SERVICES
Providing various services to support Russia's orphans and their families.
Russia has more than 1 million social orphans—children who have been abandoned, despite having one or more living parents. The trauma associated with this is often pushed to the side, as for a long time, therapy was an incredibly taboo topic. We partner with local female art therapists to sponsor children in one-on-one and group lessons, leading to real change and significant personal growth.
Additional services include equine therapy (therapeutic treatment using horses) for kids with disabilities, legal crisis counseling for women in difficult situations, and other services as they are needed by our community.
SUPPORT SERVICES
You can get involved in many ways.
- Engage with Anastasia, our art therapist, on Instagram at @art_terapea_minusinsk
- Consider supporting Anastasia directly in her endeavor to open a children's home
- Donate to the Legal Crisis Fund to ensure that women facing legal issues and barriers can receive support
LOCAL PARTNER HIGHLIGHT
Anastasia has been a pillar of the Minusinsk community for more than two decades. Every summer, she plans and executes summer camps for the youth of the community. These 10-14 day events welcome upwards of 30 students who are fed five times a day and enjoy a vivid program of games, group and team building activities, development seminars, and the occasional adrenaline-inducing thrill.
She first became interested in psychology when she realized that there were significant gaps in her knowledge of parenting her adopted children. Anastasia and her husband have five adopted children and three biological. She will earn her Bachelors of Psychology in 2023, but meanwhile has become a certified art-therapy provider.
In addition to giving free and discounted lessons to adopted and traumatized children in her community, Anastasia supports her husband in their family business. She is responsible for the administration and execution of all finances and legal paperwork.
In Siberia, owning your own business is not like in America—almost everyone engages in some kind of entrepreneurial or individual enterprise in order to subsidize their income. A large majority of the population grows at least a portion of what they consume, and the excess is often sold at the "rynok" (market). Anastasia and her family have a large garden where they grow tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and other vegetables, and a "dacha"—lot of land outside of the town—where they grow potatoes.
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