Center for Orphans

Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us. (James 1:27)

The problem:

There are presently over one million orphans in Russia living in state run institutions. The majority of them are not true orphans in the real sense of the word. They often have a living parent, but are forced into orphanages because their parents have been stripped of custody for a number of different reasons, most commonly, alcohol or drug abuse. These children are known as “social orphans”. The Federal childcare system provides orphans with housing and food. However, due to a chronic lack of funds, the living conditions in the majority of orphanages, especially those in rural provinces, are horrendous. In many cases, the children’s most basic needs for items such as warm clothing, sturdy shoes, simple hygiene products, medical supplies are simply not met.

Deprived of family and love, having experienced emotional, psychological or sexual abuse, orphans become socially detached, isolated, and develops emotional problems. As young as 15 or 16 years old, orphans find themselves in a crisis situation: they are forced to leave the security of the orphanage. A lifetime of dependence on others creates an inability to make confident decisions and a lack of daily living skills. For most, those problems are aggravated by psychological challenges such as low self-esteem, lack of communication skills, attachment disorder and a high level of mistrust for adults. Yet these children are expected to successfully integrate into society.

Unfortunately, success is statistically rare for orphans. Most fail to successfully continue their education, find jobs, keep jobs, locate and maintain housing or build healthy relationships at work, in family and in community. As a result, 90 percent of these children follow their parents’ destiny and fall into lives of alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, and crime. The desperate and miserable cycle just repeats itself again. Out of despair:
- 25 percent of older orphans in Russia commit suicide within 5 years period.
- 60 percent become entrapped in crime or prostitute themselves for food.
- 80 percent of marriages between orphans fail.
-35 percent of today’s orphans are children or grandchildren of orphans.

How do we solve the problem?

Over years we gained the necessary experience to identify the most urgent needs of orphans. We spent many hours thinking and praying, researching with kids, teachers and principals and finally came up with this idea. We are going to build a center in Ivanovo where we’ll work with orphans on our territory. This is vital for them to have a chance of leaving the cage of the orphanage and to see that life can be different, to spend time with Christian workers full of love and care.

This center will include 4 apartments, place for the Christian choir to practice, Puppets Theater and a worship center.
Apartments: Our program starts with children being taken from the orphanages to a home each weekend, where Christian workers will teach them basic skills: how to cook and wash cloth, how to work and how to buy groceries. Also we’ll lay the spiritual foundation for the children; studying God’s Word and praying together, discussing issues like why we should be honest or overcoming pain of the past and fear of the future. Our goal is to train children from the orphanages to become Christian youth ministers and after graduation they can work within same program in different orphanages.

No one understands an orphan better than another orphan. Different ministries are trying to help Russian orphans trying to teach them about God but unfortunately not very effectively. Simple reason, we don’t understand the culture of the orphans, it is culture within the culture. Not all of them will become ministers, of course, but in our center they will all study God’s word as well as basic living skills and will have a real chance for the better future.
Puppets Theater: What is the most effective way to present the gospel to children in terms they understand? To live the life of Jesus Christ, David, Moses, Mary and other characters from the Bible together with the puppets from our Christian theater. Play as actors in our shows will have deep impact on children’s lives.
Christian choir: I spend each Saturday at the Shuya orphanage and I have very good relationship with principal and his assistance, but still my each step there is being watched. I have a group within the orphanage, a smaller group I call “Christian choir”, 29 kids out of 145, closer group of disciples. In the past I was trying to work with the whole group but it was not successful, I had problems even remember all their names. Also, I’ve realized that not all of them interested and I didn’t want to put pressure on them. So, now I have a unique group of kids, they want to have a different future and they put trust in God. In our center we will have a practicing room and a little recording studio.
Worship Center: We will hold Sunday services with Christian choir conducting the worship and older children preaching.

We are going to build bridges over the gapes between orphans and God, between orphans and community and between community and God with the help of this center.

 

.