photos taken during the visit of England’s Prince Edward. Support from England has helped the town build facilities including the sports center.
Like the director of #2, this director spoke proudly of some graduates. Two were married at the same time and both brought their spouses back to the orphanage to visit. One has had a baby so the director is a grandmother! Another graduate, a boy, is entering university. She proudly pointed to a painting on the wall of her office, a painting of the Nativity. One of the graduates, a young man, returned to the orphanage with his wife and new baby. He gave them the painting so God would keep them safe.
Like other orphanages, funding is poor. They “only survive” because of the paper factory, which gives them money for clothing and shoes every six months. The children enjoy performing songs and dances for the factory workers. The children know the factory supports the orphanage and they appreciate the upgrades and improvements funded by the factory. Ultimately, many of the children will be factory workers, living in factory dormitories, built for the many workers without families or homes to return to at the end of each workday.
The things the orphanage does need is upgraded kitchen equipment, automatic potato peelers, food processors and electric ovens for the small group kitchens where the children learn to cook for themselves.
Like the orphanages in Petrozavodsk, this older children’s home now has preschoolers (from three years old). One little preschool boy asks the director every day for a momma and poppa. She tells him that it takes a long time to find good mommas and poppas and he deserves good ones. Adoption numbers are down. In the past year, only two French, two Finnish and two Russian families adopted children from this orphanage. She finds Russian families to prefer “guardianship” over adoption, and it is harder to find families for the children.
"There are moments you know you are living for a reason. In this work, every child is important. You need to find minutes for children every day."
Orphanage #120
Orphanage #120 was a preschool aged orphanage and kindergarten facility, but like so many other orphanages, they are being assigned younger aged children, so they now care for children ranging from one to seven years old. We arrived to be greeted by a familiar face. Luba, the former assistant director of #2, is the new director of #120. She hugged and kissed us and told us that our most precious gift to her and the orphanage is that we “continue to come back and remember” them.
We were shown to the multipurpose room where the boys and girls sang for us and danced (and led us in dancing too). After, we saw where the children live and play. Our dance partners greeted us in their playroom. Karen’s dance partner tried to teach her the Cyrillic alphabet from a Russian ‘ABC’ book while Mary Jane’s partner played trucks with her. The playroom was well equipped and the children played with their favorite toys, whether it was a tea set, baby doll in its carriage, building blocks or cars and trucks.
We were taken tosee an old bathroom with cracked tile, open toilets and a small square porcelain trough where the children are ‘hosed down’ for their weekly baths. Luba then showed us a renovated bathroom with new tile, toilets in stalls and a private bathtub room where children are taught to bathe themselves at a comfortable temperature, making bath time a pleasant experience while teaching the kids how to care for themselves. During the bathroom renovation, Luba told the contractors that she expected their work to last until she was ninety years old.
Back in her office, Luba told us her plans for #120. Bathroom renovation is a priority. The kindergarten has an English program and she hopes to do the same for the younger children, not old enough for the kindergarten program. She hopes to begin a new art program to encourage Cfree expression”.
Soon after becoming director, Luba met with her staff to “set things right”. She addressed the treatment of the children. “The way children are treated should not change if a caretaker is in a poor mood.” She told the staff the importance of quality care. “The way you treat children, you should be able to go home and look at yourself in the mirror and the next day return to work and be able to look the child in the eye.” One little girl, who had so excitedly shown us the hand held shower in the new tub, had been touch averse (she recoiled from touch) when Luba first started as director. With different care, she now seeks affectionate interaction, asking for hugs and kisses from Luba.
Having been assistant director of #2 for years, Luba spoke of the changes she has seen in her country, changes that can be made in children’s attitudes and the differences between facilities for older and younger children. She has seen Russian adoptions of older (teenage) children often disrupt. There is no family support from the state and the parents are not prepared for the difficulties. Adoption has been slow to gain popular appeal in Russia. There is an old Russian proverb, “You don’t show your garbage to the neighbor.” Adoption is a public process (a couple, childless one day has a toddler the next). Admitting infertility is admitting a “disability” and children in orphanages are seen as “less desirable”. Counseling, as we know it, is just beginning in Russia, so changes will come, but slowly.
At one time, Orphanage #1 was the only orphanage in Petrozavodsk. During Communist rule, people’s behavior could be controlled by the party. Parents were “shamed” into caring for their children, with the threat of consequences from Party officials. During those years, it was mainly children with medical conditions and true orphans who were institutionalized. After the fall of communism, children became social orphans because of economic forces and social issues (alcoholism, neglect and abuse) when parental behaviors were no longer monitored by officials.
Luba found working at #2 more difficult because the older children had more complex problems. She told us that when #2 first opened, teenagers stole the new curtains from the windows and sold them, twice. Eventually the children learned that the facility was for them and they began to have pride in it.
They have expanded the medical clinic at #120 to provide homeopathic treatments so neighborhood families can bring their children there instead of taking them downtown to the main clinic. This new clinic was funded by the kindergarten fees and renovated with the help of many neighbors, “We had the help of many hands”.
Luba’s husband works at #120, after quitting his previous job for health reasons. He is on dialysis and the flexible hours at #120 allow him to go for treatment and see Luba more than he would if they worked in different places. She is philosophical about her husband’s health, “You never get evil things without good things.” He tries to get her to not work so hard, never failing to remind her to end her work day. Even so, Luba puts in long hours. “When you are exhausted and tired, people come along to give you energy and hope.” Then she gets back to work, thinking she has no time to be tired.
