Step Up

We work with children and young adults from Moscow orphanages. Our mission is to help every child to learn and develop as a person, overcoming the negatives of an institutionalized past. Step Up is the first organization in Russia which, since 1999, has worked to provide orphans with a quality education, to motivate them to learn. We help graduates of orphanages to complete school, find jobs, pass college/university entrance exams. We provide specific help necessary to overcome the psychological complexes that plague orphans. We enable institutionalized orphans and orphanage graduates to make wise, mature and healthy decisions for their own live. We also work surmount and eventually change... read more We work with children and young adults from Moscow orphanages. Our mission is to help every child to learn and develop as a person, overcoming the negatives of an institutionalized past. Step Up is the first organization in Russia which, since 1999, has worked to provide orphans with a quality education, to motivate them to learn. We help graduates of orphanages to complete school, find jobs, pass college/university entrance exams. We provide specific help necessary to overcome the psychological complexes that plague orphans. We enable institutionalized orphans and orphanage graduates to make wise, mature and healthy decisions for their own live. We also work surmount and eventually change the prejudice against orphans that is so prevalent in Russian society. In Step Up we have a unique community of students, teachers, and volunteers built on healthy relationships, trust and respect - features that orphans often lack in the institutions. Our academic approach is specially designed to "de-victimize" our students. It combats hopelessness and powerlessness and fosters self-confidence. In 1999-2009 Post-Orphanage Education Center existed as a project within ROOF (Russian Orphan Opportunity Fund). Since September 2010 it is an independent organization "Step Up".