Support
GROUPS
We partner with project leaders as they run groups for orphan mums and their children living in poverty, as well as individual orphanage leavers struggling to adjust to independence. We also run groups for orphans still in the orphanage system.
Group leaders teach life skills, provide emotional and practical support, and ensure basic needs are met. For the younger groups, activities and outings from their orphanages are also organised.
Project leaders make themselves available, stepping in as the parents these orphans never had.
The
NEED
Orphans leaving Russian orphanages at age 16 are unprepared and ill-equipped for life outside institutions.
According to available data on Russian orphanage leavers, 10% commit suicide, 40% go to prison, and 40% become alcoholics and/or drug addicts.
All those we support live on incomes so low that, without extra help, they would be choosing between paying for utilities or food.
In
PARTNERSHIP
What Your
DONATIONS DO
Love Russia partners with local Russians who are giving support to vulnerable families and individuals in need. With intervention and the security that comes from having a reliable adult role model in their lives, orphan adults have a better chance of making healthy decisions, helping them work towards independent futures.
For younger orphans still living in institutions, it is important to prepare them for life outside the system. Through regular visits and days out that build friendships and trust, they get to know someone they can turn to when the time comes for them to leave, ensuring they do not have to face the world completely alone.
Our groups meet together regularly, providing a platform for individuals to share challenges, offer mutual support, and receive guidance from their project leaders. Those in orphan mum support groups receive a small but regular amount of financial aid.
Donations towards support groups enable mentors to dedicate their time to this vital work. Funding allows them to provide regular monthly bursaries for orphan mums struggling to make ends meet, organise activities, provide resources (including food), offer transport, use premises, and more
LIZA...
Liza, raised in Solotcha orphanage, faced neglect from her absent mother and alcoholic father. Two failed relationships, marked by alcoholism and violence, followed. Despite these challenges, Liza remains with her ex-partner, a necessity for single parenting survival in Russia. The emotional wounds from her past, coupled with living below the poverty line, mean Liza benefits from financial aid, as well as encouragement and guidance from her support group.
”I’d like to thank our sponsors and friends that make it possible for us to meet for a cup of tea and talk about our problems. Thank you for all that you do for us
and our kids!” - Liza
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