Bykovskiy Detskiy Dom

Where? In the village of Bykovo, about half an hour's drive from the edge of the city of Moscow.
Who? Director Andrei Dubrovin (since 2000/01/15). 53 children from 9 to 14 years of age.

Soviet style facade

History and Short Description:

Bykovskii Detskii Dom was organised in 1944 for children whose parents had been killed at the front in World War II. Since it came into existence, 700 young adults, who now live all over Russia, have graduated from Bykovskii Detskii Dom. ROOF teachers say that most of the children here are fairly well behaved, interested and easy to get to know. They are all desperate for attention from adults.

Children come to the orphanage from three sources:

the Ramenskoye priyut,
the local pre-school orphanage, or
directly from families who have been forced to give up their children for economic or legal reasons (and usually for both).

Most of the children have parents who are deprived of their parental rights and, thus, are social orphans. Many of the children have relatives and if the local Education authority permits visits, they can visit with relatives and even stay with relatives on the weekend.

Life inside the Detskii Dom can get a bit boring. In the morning the children go to school at the nearby neighbourhood school No.15, which is a 5 minute walk from the detskii dom. When they return from school, they have dinner (in the middle of the day) and then settle down to some homework. ROOF teachers say that the children tend to spend an inordinate amount of time in front of the television and do not go outside as much as they should!

Getting a bit bored at a lesson...

School No. 15 is a normal secondary school but for some reason the children from the orphanage only attend until they have finished 9th grade (there are 11 grades total in Russian school). When the children finish school or turn 17 the orphanage administration helps them get into technical schools or professional schools based on each student's desire (but the choice of profession is very limited to vocations such as sewing clothes or shoes, arranging flowers, make-up design and hairdressing, etc.) In reality there is little demand for these skills in modern society and one can hardly earn a decent living working in many of the areas for which professional training is offered (hairdressing being the largest exception).

Inside the Detskii Dom there are various workshops and games set up for the children that are meant to prepare them to be competent at fairly marketable skills and at taking care of themselves at home (after they graduate from the orphanage):

'Domovodtsvo' (Housekeeping) Workshop, where I learn they teach sewing, cooking, household accounts, etc.
A Hairdresser's Shop, where the children learn to cut and style hair, do manicures, massage and makeup.
A Flower Arrangement Shop where the children learn how to create bouquets, etc.
A Music Room
'Picture on the Wider World' - a Social Studies (Geography) workshop where children are taught about life in different corners of the globe.

The children do go out to the theatre and on other field trips every now and then. Moscow is not far away and many trips have been planned to visit and explore historical sights and events.

A number of holidays are celebrated in the Bykovskii Detskii Dom. They include:

1 Sept. - Knowledge and Learning Day.
At the end of every season the 'Name Days' that fell inside that season are celebrated.
The 'Autumn Ball' at the end of Autumn
New Years with the traditional 'New Year's Fairytale'
International Men's Day (23rd Feb.) and International Women's Day (8th Mar.)
April Fool's Day
'Children's Rights Day' at the End of November
9th of May Victory Day

ROOF Programmes in Bykovo

Click here for details of teachers in Bykovo.

THE BASIC GOAL OF THE ROOF TEACHERS IN BYKOVO:
Social, Psychological and Educational Protection of each child.

Psychologist - Respect for the individual, development of thinking skills and striving to understand how we can improve the educational environment! Helping these children, who are brought up in a microenvironment, to adapt to life in society.

Biology - Raise the motivation of each child by improving his/her educational position through individual lessons.

Chemistry - Figure out where each child has missed material or has weak spots in his/her knowledge of Chemistry, strengthen those weak spots and start to move forward with new material.

Primary School - Help the children to thoroughly understand what they are doing in their homework assignments so that they do not fall behind in school classes.

Mathematics - Give the children lots of exercises to raise their confidence and work with inter-disciplinary examples to help the children understand the possible applications of the Maths they are learning in school.

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