Podolsk Orphanage

ROOF is grateful to an anonymous private sponsor for funding this project until 31 December 2009.

Where? Ulitsa Sverdlova 45-a, Podol'sk
Who? Director Tatyana Vasilievna Ivanova, around 50 children from the ages of 6 to 16

History and Short Description

The orphanage was opened in 1996 because of the increasing number of social orphans in Russia. Before the orphanage existed, social orphans and orphans from Podol'sk were sent to orphanages in neighbouring towns. When ROOF began working at Podol'sk in 1999, the orphanage was home to around 30 children. Now numbers are significantly higher on a consistent basis.

Like all orphans, what all these children are lacking is indivdual attention and parents' love, therefore the children at Podol'sk Orphanage are considered to be in a high risk group. ROOF's team at Podol'sk aim to establish long-term, trusting relationships with the children, as well as improving their general educational level, thinking skills and socialization. ROOF teachers concentrate on any school subjects where the children need help and support, and also place great emphasis on the individual interests of children, which has led to the addition of activities classes such as phys ed, music workshops, art lessons, sewing, home-ecomonics (skills for later independent life) and computer.

Report on ROOF's Work in Podolsk Orphanage, January 2009.

In 2008-2009 school year in Podolsk Orphanage #31 there were 31 children, 22 of whom study at different grade levels. They are taught by ROOF teachers on a regular basis:

Russian Language – Rumyantseva Ludmila Vasilievna

Mathematics and Physics - Glushkov Nikolay Vasilievich

Chemistry and Biology – Antonyuk Elena Davidovna

Computer science – Grablev Yury Vladimirovich

Foreign Language – Landarenko Lea-Maria

and also Natasha, dance teacher.

These students attend a mainstream school:

Grade 5 – Fedotov Aleksey

Grade 6 – Ivanov Igor, Ilychev Sergey, Mika Misha

Grade 7 – Gevorkyan Kristina, Shishkin Kirill, Sheshin Evgeny, Sitnov Pavel

Grade 8 – Polyakova Anna, Krasnikova Masha, Krasnikova Dasha

Grade 9 – Barybin Sergey, Sharapova Nastya, Fursova Nastya, Domareva Nastya, Kurnosenko Elena

A few students are taking an individual study course, they are

Andrey Savlyuk (Gr. 5, 15 years old),

Ilya Starostin (Gr. 6, 14 years old),

Sergey Zverev (Gr. 8, 16 years old).

Anna Chichikina and Katya Ryzhova from Grade 8 study in college, and Andrey Starostin attends Grade 8 of an evening school.

Compared to the last school year 8 children continue to study with ROOF's teachers. In general, last year we had more students than this year. It is easily explained by the fact that this school year has a few difficult students: some of them fall behind their age group academically, some have developmental problems, for which reason they were sent to the individual study courses. Several children have social problems. All of these difficulties seem easily overcome because of the everyday effort of the ROOF teachers, the results are a great success: student marks for the first trimester were good, with no bad marks at all. Two girls completed the trimester only with “4” and “5” (which translates into “excellent” and “good” marks) – Anna Chichikina and Katya Ryzhova; Misha Mika has only one “satisfactory” mark in the trimester, the rest of the marks are good, Igor Ivanov (Grade 6) has two satisfactory marks, the other marks are good.

This was a tremendous success achieved by a common effort of both teachers and students. At first the reserve of knowledge was very limited, the students were less than eager to study. So, before starting anything, the teachers had to convince the children, Mika Misha and Ilychev Sergey, for example, that those were capable and clever students and had to demonstrate this. This was the pattern that was tried with every single student: before teaching anything a lot of explanation and persuasion was needed to show that studying was worthwhile. By the end of the second term we already could see that children wanted to get good marks. High schoolers, post-Grade 9, for example, have individual classes with teachers who prepare them for exams. They also write text rendering presentations with elements of composition.

Report on ROOF’s Work in Podol'sk Orphanage, January 2008

In 2007-2008, work in the Podol'sk Orphanage became more difficult because of the large turnover in residents (33% turnover). Twenty new children were admitted to the orphanage and the majority of these are aged 13 to 16. Some are rather behind in their education: 15-year-old Sergei Stepanov is studying in the 7th grade and 14-year-old Ilya Starostin is only studying at the fourth grade level.

The children are difficult, have been education deprived in the past (leading to large knowledge gaps) and are inclined toward drink and drugs.

After one month of school at the beginning of the year, a medical commission determined that 6 of the children were slated for only individual lessons/study. The sixth-graders seemed to have no more than third-grade knowledge; therefore it is difficult and embarrassing for them in school which leads to aggressive behaviour.

With these children ROOF’s teachers are now working patiently, every day. At this point, after half-a-year’s work, they have learned how to do such things as parse a simple sentence and locate and check the proper spelling of non-stressed vowels (in Russian language class).

There are also 5 children who are studying at the fifth-grade level. Two of these enjoy their studies when tutors come to work with them, and generally do work to a 4 (good) or a 3 (pass) standard. The three other 5th graders (Igor Ivanov, Misha Mika, and Sergei Ilichev) are not able to keep up with their class level and do not work; as they fall behind they get nervous and sometimes rip up their school notebooks. One thing that we have found interesting is that when we work with the three of them as a group they do try hard and together complete an assignment. They actually work worse individually than when we put them together as a group. It seems that each is trying to prove himself to the others in group work. When we work together Misha Mika does the best, since he has reserve knowledge from primary school. Misha has begun to raise his hand in class and go up to the board to answer. The other two still need a teacher to work with them separately.

Our seventh-grader, Sergei Stepanov, is on an individual study programme. He knows the programme material at a 3 (pass) level, and when we work with him individually he completes all his assignments. He could easily work in class but doesn’t want to because he is older than his classmates.

Last year’s graduates have gone on to local training colleges and technical schools. Kolya Blashenkov was accepted at the Moscow Management Institute, Olga Mingazova was accepted at the Podolsk Cooperative Sports University, having previously completed a sports training college.

4 other graduates have gone on to training colleges and the technical school for construction. Anya Rassadina is studying at the sports college to become a “trainer for adaptive physical education”; she’s receiving 4’s (good) and 5’s (excellent). Anya Chichikina has entered her first ear at the Podolsk service college and is also getting 4’s and 5’s. It is good to see our former students excelling!

Our main aim as additional education providers for the children of Podolosk is to help our newly arrived pupils achieve a level of knowledge where they can feel comfortable studying in school alongside children who live at home.

ROOF Programmes in Podol'sk
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Click here to see which teachers teach at Podol'sk

At work with ROOF teachers

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