Russia has over 700,000 abandoned children, a figure equal to the amount of orphans during World War II. But offsetting this depressing figure is the rapid growth of foreign-funded volunteer projects, whose members tutor, mentor and just spend time with the children. What drives these people to contribute and why do Russian orphans receive aid mainly from Western companies?
Nastavniki (or Mentors) is the Russian branch of the international mentoring program for children in need, Big Brothers Big Sisters, that first appeared over 100 years ago in the United States and Canada.
The Moscow-based program recruits and trains prospective volunteers among young, successful specialists who want to donate their time to orphans and children in need.
“This mentoring program is unique because we help children in difficult situations, not through direct donations to orphanages, but through the love, care and friendship that our volunteers give them,” Roman Sklotskiy, the executive head of the Nastavniki program says, adding that “people usually view financial aid as the most obvious thing.”
“It’s much easier to buy a toy, give it to a child and a person thinks that he has helped. It’s also help and it has the right to exist, but it should be followed up by something more valuable.”
John Delargy and Kolya
Apart from Russian volunteers in some 500-strong Nastavniki team, there are also five Moscow-based foreigners. One of them is John Delargy, an Irishman, who has been living in Russia since 2003.
Within a couple of years of living in Moscow he realized the city’s dynamic style suited him better than tranquil Dublin, so he decided to settle down.
“It was time to do something apart from working hard and taking care of myself. Then I met Eric Batsie, the then CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters in Russia and he offered me the chance to join the board of directors of the developing mentoring project,” Delargy says.
A bit later John took up mentoring of a Russian orphan Kolya Kartsev, whose parents had died from alcoholism and for whom John became “the best friend from Ireland.”
“At the time I met Kolya, he was 17. He was extremely organized and much more disciplined than I was when I was 17,” John recalls. “I used to go to the orphanage on Saturday afternoons, I just started playing football with Kolya and his friends and played hockey in winter.”
Kolya, who had already graduated from vocational school and has received a state-funded apartment says he feels a bit nervous about starting living on his own.
The problem with many disadvantaged children in Russia is that as soon as they are put in a children’s home, they are not viewed as a full-fledged personality. Many kids abandoned by their parents in early childhood were put into children’s homes for children with health problems.
Even if a child does not have serious problems with his health and can be treated, there they are labeled developmentally delayed and treated in such a way. As a result, they have no exposure to the outside world. So when they leave, they don’t know how to buy a metro ticket or do anything on their own.
An orphanage is like the army
Volunteers searching for charity opportunities in Russia to embark on face the dilemma of whether to send money to the orphanages, where it can me misused, or to devote their time and attention to caring for children.
A young successful businesswoman, Svetlana Zelenova, another member of the Nastavniki program, says that “when everything’s ok with your life and your financial well-being, you feel a willingness to help, if you are not totally selfish.”
She has been mentoring 14-year old Pasha, who was abandoned in the maternity hospital by his mother. Now the boy lives in an orphanage for children with various health problems.
“An orphanage very much resembles an army in its internal rules. Children are there on a full state support, obeying their commander-like teachers,” says Zelenova.
Western companies and Russian children
All of the mentoring programs in Russia are usually funded by charity grants, or private and corporate donations.
According to the Boston Consulting Group’s report, state-supported help to Russian non-commercial charity organizations in 2009 comprised about five percent out of their revenues. In Western countries this figure reaches around 50 percent.
In 2010 the Nastvaniki that keep their financial records open to the public, had 64 percent of their revenues coming from corporate donations, mainly from Western companies working in Moscow.
Asked why foreign businesses help Russian children, Sklotskiy says that “it’s much easier to deal with Western companies working in Moscow than with the Russian ones.”
“Social responsibility is very important issue for foreign companies since they feel obliged to help the society they work in,” Sklotskiy says, adding that Russian big companies also involve themselves in large charity projects, but they are mainly ordered by the state.
Karina Khudenko, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers, famous for its socially responsible projects, says that Russian firms have other forms of charity.
“They are more focused on maintaining culture and social well-being in the region where they work, whether it’s kindergartens for employees’ children or clinics for the retired workers.
But charity is not only about money, it’s about a people’s mentality and their willingness to help. And when we talk about children, your time today is their future tomorrow.
