Trips to orphanages. Social volunteering in orphanages
Stew and a little celebration
From November 27 to December 24 St. Petersburg charitable organization "Nochlezhka" holds the “Tangerine and Stew” campaign - collecting gifts for the homeless. The list of necessary things is published on the organization.
“We have been holding the New Year’s campaign “Tangerine and Stew” since 2008, it has already become traditional. Residents of the city support it from year to year, prepare for it, ask when it will happen, children sign greeting cards. It is clear that we give first of all the simplest and most necessary things, such as stew, hygiene products, canned fish, and instant food. A few years ago, one of our volunteers, Anastasia Dmitrieva, came up with the “Persimmon” campaign, and now people all over Russia are knitting scarves, socks and mittens to give them to the homeless for the New Year,” she told Miloserdiyu.ru. Victoria Ryzhkova, Project Coordinator of the Nochlezhka Charitable Organization.
“Everyone should have a New Year,” she continues. “That’s why we not only distribute food and hygiene products to the homeless, but also try to please them with all sorts of sweets, tangerines and candies. We think it’s very important to give them a little attention and a little celebration.”
Before the New Year, Nochlezhka volunteers will package all the collected food and items into gift sets. On the eve of the holiday, they will be given to homeless people at Night Bus parking lots, at warming points, at receptions at the counseling service and at the organization’s shelter.
Holidays in hospitals
Volunteer movement " Danilovtsy" organizes New Year and Christmas parties for children in hospitals, shelters and boarding schools, as well as for the homeless and prisoners. Gifts and money for this purpose are collected from December 1 to January 7.
“All our students are waiting for a small miracle during the holidays. Of course, volunteers are not magicians, and we cannot fulfill every wish. But, thanks to human warmth and kindness, we try to honor everyone with a modest gift or small souvenir,” said the curator of volunteer activities of the Danilovtsi Volunteer Movement, Alena Kharakterova.
In Hamleys toy stores with December 4 to January 8 You can leave a gift for the beneficiaries of the Charitable Foundation "Gift a life". Children who will have to celebrate the New Year in hospitals wrote their wishes on postcards: some dream of a doll, some of a car, some of a LEGO set. Postcards are hung on “Good Christmas trees” installed in stores. Visitors choose wishes that they can fulfill, buy toys for sick children and leave them at the checkout. Hamleys is holding a similar campaign in St. Petersburg for the beneficiaries of the AdVita Charitable Foundation.
The Gift of Life Foundation also collects New Year's decorations for hospitals. “The holiday is important for everyone. But to those who meet him in the hospital, he is very special. There is no excess of decorations here, because when you are not at home, you need three times as much effort for a good mood,” says the page fund on Facebook. In addition, foil decorations, tinsel and rain cannot be reused in oncology departments, so every year the foundation’s volunteers collect new garlands for children. The collection of decorations will continue until December 25.
Hospice Fund staff "Faith" We found out in advance what New Year's gifts terminally ill children and their brothers and sisters dream of. (In total, the foundation cares for 200 families in various cities, from Krasnodar to Khabarovsk). And then, in partnership with the Wildberries online store, the foundation launched a special project where anyone can choose and pay for a gift that will be delivered to the child. The promotion will continue until all the gifts are sold out. The foundation will also congratulate adult hospice patients, but everything necessary for this has already been collected.
Deutsche Bank Technical Center decorates its corporate Christmas tree with letters to Santa Claus from clients Rusfond(25 letters from children from different regions). Employees select letters and make children's wishes come true. The delivery of gifts is provided by Rusfond, the press service of the charitable organization told Miloserdiy.ru.
Miracles in the form of gifts
From December 11 to January 5 Orthodox help service "Mercy" holds the “Give Joy at Christmas” campaign. Within a month, anyone can reserve a gift for those in need on a special website, buy it in a store and bring it to a gift collection point.
This year the event is taking place in Moscow, as well as in the Bryansk, Kemerovo and Smolensk regions.
