Press Coverage

On 7th December at the Belskoye Ustye orphanage, the administration joined past, and future sponsors, in celebrating 5 years since the start of non-governmental educational programmes. The day itself was very encouraging reminding everyone of how much had changed, for the better, in the lives of the children, as well as reminding all of how much there is still left to do.

The local press also attended these celebrations with a television crew from a regional television channel and a journalist from a regional newspaper reporting on events.

Below you can find the article published in the newspaper 'Pskovskaya Pravda' published in December 2005 discussing past projects and Project Baranovo. 

 

 

Five Years Working Together!

(From: Pskovskaya Pravda, Friday, 9^th December 2005)

By Sergey Nekrasov, Bel’skoye-Ustye, Porkhov Region

_________________________________________________________________________

­­­­­­­

…. Simon has a charming smile, but is a man of few words. There is something of the real samurai in his features. And this is not just my imagination: his father is an Englishman and his mother Japanese. This year, this tall and slender traditionalist (amongst his idols are the group Pink Floyd and Russian intelligentsia guru Venedikt Erofeev) finished at Oxford, specializing in Russian philology. When the question arose as to what to do next, he decided, without a great deal of deliberation and on the advice of his friend, to come to Russia. And not just anywhere, but in particular to Bel’skoye-Ustye.

“For me it wasn’t just an opportunity for language practice, but also a chance to discover a new way of life, new people,” explains Simon Lewis, a volunteer of the international educational charity for orphans, ROOF. His aims are to teach the children reading, writing and arithmetic. Besides him and Pany Xenophontos (a small, bouncy Cypriot), there are three female volunteers working in Bel’skoye-Ustye, for whom interaction with the children is also a way to understand something of this life. Pany expresses this idea more poignantly: “Only here have I learned to appreciate everything that I have”.

Indeed, in contrast to those in his care, Pany has rather a lot. The son of wealthy parents, he studies French and Russian at Oxford. He is convinced that the two languages have a lot in common – at the very least, he finds them both just as difficult as each other. In perspective, the work here is interesting and prestigious, but nonetheless these young volunteers (they are all in their early twenties) have left their comfortable and affluent lives in far-away Albion to come to this particular place and work with these children who, hardly out of the womb, had become surplus to the needs of their mothers and fathers – if, of course, such words are applicable to their genetic parents. Each of the inhabitants of this orphanage has his own, often terrible, history.

One boy, for example, was found on a beach. His wayward mother had left him on the sand. Another child was quite literally rescued from his own mother, who had, in a state of inebriation, hung her own 3-year old son from the ceiling by his feet. He hung there in this state for seven hours until the neighbours found him. The boy somehow survived, and they treated him right here in Bel’skoye-Ustye. Another boy (originally from Plyussa) ‘learned’ how to sleep on a bed in this orphanage. According to Deputy Director Igor’ Fil’kin, he was brought in with a whole array of various infectious diseases, including louse infestation.

“After they’d washed him and sorted him out, it became clear that he didn’t know what a bed was used for. For a while he kept insisting he would find a place to sleep in the corner of the room, but when he understood that he could lie down on crisp, white, un-starched bedsheets, he ended up sleeping for two days solid”.

Such stories abound for every child in the orphanage. However: although the government can save these ill children with various disabilities, they cannot provide them with a replacement family. This is not because our bureaucrats are such useless, heartless people; it is quite simply impossible to stipulate that all such children should have surrogate parents. This is where the charities come in. One of these is the international fund ROOF, founded five years ago by Mrs. Georgia Williams, also an Oxford graduate (she read Theology). There are plenty of other such organizations, where people not indifferent to the fate of these children work without a thought for themselves.

“Why?” – I simply couldn’t resist the temptation to pop the question.

“As far as I can tell, it’s just fate,” Georgia answers curtly.

Therefore, this celebration day, which took place earlier this week, gathered all the friendly faces to show once more to the children that there are plenty of good people in the world. There are many more good people that bad, in Russia as well as abroad. In any case, when Fyodor Kokhanov, director of the State Office for Social Development and Opportunities, started to award certificates of honourable service to all those who have played an active role in the fate of these children, no-one present at this jubilant assembly was left empty-handed. Not Georgia (who had come with her husband and baby daughter Elizabeth), not the representatives of the Pskov branch of the Russian Children’s Fund, not the local charitable partners, fronted by Lidya Vassilieva. It was she, not long ago the director of the regional local history museum, who proposed for the first time five years ago that the children of the orphanage learn the handicraft skills which have been popular in the region since a bygone age – weaving from willow and sedge, knitting, and so on.

When the artisans of the Porkhov House of Craft came to Bel’skoye-Ustye for the first time, some of the carers were unconvinced that anything would come of it – ‘are you in your right mind?’, they seemed to be saying. Six months later, the extent of their amazement was taken to new heights when they saw the fruits of the children’s labour.

“We believe in the simplest logic – the brain develops from the hands,” says Lidya Timofeevna [Vassilieva]. It is true that the work has had a really positive effect on the psychological condition of some of the children.

As an example, on this day of festivities, part of which consisted of an entire exhibition of the children’s handiwork, the weaving work of one boy in particular was shown to all of the guests. Until recently he had suffered from frequent epileptic seizures, but after taking up weaving, his health started to improve dramatically. It is impossible to count the number of similar examples. The main aim for both the artisans (who come from Porkhov every Wednesday to work with the children for a few hours at a time) and the foreign volunteers is improving the long-term prospects of the children. It is no secret that, once they are older, the majority of them will be sent to so-called psycho-neurological Internats. Yes, they will be fed and clothed there, but evidence from all over the world has shown convincingly that these people are capable of integrating into normal society. Moreover, they can be of use in it.

Indeed, charitable organizations and sponsors (from Moscow as well as local) are working on this problem at the moment, and two ‘social hotels’ have already been opened using their resources. Recent graduates of the Bel’skoye-Ustye orphanage live in these centres, and every one of them has some kind of speciality, can live self-sufficiently and can even earn a living for him/herself. This all takes place under the watchful eye of their social workers, of course. A similar practice has already become the absolute norm in many countries of the world. Russia, although slightly behind, has also started to make moves in this direction. And here, volunteers – in short, everyone who is not indifferent to the fate of the children – have begun to come and help. And believe me, such people are not few and far between. When, in the second part of the day, guests and employees were invited to dine and discuss general themes and problems around a “round table”, the orphanage dining hall only just managed to accommodate all of the participants. These were not only the employees of the orphanage and all of the guests, but also a number of so-called “patron” families[1] – truly altruistic people who perceive others’ pain as acutely as if it were their own. The tone of the conversation was also striking: yes, it’s difficult, yes, it sometimes demands more moral and physical strength than we possess, but there is no going back, because we’re talking about children here. This simple and perhaps obscure logic is what unites all the friends of Bel’skoye-Ustye.

On my way out from this day of festivities, in which they had found time not only for official congratulations but also for flowers, gifts and some genuine treats, I neglected to restrain myself and asked Simon: are you planning on staying and working here long? His answer was laconic in the typical English manner: for Christmas he’s planning on flying to Japan, where his parents live, and then he’s planning on jetting off to Ghana, Africa, to do some volunteer work.

“Not for that long. Three or four months. After that I hope I’ll come back here.”

 

(translated from the Russian by Simon Lewis)

---

Page last edited by Lena on 25th November 2008. Page out of date? Do you have new information?  —

---

Sub-menu for this section: