(7 Feb 1999) Russian/Nat
The number of abandoned children in Russia is on the rise.
But while the statistics are up, funding is down, meaning most of Russia's parentless children languish in government homes in the most terrible of conditions.
But one orphanage in Moscow has done an amazing job in creating a suitable home for the unwanted.
Orphanage Number 26 is doing its best to change the way Russian homes are run and make a difference in the lives of the little ones they care for.
Abandoned by their parents, these little children don't know how lucky they are to be enjoying the comforts of Moscow's Orphanage Number 26.
Definitely one of the capital's best institution for the parentless, Orphanage Number 26 may even be one of the best homes in all of Russia.
A recent report released by Human Rights Watch put the number of abandoned children in Russia at more than 200,000 - a good percentage of which reside in crumbling and under funded institutions that encourage little learning.
But here at Number 26, teachers and administrators have created a cosy and near ideal environment for their young charges.
With the children living in groups of between 5 and 8 - and an active and varied programme to stimulate both mind and body - orphanage No. 26 is setting the example all across Russia.
Official statistics show that the number of children put in state custody has doubled over the past five years and with the Russian economy in a downward spiral experts expect that number to keep rising.
Unlike orphans in the US or Europe, most of the children in Russia's orphanages do actually have parents still alive - but who are unfit to care for them -- the majority of them victims of alcohol abuse, violence and sheer poverty.
An overwhelming number of children at Orphanage No. 26 spent many unhappy years with abusive parents before they were either seized by the state or abandoned on the street by their parents.
Ten year old Alexei Babkov was finally committed to an orphanage at the age of eight after his parents drank themselves into oblivion.
For Alexei, as for the rest of Russia's orphans, there is almost no chance that his parents will ever reclaim him.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"My parents were drunkards and they abandoned me when I was nine, no actually when I was eight, they drank vodka too much and just left me. Eventually a woman came and told them that their son will be taken away."
SUPER CAPTION: Alexei Babkov, 10 year old orphan
While the conditions at this orphanage are commendable, the majority of Russian children's' institutions are infamous for their poverty and inefficiency.
Human Rights Watch found tens of thousands of Russian children confined in brutal conditions, deprived of rights as fundamental and basic as food and free movement.
Many of Russia's abandoned children are wrongly classified as mentally or physically disabled - thus ensuring they enter the virtually inescapable cycle of medication, abuse and confinement.
While lack of finances is definitely at the root of the problem, some child experts in Russia say that many orphanages could be run more effectively -- even on the meagre funds they are allotted.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"Our orphanage is perhaps better than others not so much because the economic situation but because of our personnel -- its the correct choice of people working with the kids. I wouldn't say that for instance we get more funding than another orphanage, it is just what we do with them."
SUPER CAPTION: Marina Nikinova, Director of Orphanage, No. 26
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
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20 июл 2015