She has started a mentoring program where university students take a child for a weekend, to live with them and do things. “Children have to study the world. We can’t have kids with a limited view of just these walls.” This program “gives headaches” since it takes a lot to coordinate and she worries about possible problems. But she shrugged and told us, “If you don’t risk, you don’t drink champagne.”
It is evident that Luba loves her job and her charges. “It is a mutual process; we exchange energy.” She sees the benefits of her labors every day. Before we left, CIC gave #120 enough money to fund a second bathroom renovation (and we plan to wire additional funds to pay for the remaining bathrooms to be renovated). The following evening, Luba saw us off at the train station and she told us she had not been able to sleep the night before. She was thinking about the plumbing
An Evening Out
After leaving #120, we had the good fortune to be invited for a traditional Russian dinner served for entertaining friends and family. Our driver, Sasha, has a wonderful, talented family. Sasha, his wife, sister, and parents all sing and play musical instruments. They fed us vegetable salads, stewed chicken, breads and a variety of desserts and tea. We were serenaded and we talked into the night.
Sasha’s parents are philosophical about international adoption, seeing it an investment in the future. So many Russian children living in other countries should be a reason for continuing friendly relations between the nations. They are disgusted by politicians who use the issue of adoption for their own advantage. “A good, normal, reasoning person is happy if a child is in a family, no matter where.” They worry about new Russian laws allowing Russian families to adopt regardless of their income. “If they cannot feed themselves, how can they feed children?”
Interestingly, Sasha’s father taught and remains friends with the director of the older children’s orphanage in Sortavala. He called Andrei while we were there, got the address and found out what they most need- clothing, winter jackets, shoes and school supplies. On a previous trip that had taken a CIC group to Lahdenpoja, we had driven through Sortavala. Also, many families have adopted children from Sortavala. Since our return, families have been contacted about taking donations with them for the older kids’ home.
Sasha’s sister, Elena, runs a small store, a cooperative where she sells heirloom seeds and handcrafts made by women in the community. We visited her store the following morning and saw the dolls, pottery and woven rugs and table runners made by “the grandmothers”. Of course we supported the grandmothers- who can’t find room to bring home rugs from Russia?
Petrozavodsk Baby Home
The baby home was under quarantine when we visited because of some sort of contagious neurological infection. The director, Olga, normally boisterous and robust, looked haggard and exhausted. During the past year, 180 different children were through the baby home, some were adopted, while others were in transit to other orphanages. They currently have 84 children. They need medical and office supplies and diapers. Children in Common gave funds to help.
Orphanage #1
Orphanage #1 is the original orphanage for Petrozavodsk. Built for 64 children, from 8 to16 years old, it now houses 89, with ages ranging from 3 through 21. Petrozavodsk’s US sister city of Duluth, Minnesota, helps this orphanage and has recently provided some physical education and sports equipment. There is an older kid’s room for cooking and practicing “social manners”. They had a loom made and teach weaving using recycled clothing to make rugs and runners. They teach sewing, knitting and embroidery. Past CIC donations bought a refrigerator, paid for school supplies and helped them expand the sewing program. When we visited the sewing room, we met the sewing teacher and saw an older boy sewing oven mitts,
Kids from #1 attend 10 different area schools from kindergarten through trades’ schools. The director feels it is important for the children to leave the orphanage for socialization. They have a music program, teaching piano and guitar and dance,
“Every day brings something new.” The day before our visit, the director dealt with police because two of the kids got into trouble. “Yesterday with the police, today with visitors, tomorrow something else.”
One of our group, Marina McConnell, was returning to visit #1, where she lived for several years before joining her younger brothers in an American family. She was the first US adoptee to return, so far. Last year, a group of Russian kids adopted by families in Finland had returned to visit. Some cried, some did not want to come in, some were excited”, the director told us. She was so happy to see Marina. “It doesn’t take letters or words (to see how Marina is), her eyes tell it all.” Marina had written about her family and adjustment to school in America. They surprised Marina by taking her best friend home from school early for a visit. They were so excited to see each other. Marina’s mother had gotten Marina tutors so she would keep her Russian and it seemed that Marina was happiest about that when she was visiting with her friend,
We brought the usual assortment of donations, food, hygiene and cleaning supplies. In addition, the California group brought a bag filled with single use cameras and albums. Before we left, Marina picked out several items to give to her friend including a camera and album and a bag of beautiful pink wool and knitting needles,
Another of our group, Mary Jane, was a physical therapist and felt especially moved by #1’s work with physically challenged preschoolers. Mary Jane gave the director a donation to help with that work. The director would like to start a woodworking program “to get the boys occupied” and they need medicines, and clothing and toys for the preschoolers. CIC gave money for all this.
We left Petrozavadsk very tired, a bit discouraged by the worsening conditions but very happy that we were able to do so much while we were there. We left money with Julia for school supplies for the older kids’ homes and definite instructions that we want to know when more money is needed for food, hygiene or cleaning or school supplies, clothing, shoes, or anything else. Thanks to the continuing support of very generous people, Children in Common can continue helping the children remaining in orphanage care. As one director told us on our very first trip, “Underwear is not exciting but when you need it, it is more precious than gold.
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