Social problem
Orphan children residing in orphanages for children with mentally challenged children in the groups called “Miloserdie” (“Mercy”), they are still taken as “hopeless”, “unteachable”, children “without prospects”. And they are treated accordingly. The best thing that the government does for those children is providing them with food, care in accordance with sanitary norms, and caregivers.
We saw ch
ildren who stay in their little beds for years, without toys, without taking fresh air, without hugs, proper attention and caress. Because the staff around them are convinced that those children are “vegetables”. But we know that such attitude is a huge mistake!
What we do
Many years of our experience of working in orphanages prove – even children with very hard diseases have the potential for development, and the quality of their lives can be improved significantly!
We pay for the work of experts who develop children according with the Portage model. It assumes that a Portage mother is assigned to every child, spending part of a day with a child every day, taking a child in her arms, hugging, talking to a child and letting him/her understand that the child is loved, and conducting developing classes with him/her. Every Portage mother works with 3 children.
Portage methodology is a method well-reputed in Russia and abroad, which is precise, universal and aiming at individual work with children with special needs, directed at development of children’s skills in the areas of movement, self-maintenance, cognition, speech, social integration.
Project outcomes
Daily classes help our allegedly “hopeless” children learn how to:
- wash their faces, dress themselves and comb their hair, drink and eat (and other self-maintenance skills have been obtained, with some children already using their skills without any assistance of an adult),
- crawl, lie on their stomachs, sit, turn in bed, stand or walk with or without help of an adult, and other motor skills,
- assemble constructor sets and puzzles, thread beads, draw, cut, do cutting and pasting, and other fine motor skills,
- distinguish colors, recognize animals and different objects, count, look through books, and other cognitive skills,
- use sounds to denote objects, actions, wishes, start forming and developing their speech,
- communicate and play with each other and with adults, get to know the world around them – they went out of their wards, started to walk outside, which fosters their active social integration.
Prospects
We spread the results of Portazh work and success of children by way of giving training seminars and through support of work of experts in Elatomsky orphan asylum for children with disabilities, and in the city of Moscow. We try to provide to every child from “Miloserdie” (Mercy) group an opportunity to develop. We believe that time will come when caring for children is such level will become a part of state-procured care.
Budget of the project
Budget of the project in Yelatma in the Ryazan region for one year is about 830,000 rubles.
- 150 rubles – cost of one class with one child
- 800 rubles – cost of one week’s classes with one child
- 3,000 rubles – cost of one month’s classes with one child
12,000 rubles – cost of one month of one expert’s work with 4 children in the orphanage.