“Christmas is traditionally associated with wishes coming true and miracles. But for many people who live very close to us, even a simple gift, a small token of attention can become a miracle,” says the head of charitable programs of the Mercy service. Anna Belavina. “It happens that a lonely person lacks the simplest things - an electric kettle, a blood pressure monitor, and this is the little thing we can do to please people during Christmas.”
Surprise for the neighbors
Social center St. Tikhon at the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow to participate in the Christmas flash mob “Unexpected Joy” ( from 11 to 31 December). Participants are encouraged to make pleasant surprises for others, overcoming disunity and alienation.
“The essence of the flash mob is simple,” said the St. Tikhon Center. - You look closely at your loved ones and prepare any pleasant surprise for them or their children: a greeting card with chocolate in the mailbox, a ball for the door handle, a bag of gifts or a wall newspaper on the wall of the entrance - whatever you want - there is absolute freedom of creativity here . The gift can be personalized or anonymous - it doesn’t matter either! Then you take a photo of yourself with the prepared gift, or just the gift itself, and post it on social networks with the hashtags #Unexpected Joy2018 plus a hashtag with the city in which you live, for example, #Samara.”
Gifts for lonely old people
Charitable Foundation "Old age is a joy" collects gifts for people living in nursing homes - sweet gifts, homemade cards, New Year's posters, household supplies. It will be possible to take part in the promotion until December 25, in the most extreme case - until December 31. “5,616 gifts have already been collected and sorted, 2,586 gifts have already been given,” the press service of the foundation said. Presentation of gifts will take place before the Old New Year.
Besides, December 23 In Moscow, at the Flacon design factory, in Lumiere Hall, the Christmas Mint festival will be held, organized in support of the Old Age in Joy foundation. There you will be able to buy and donate New Year's gifts and various useful things for grandparents who are wards of the foundation.
What is the best way to help orphans?
“The Tree of Wishes” is a close relative of the “Good Tree.” A charity project with this name takes place in December different cities of the country (in Krasnodar, Samara, Tver, etc.). Pupils of social institutions write their wishes on postcards, these cards are hung on New Year trees in shopping centers or company offices. Anyone can take a postcard and fulfill the wish of a pupil in an orphanage, shelter or boarding school. As a rule, the organizers of the event are charitable foundations.
Charitable Foundation "Volunteers to help orphans" warns that you can only give gifts to orphans when you know them personally. Gifts from strangers do not bring any benefit; they only leave an emptiness in the child’s soul, the foundation believes.
Instead of donating toys and sweets, the foundation recommends supporting one of the projects listed on the website: “Prevention of Social Orphanhood”, the “Warm House” shelter (helping a mother with a newborn child who has nowhere to go); "Children in Need" (nannies for children in hospitals); “Distance education” (tutors for children in orphanages); “Close people” (payment for treatment and rehabilitation for children with developmental disabilities who were taken into foster families).
In addition, the foundation suggests that companies give their employees postcards with warm words instead of traditional souvenirs, and transfer the “souvenir” budget to charitable purposes. The foundation's website contains postcard options that volunteers can print in the required quantity with the company logo.
New Year's party at PNI
“In general, Olya and I have been planning something similar for a long time - we have long talked about the fact that there are different facets of charity, you can approach it in different ways, and help comes in different forms and all of it is necessary.
And I myself remember my first trip to an orphanage several years ago, when I realized that everything I knew about it was completely wrong. I saw with my own eyes that these children do not need gifts at all. Moreover, there will always be those who will give these gifts. It turned out to be much more important that when leaving the orphanage, these children have no experience of communicating with those who are “out there”, who live in families, they have no experience of family life at all and, as a rule, the families that they build in future, experience great difficulties and collapse. We conceived a project on an ongoing basis, in which we would use the theme social volunteering- when representatives of different companies, bloggers and ordinary people unite and do something important and necessary. Together. 
Because now many companies really want to help and are ready to do so. But, unfortunately, they have no options other than “collecting gifts for the New Year.” We met the guys from the Gazpromneft company, quickly found a common language about what exactly we would do and prepared this trip with them. The company financed consumables and provided transport, "Matryoshka" everything was organized. 
Why did we go to Tikhvin? Everything is very simple. If you call any nearby orphanage, they will answer you something like: “come on the sixteenth at 15:30, you have an hour, because then there is a tight schedule.” This means that these institutions have a waiting list of people willing to help. But if you are 100 kilometers further away, there is less enthusiasm. Fate itself sent us to the Municipal Institution “Social Rehabilitation Center for Minors “Firefly”, or simply, the Tikhvin Orphanage. 
This is a “borderline” institution - that is, it is not an orphanage as such, but not a pioneer camp either. Children from disadvantaged families end up here - some come during the day (study, do homework, talk to psychologists and go back), others live permanently (they are taken from the family for rehabilitation, from difficult conditions, and work with them for a year , then about 80% come back, and the rest, unfortunately, are sent to orphanages). 
And these children are not easy. The director, Tamara Aleksandrovna, told us something that made our hair stand out - and all this happens to eleven-year-old girls and ten-year-old boys, simply because there is no one to help them, support them, guide them, listen to them, advise them. They don’t even understand what’s wrong with them; they take all the horrors that happen to them for granted. 
Paradoxical as it may seem, such children need communication most of all. Communication with those who live “in the city,” with girls and boys who have a profession and can teach something. Just talk about this and that. 
We quickly gathered a group of people who wanted to join: in addition to volunteers from Gazpromneft, she came with us Katya Gribanova(who, by the way, has extensive experience in participating in charitable projects, she is generally a person with heart) - the older guys made New Year's wreaths with her.
Katya Kovernik from Gogol Shop - the little one had such fun painting the toys and then hanging them on the Christmas tree! 
Vanya Tabakov showed tricks - the boys were wildly delighted and took note of several tricks from him.
it was really fun! 
Masha Gorelik She brought with her all kinds of decorative beauty and we made New Year’s cards together. 
Do you know what's most interesting? When you asked who the card was for, everyone answered: “for mom.” 
And the little children were entertained by our loved ones "Hares PR"- they know a lot about how to cheer people up. 
Come with us Masha Surikova , Olya Boyarkina , Sasha Olkha, - thank you guys very much. 
On the second floor there was a “noisy room” - there were a lot of kids, screaming, everything was quite chaotic and loud. And at the first one, where the older children were, there were such intimate conversations and calmness. Somehow it turned out that we absolutely naturally broke up into two or three and communicated in our narrow circle. 
I had a girl Tanya and a boy Andrey, with whom we immediately found a common language. And on the other side sat two more beauties Ira and Lisa - this is a category, I tell you... I can’t even imagine how it’s all for them, because in the body of a child (they are just children, 11 and 13 years old) there’s already quite the unpleasant experience of an adult, beaten by life, and this is such a strange mixture of arrogance and embarrassment, glibness and low self-esteem... I wanted to hold each one close and not let go. But they have their own parents, to whom they can return and... build relationships again. 
We just talked about all sorts of nonsense - word for word, about different things, without any moralizing. We made it clear that we came “without slogans or banners.” They were quite keenly interested in how it was there in St. Petersburg, who was doing what, whether it was possible to sell such postcards, whether florists and makeup artists could really make money... The boys swaggered around and talked about their successes. Well, in general, ordinary children. Just a little anxious and unkempt. That's all. 
We calmly studied, communicated, talked, the hares did their funny business, then handed each of us a personalized gingerbread from
CHILDREN'S INSTITUTIONS
Historically, our main assistance is addressed to orphans and children without parental care, in any variation within our power. On an ongoing basis, we support several thousand children in orphanages and boarding schools, provide financial assistance to the boarding institutions themselves, and also visit children undergoing treatment in medical institutions. Today, under the patronage of the “Volunteer Club” there are more than 25 children's institutions, mainly in eight regions of the Central Federal District of the Russian Federation. The main attention is paid to orphanages and boarding schools in towns, villages and small towns on the outskirts of the regions, since they are deprived of more attention than similar institutions near regional centers.
A list of child care facilities is presented below. In addition to general information about the institution, there you can find a list of the urgent needs of orphanages and boarding schools, the wishes and requests of children raised in them, as well as the needs of graduates of children's institutions.
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State government educational institution of the Vladimir region "Special (correctional) general education boarding school in Kolchugino" |
| About 160 children study and live at the school, some of them are children left without parents, the rest are children with developmental disabilities. The boarding school is very clean and spacious, there is plenty of room to run during breaks! | |
| Updated list of needs of children from the Kolchugino boarding school | |
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State government institution of the Vladimir region for orphans and children left without parental care, “Pokrovsky Orphanage” |
| There is a truly family atmosphere in the Pokrovsky orphanage, older children help the kids, and the house itself is homely. About 35 children live here, and the institution is led by a kind and sympathetic director. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from the Pokrovsky orphanage | |
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State budgetary institution of the Kaluga region "Nagornovsky psychoneurological boarding school" |
| About 160 wards live in the boarding school and they are all looking forward to our arrival. The guys really need our support and attention. | |
| Updated list of needs of wards from the Nagornovsky psychoneurological boarding school | |
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State government institution of the Kaluga region "Polotnyano-Zavodsky orphanage-boarding school for mentally retarded children" |
| One of the oldest institutions under the patronage of the organization. About 150 children with special needs live here. They all need attention and friendship from volunteers. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from the Polotnyano-Zavodsky boarding school | |
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State budgetary institution of Moscow “Psychoneurological boarding school No. 20” |
| The only institution in Moscow visited by volunteers. Hikes take place on a weekly basis. Volunteers help people with disabilities and people who have partially or completely lost the ability to self-care. | |
| Updated list of needs of wards from Psychoneurological boarding school No. 20 | |
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State government educational institution of the Moscow region for orphans and children without parental care with disabilities “Trust”, Almazovo |
| The main feature of this school near Moscow is the boys! The institution only cares for male children. They love excursions to the capital, active relay races and playing football. |
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| Updated list of needs of children from Almazov school | |
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State government social service institution of the Moscow region "Chekhov social rehabilitation center for minors "Aistenok" |
| This center houses children of all ages. They go to a regular school, and in the summer they go to a children's camp. The institution has a need for volunteers to organize excursions, leisure activities, landscaping and communication with children. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from the Chekhov Center | |
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Regional state budgetary educational institution "Kostin boarding school for orphans and children left without parental care" |
| The “Volunteer Club” has been supporting this boarding school in the village of Kostino for more than six years. We developed friendly relations with the children. The children look forward to each visit of the volunteers, and in moments of separation they write letters to each other. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from Kostinsky boarding school | |
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Regional state budgetary educational institution "Rybnovskaya boarding school for orphans and children left without parental care" |
| About 110 children live and study in this institution. A school building with spacious classrooms, a sports and assembly hall, a library, a carpentry, metalwork and sewing workshop. In winter there is a skating rink, and the school has a hockey team. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from the Rybnov boarding school | |
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Smolensk regional state budgetary educational institution for orphans and children left without parental care “Safonovsky orphanage-school” |
| The first institution in the history of the Volunteer Club, trips to which marked the beginning of the development of the volunteer organization. More than 110 children live and study here. At one time, Yuri Gagarin attended this school. |
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| Updated list of needs of children from the Safonovsky orphanage-school | |
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Smolensk regional state budgetary institution "Roslavl social rehabilitation center for minors "Teremok" |
| “Teremok” is located 360 km from Moscow and is one of the most remote institutions visited by volunteers. Most often, trips take place by bus rather than in volunteers’ personal cars. |
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| Updated list of needs of children from the Social Rehabilitation Center | |
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State government institution for orphans and children left without parental care, “Zubtsovsky Orphanage” |
| One day, volunteers brought and presented several new bicycles to the children. Fun assembly of bikes from boxes, first attempts at riding, rules of the road - it was an unforgettable and emotional day! |
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| Updated list of needs of children from the Zubtsovsky orphanage | |
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State government educational institution for orphans and children left without parental care, “Torzhok boarding school” |
| The village of Zeleny, where the school is located, is 30 km from the city of Torzhok. About 50 children live and study here. They love skiing and the winter season. |
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| Updated list of needs of children from Torzhok boarding school | |
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State government educational institution for orphans and children left without parental care, “Emmaus Boarding School” |
| The Volunteer Club has been supporting this school in the village of Emmauss for more than seven years. The warmest friendships have developed with the children. Volunteers also do not give up and support graduates. |
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| Updated list of needs of children from Emmaus Boarding School | |
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State educational institution of the Tula region "Bolokhovskaya school for students with disabilities" |
| The children at this school are very open and interested, they are happy to welcome all the master classes conducted by volunteers. And we, for our part, are trying, together with the administration, to improve the material base of the institution. | |
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State educational institution of the Tula region “Barsukovskaya school named after. A.M. Garanina" |
| Volunteers are always welcome at Barsukovskaya School, both adults and children. And the kids here really love hiking and singing songs with a guitar! | |
| Updated list of needs of children from Bolokhov school | |
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State educational institution of the Tula region "Don School No. 1" |
| About 80 children are educated in this institution. Among them there are both orphans and domestic children from large and low-income families. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from the Donskoy School | |
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State educational institution of the Tula region "Dubovskaya school for students with disabilities" |
| At the school, located about 230 km from Moscow, volunteers' visits are always eagerly awaited. Girls attend a sewing club, and boys learn construction trades. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from Dubovskaya school | |
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State educational institution of the Tula region "Efremovskaya school for students with disabilities" |
| The institution is located 320 km from Moscow. The atmosphere in the house is always very cozy: the administration greets volunteers with hot buns, and the children are very friendly with each other and are always ready to help both the volunteers and each other. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from Efremov school | |
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State educational institution of the Tula region "Novogurovskaya school for students with disabilities" |
| The institution has been under the patronage of the “Volunteer Club” since 2009, and many graduates still maintain contact and warm friendships with volunteers. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from Novogurovskaya school | |
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State educational institution of the Tula region "Novomoskovsk school for students with disabilities" |
| Initially, this boarding school, 220 km from Moscow, was created for children who lost their parents during the Great Patriotic War. Today, the institution educates about 200 inquisitive and talented children. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from Novomoskovsk boarding school No. 1 | |
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State educational institution of the Tula region "Novomoskovsk Regional Education Center" |
| The guys traditionally beat the volunteers in football and amaze with their culinary masterpieces. Volunteers often visit graduates, and this year they organized a bright and eventful excursion to Moscow for them. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from the Novomoskovsk Education Center | |
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State educational institution of the Tula region "Suvorov school for students with disabilities" |
| This is one of the largest institutions we supervise in terms of the number of children, some of whom were transferred from boarding schools where volunteers had previously gone. | |
| Updated list of needs of children from the Suvorov School | |
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State institution of the Tula region "Social rehabilitation center for minors No. 1" |
| Children end up in this Center immediately after they are taken from their “woeful parents,” who are soon deprived of their parental rights. Volunteers try to support children in difficult times. |
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| Updated list of needs of children from the SRC in Tula | |
Also, assistance is provided periodically, or was previously provided by the “Volunteer Club” in the following institutions:
— Taldomsky orphanage (Moscow region)
— Family Development Center “Nadezhda” (Moscow region)
— Stary Oskol orphanage (Belgorod region)
— Suzdal orphanage No. 5 (Vladimir region)
— Obninsk boarding school (Kaluga region)
— Lebyazhenskaya boarding school (Kurgan region)
— Circus boarding school No. 15 (Moscow)
— Special boarding school No. 80 (Moscow)
— Serpukhov orphanage (Moscow region)
— Serpukhov boarding school (Moscow region)
— Malakhovsky orphanage “Sonata” (Moscow region)
— Novoitkul orphanage (Novosibirsk region)
— Specialized children's home (Oryol region)
— Toropetsk boarding school (Tver region)
— Nelidovo boarding school (Tver region)
— Bezhetsk boarding school (Tver region)
— Aleksinsky orphanage (Tula region)
— Ievlevskaya boarding school (Tula region)
— Obidim boarding school (Tula region)
— Chekalinsky nursing home (Tula region)
— Pereslavl-Zalessky orphanage (Yaroslavl region)
— North Ageevskaya boarding school (Tula region)
— Barsukovskaya boarding school (Tula region)
The volunteer movement in Russia is gaining strength and developing, but at the same time it has deep historical roots. 2018 was the year of volunteers and volunteers in Russia. This activity is taking on different directions and reaching more and more people in need.
