Orphanages and Homeless Shelters

Many of the estimated 700,000 orphans in Russia remain unprepared to take care of themselves or find a job, factors that greatly contribute to the high rates of suicide, homelessness, prostitution and crime amongst former orphans. RCWS is committed to giving orphans a sense of care and loving absent in their lives and is dedicated to giving them a future. Donations translate to gifts of heat and transportation, improved sleeping and living environments, vocational training programs and other educational initiatives that prepare children for productive lives. Our goal is to enable orphanages to meet basic needs, and to promote comprehensive programs that help orphans develop into healthy and independent adults.

For hundreds of thousands of children in Russia’s cities, homelessness is a way of life. International medical organizations estimate that there are 250,000 homeless children in Moscow alone. The Russian Children’s Welfare Society has given grants to shelters and soup kitchens to help alleviate this serious problem. For example, in 2006, the Society awarded a $20,000 grant to the Shelter for Childhood in Moscow; a facility run by professionals who attend to the physical, emotional and psychiatric needs of children rescued from life on the streets. The shelter's comprehensive services include medical care, therapy sessions, and training for foster parents as well as for biological parents who wish to be reunited with their children. RCWS will continue to help such organizations to battle homelessness.

During the last several years, we have been supporting an experimental program of keeping the newborn with its mother with the assistance of grandparents, so the infant can avoid beginning life in a baby orphanage.

Your contribution can help us help children have a home. Please click here to help!