Challenging the Social Norms in Russia

Mercy Corps International
Wednesday, 3 October 2001

Mercy Corps Program Promotes Acceptance of Disabled Children and Abandonment Prevention

Imagine having a newborn baby only to learn that she was born with a cleft chin or perhaps with crossed eyes. For most parents in the developed world with access to modern medical care, such afflictions would be easily treatable and their children would be able to lead healthy, normal lives.

Now imagine that you are a parent in the Russian Far East. You have given birth to the same little girl with the same cleft chin or crossed eyes. Only this time you do not have access to modern medical care and your child is forced to live with her affliction. You have a big heart and still love your child, but because of her condition she will forever be classified "disabled" and more likely than not she will be placed into a state-run orphanage and will never go home again.

Such is the reality for many parents and children in Russia where the stigma of being labeled disabled is one that prevents access to mainstream schooling and is a burden carried throughout one's entire life.

"We are doing a lot to try to make these kind of problems less of a medical issue and more of a social one," says James Donally, the Mercy Corps Country Director for Russia.

"Our partners have been really good at getting these children de-classified as disabled which determines whether or not they will go to mainstream school and how they will be treated for the rest of their lives," he says.

Donally oversees the Assistance to Russian Orphans Activity (ARO) program, an USAID-funded program of technical assistance to Russian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Russian government. Working with 12 local partner organizations in the Russian Far East regions of Primorskii Krai and Magadan Oblast, the Mercy Corps program aims to prevent child abandonment, help develop community-based programs to aid special needs children, and facilitate the transition back into society for those children leaving orphanages.

An estimated 600,000 children live in orphanages in Russia, but 90 percent of all orphans have at least one living parent. Many Russian children are placed into orphanages when there are issues at home such as violence or alcoholism or when their parents cannot afford to provide the basic necessities.

"There are countless numbers of social orphans. No one has done work to keep these children in families. Our program does not assist the orphanages, which aren't bad and are funded, but rather, we try to help the families that are at risk and the children with disabilities to prevent them from being placed into the orphanages in the first place," Donally says.

Additionally, the program assists those children leaving orphanages for the adult world. Donally says that many have never learned basic life skills such as how to find a job or even how to prepare a cup of tea. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of these orphans go on to lead a life of crime and face substance abuse problems. Female orphans are also often targets for prostitution rings.

"In one orphanage there are fifth generation orphans. It is a tough cycle to break. One of our hopes is that the Russian government sees our program and that it thinks about its social structure. After all, it is far more expensive to run an orphanage than it is to place a child into foster care," Donally says.

The ARO program is currently operating in the second year of a three-year grant. Donally says that he is hopeful that the program will be extended longer and that it will be expanded to other areas in the Russian Far East.

For more information, or to contact Mercy Corps International, see their website at: www.mercycorps.org