During the Soviet era, the state government funded orphanages.
While not lavish by any means, there was usually adequate funding to provide for the most basic needs of the children. After communism collapsed, funding of the orphanages dropped an average of about 70%, a drop that they have never really recovered from.

In the past 8 years there have been many, many changes in Russia. The Russian economy has really begun to flourish, however this is causing an even greater chasm between those who have and those who have not. Living expenses have greatly risen, while the cost allotted to orphanages has not changed much at all. In recent months the decline in oil prices has caused a financial hardship on the government, and once again, the money available to social causes, including orphanages, is declining.

To make matters even more difficult, the number of children being placed into these orphanages is on the rise. As annual increase of about 12,000 additional orphans was the norm in the past, the new figures are much closer to 60,000 additional orphans per year added to the already over-loaded system. One of the reasons for the growth in numbers is a sharp increase in the number of 'social orphans'. These are children who have family members, some even mothers or fathers, but who have been turned over to the state to be raised due to economic or social problems.

While the Russian government claims to have 720,000 registered orphans, several international organizations place the actual number of orphans in Russia closer to 2.5 million.

More and more orphanages are being forced to find funding through private organizations, and individual donors. While there are orphanages who have had success in raising funding through private contributions or sponsorships, most are being forced to 'do more with less'.

Orphanage directors have never been trained on how to raise money and so many go without raising any additional funding and survive on just pennies a day per child. The orphanages closer to large cities do better than those located in less suburban areas. We will never forget what we learned at a children's home in Ivanovo, Russia (approx. 300km NE of Moscow). Tatiana, the director, told us that in the month of December, 2000, a decision had to be made on how to spend the very meager amount of money they had on hand for that month and their choice was shoes or food. With the harsh Russian winter getting harsher by the minute, the entire orphanage decided that shoes would be necessary if they were to be able to survive the next few months of cold. So for the entire month, each child was only allowed one serving of bread per day. Thus, the orphanage was able to ensure that everyone had shoes to protect them from the snow and ice.

There are probably hundreds of stories like this and many even worse. While we know that we cannot possibly fix or change every one of these issues in Russia (Yet!), we know that we can start by addressing some of them.

> The Solution...