Social volunteering – orphanages
One of the areas of volunteer activity is visiting and helping to work with children in orphanages. This is a special type of social activity that is not suitable for everyone. In this case, the volunteers' wards receive only basic care - supervision, food. They need love, affection, attention, care. Workers of social institutions do not have enough energy and time for this.
Volunteer activities have always been associated with mercy, providing assistance to weak and vulnerable members of our society, for example, children who for some reason were left without parents. Working with children is pleasant, but it requires a lot of moral and physical strength. Not everyone can constantly see the mental suffering of children.
Features of volunteer work in an orphanage
Every volunteer who wants to work in an orphanage needs to have an idea of what awaits him. Children from social institutions will be significantly different from their peers from ordinary families.
Difficulties you may encounter:
- retardation of intellectual, psychological, emotional development;
- lack of trust in others;
- lack of self-confidence;
- aggressive behavior towards volunteers;
- desire to manipulate adults;
- theft;
- moral problems - a child from an orphanage most of all wants to go to a family, and will ask to be taken away. You need to be morally stable so as not to make empty promises, and the volunteers themselves need to treat such requests with balance.
A volunteer who comes to an orphanage must have strong moral principles. He comes as an older friend; there is no need to take on other extraneous functions.
How volunteers are useful
Employees of children's social institutions are entrusted with the responsibility of looking after children. The development of the emotional sphere receives a residual principle; volunteers can help here. A child abandoned by his parents lives in a hospital for 1 month, then is transferred to an orphanage. There he remains until he reaches 3 years of age. Then he goes to an orphanage, where he lives until he is 18 years old.
It is important to hold children at a very young age. Tactile contact is necessary for the formation of the psyche and proper development in children. Baby homes often lack staff. Children need constant care and it turns out that nannies do not have time to walk with the kids. Volunteers help take babies for walks, take them to procedures, vaccinations, and doctor’s appointments, transport and sort donated items, toys, and hygiene products.
Orphanages in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and many large cities are well provided with everything they need. Volunteers come to visit children with the goal of teaching them something and broadening their horizons. What is valuable for children from social institutions is practical knowledge that will be useful to them in adult life. In an ordinary family, such skills are taught by parents. Volunteers can help children from orphanages.
Children from orphanages often confuse what food is stored in the refrigerator and what in the cupboard, because the cooks lay out the food for them in the kitchen. The lack of basic household skills leads to great stress. Watching movies together, listening to music, doing handicrafts, physical education, playing sports - all this helps to gain new skills and shapes taste.
When visiting orphanages, you must follow certain rules. They will help maintain good relationships with pupils of social institutions and preserve the volunteers’ peace of mind.
Helpful Tips:
- Don't talk about your parents, don't ask about your family. This sore subject should be taboo.
- You can’t call children orphans; many have parents alive, and the children know this. It's best to address them by name.
- Don't make empty promises. It’s easier to get used to rejection than to wait and hope, which will undermine faith in a person.
- Learn to say the word “no”. Pupils know how to achieve relationships, it is difficult for them to refuse. It is important to be able to set boundaries in communication.
- Do not treat children from social institutions with pity. Such thoughts will certainly be embodied in actions and phrases that will hurt the students and lower their self-esteem.
- You need to be natural, small children do not yet understand that something is wrong in their lives, because they have not seen anything else.
When deciding to become a volunteer or visit orphanages, you need to calculate your time for regular visits to such institutions. You can come not every week, only 2-3 times a month, but constantly. It is important for children to systematically see a person, wait and meet him. The strength of human relationships will allow you not to get lost in adulthood and be able to find friends.
How to become a volunteer
The decision to become a volunteer, to help abandoned children, should be made calmly and carefully. You need to evaluate all your capabilities, because you will have to spend time and money on travel.
