Funding Education Centre for Russian Orphans

Wonderful and unexpected opportunities for Kitezh children

Last year, we received a group of visitors from a prestigious school in England: their Russian teacher and a small group of senior students.  They knew almost nothing about Kitezh and had no idea what to expect, but the visit was a great success for all.  As a result, next June, Roman, one of our foster parents, will bring four of our foster children, Marina, Alina, Irina and Max, to England for a week, where they will be guests of Sevenoaks school.  This is a truly remarkable opportunity for these children.  All have lived in Kitezh since they were small children.  Marina is the oldest, at seventeen and just learning to be a responsible young adult; this opportunity comes at exactly the right time to help her understand the wider world and what it means to study seriously.  For Irina, who struggles with her shyness, we hope this will give her greater confidence  and belief in her own creativity.  We believe that Alina, who had many difficulties to overcome when she came to Kitezh, will yet again rise to the challenge and take another big step forward.  For Maxim, who is a very bright fourteen year old, this will be a wonderful and exciting opportunity to explore a whole new world, in a foreign language.

Our children come to us from very difficult circumstances, and this wonderful and unexpected opportunity helps them to understand the reality of the wider world and the great possibilities it offers.  Such extraordinary opportunities for our children have been made possible because Kitezh exists and has been enabled from its beginning by the generosity of many donors.

 Through our volunteers program, young people from around the world bring their culture to our corner of Russia.  Over the Christmas season, Orion has been host to three students from the Americas, including a dance teacher from Brazil.  Through music and dance, the children are able to feel and express joy and passion and tell stories in that wonderful Latin American style.  For Irina, it was a liberating experience to dance out of her shyness and to be so applauded at the New Year party. 

Planning for other opportunities.

Here in Kitezh, we are trying to develop more opportunities for our children to explore their creativity and develop skills they will need when they become adults.  We have a small, cramped, cold carpentry workshop which has served us for many years.  But conditions make it very difficult to use it as a teaching space for more than two children; and even for them, the possibilities are limited.  Now we are drawing up plans for a large workshop, with separate spaces to machine timber and to create artefacts, shelves, doors, cabinets, beds, whatever the children are inspired to make.  The plan includes a metal workshop and in the future, we hope we may add on a pottery. 

 The benefits for non-academic children are obvious, but to create and to be grounded by skill-of-hand has many developmental and therapeutic possibilities for all of our young people.  The enthusiasm of most of the academically smart foreign volunteers to work in the workshop shows the unhealthy nature of the divorce between academic and non-academic skills; these developments will help Kitezh to avoid this. 

2013 will be a very interesting year, with lots of new opportunities and developments. Thank you for your support! 

Links:

• Ecologia Youth Trust