Integration Center for Orphans with Disabilities

Step Up launched a new project in August this year – the Second Generation Summer Camp, which took place at Step Up’s Integration Center in Novopetroskoe village.

The project ran between July 24th and August 3rd (directly after the annual Summer Camp with children from Belskoye Ustye orphanage). A total of 19 people took part, including five mothers (involved with Step Up’s projects for orphans in Moscow) and nine children (aged 2 to 9 years old).

Second Generation Summer Camp was designed to help students and graduates of Step Up improve their parenting skills, to strengthen the relationships between parents raised in orphanages and their kids, and to boost the children’s intellectual and emotional development.

Financial difficulties generally prevent families of former correctional orphanage residents from having a proper vacation with their children. And stress-free time when they can enjoy each other's company is very rare.

Volunteers and Step Up staff organized a series of activities for the mothers and their children (both separately and together) during the camp. These included yoga, theater, cooking and drawing. Novopetrovskoe's location deep in the countryside meant there were frequent outdoor activities including swimming and short treks. Step Up also arranged for the mothers and children to take part in a day trip to nearby Pskov and get acquainted with some local firemen!

The success of the project means Step Up will look to repeat it next year — as well as using it as a model to help implement and develop other residential camps at Novopetroskoe.