To become a volunteer you need to contact a non-profit organization. There are many of them in Russia, for example, “Change one life”, “Nadezhda”, “Childhood House”, “Volunteers for children”, “The future is now”. You can apply via the Internet. There are forms to fill out on the official website. You need to be prepared that the organizers will need to know some aspects of the personality of the future volunteer, his motives for engaging in such activities. You can indicate your education, work experience, skills and abilities that will be useful in communicating with students.
Volunteers are people who have reached the age of majority, that is, they can be responsible for their actions. In some organizations, an agreement is signed. It has more psychological than legal significance. A person must take his chosen business responsibly and seriously. People in the volunteer organization are counting on him, and the children at the orphanage will be waiting for him.
Volunteer movements often organize meetings for volunteer candidates. At them you can meet with managers, experienced volunteers, and ask questions. If a person is accepted into the ranks of volunteers, he is informed, but he is not immediately allowed to participate in work in serious organizations.
Preliminary work is carried out with new volunteers. They are invited to trainings and instructions. Volunteers must receive basic knowledge in psychology, pedagogy, and become familiar with the intricacies of working with orphans. When contacting people, especially children, there is always the possibility of force majeure situations occurring. We need to get out of them with dignity. It depends on how the volunteer was prepared.
Next, the newcomer receives a list of events taking place in the near future. He determines the cases in which he will participate. Volunteers working with children may require medical certificates confirming the absence of certain diseases, such as tuberculosis.
Orphanages bring sadness and fear to anyone who has never been there in person. Indeed, what could be sadder than thousands of children growing up without parents in specialized institutions throughout our vast country? Meanwhile, instead of worrying and sympathizing from a distance, each of us can personally help orphans. Orphanages in Moscow are constantly in need of new employees and volunteers, finances and some specific things, and are also happy to accept people who have decided to become parents.
Everyone can help
The concept of charity in our country today is subjective. Almost every week we watch and read news about new charitable events and foundation reports. Most often, organizations boast about the millions they have collected for the treatment of specific children, the turnkey renovations they have made in children's institutions, and other global actions. This situation stimulates the development of a stereotype - only financially wealthy people can do good, and charity as a phenomenon is an expensive pleasure. This is all a big misconception; even orphanages in Moscow, despite the well-being of the region, happily accept any help. And there is nothing wrong with the fact that you want to do a good deed, but today you have the opportunity to spend very little time and money.
Where to begin?
Help can be different - financial investments, communication with students, work in an institution on a voluntary basis. Decide right away how serious your intentions are and what resources you have. If you are afraid that you will not be able to constantly visit the Children's Home, it is reasonable to limit yourself to a transfer to a charity fund or a one-time trip to the chosen institution. For those who plan to devote a significant part of their lives to helping orphans, it is useful to think about regular visits or even patronage of selected children. Decide on a specific orphanage or try to meet experienced volunteers. All Orphanages in Moscow have their own special rules and strict requirements for volunteer helpers. It is important to study and remember them as quickly as possible.
Needs of an orphanage
Many institutions have their own websites, on which the topic with a list of necessary things is updated in a timely manner. Needs can be different: from specific toys to interior items and household items. Anyone who wants to help can independently purchase some of the listed items or transfer money for their purchase. Review your specific organization's acceptance policy. Not every orphanage in Moscow accepts used clothes and toys. For a number of institutions, a mandatory condition is the presence of labels and receipts confirming that the item is new. The situation with food is also difficult. Some Baby Homes in Moscow are happy to accept cereals, juices and purees in original packaging, while others flatly refuse such help.
What is patronage?
Children's institutions in Moscow and the region are quite well funded. For this reason, they often require physical rather than material help. We all know that the vacancies “work, Baby House (Moscow)” are not prestigious. In institutions for infants and children of primary preschool age, volunteers (who have passed a medical examination) are sometimes allowed to care for their wards. Also, many orphanages are not against volunteers organizing holidays and one-time visits. And yet, one of the main needs of orphanages is communication. The best option for those who are confident in their own abilities and desire to help is patronage. This type of relationship involves friendship. Usually a volunteer gets to know the selected child by correspondence, and only after contact has been established does he come in person. This option is optimal, since the child’s experiences will be less intense if the boss stops communicating.
Baby house: adoption (Moscow)
