Boris Altshuler

Not to Miss a Historic Chance (abridged)
Journal “Smolensk” # 7(87), July 2006, Pp. 4-5.
Subtitle at the Cover Page of the Issue: “Baby Homes are overcrowded: pages 4-5”.
At the Last Cover Page where photos of kids looking for parents are placed the Editorial speaks about this Article, about Svetlana Kuzmenkova’s Family Placement Service experience etc.

The very fact that President of Russia during 15 minutes from his one hour 10 May 2006 Message to Parliament spoke about “Love, women, children. About family” may become a salutary event for the country. “Salutary” because situation in these fields is “critical”, as Vladimir Putin put it. President spoke about demography situation, about necessity of deinstitutionalization of care of orphaned children ("I charge the Government to create together with regional authorities the mechanisms allowing decrease in number of children in internats…"), about the task to change the attitude to family in the whole society. This means that first of all the attitude of State itself must change to better, that the work of federal, regional and municipal child protecting systems must be essentially improved. The newest experience in Smolensk Region demonstrated how false is the opinion that Russian people are “heartless”. Svetlana Kuzmenkova, Director of Smolensk Orphanage working during two years as a Family Placement Service, said to me few day ago that she is really astonished with people’s reaction to “Find me, Mother!” appeals. So many people are coming to the Service and are interested in taking the child. Earlier, when children in institutions and society lived in a sense in parallel worlds, when no targeted work was done to draw people’s attention to the problem, it really looked as if people are indifferent to children. But the very moment when the way the State system works was changed, let it be just an experiment, it became evident that there are so many not indifferent, warm-hearted people living in Russia.

This remarkable “discovery” we made in Smolensk Region back four years ago when “Right of the Child” took part in organization of “Vacations in the Family” programs initiated and supported in Smolensk Region by American NGO “Kidsave International”. The adventure was rather new and unusual. I remember as teenagers - inmates of Gagarin school-internat went on their own over peoples houses and apartments with a question: “Would you like to take me for vacations?”. And people responded. As a result of these programs hundreds of inmates of Smolensk Region children’s institutions acquired the precious experience of life in the family environment. Now after the Law on Patronat Family Care was adopted in Smolensk Region in September 2005 the possibility appeared to broaden this guest-visits experience to permanent family placement of the institutionalized children. From 30 inmates of the above named Pre-school Orphanage of the Town of Smolensk 20 are already living in families. And Children Home organized the fabric of preparation and training of new substitute parents. Thus in Smolensk Region the mechanism of deinstitutionalization is being created – the task which President of  Russia spoke about in his Message to Parliament.

But much is still to be done. E.g. “Vacations in the Family” programs and development of patronat family care will hardly help the family placement of small kids – inmates of Baby Homes. They first of all must be adopted. However no active work in this direction is done in Smolensk Region. That is why the practical ban for foreign adoption introduced since Summer 2004 by authorities of Smolensk Region did such a great harm to children and resulted in actually catastrophic situation. Baby Homes “Krasnyi Bor” in Smolensk, in Yartsevo are overcrowded, new abandoned kids arrive, many of them live for long months in hospitals because there are no places in the overpacked Baby Homes. Administration of Smolensk Region plans now to open one more Baby Home. But this is a dead-alley approach, the way to abyss – please read the Message of President of Russia. It is so easy, just with the stroke of the pen,  to build the “iron curtain” for children. It is much more difficult to organize the good life for children in Russia, in Smolensk Region in particular. And we can’t name “good” the life when one nurse must feed simultaneously 25 kids. There are very good and kind people working in Baby Home “Krasnyi Bor”, but when you see the shots of film from this Baby Home (Smolensk REN-TV, March 2005) you can’t help being horrified: so many not wanted kids in Russia where children population decreases one million per year.

Thus Message of President is a real chance to improve the situation. And we have no right to miss this historic chance. During a month after President appealed to Parliament on 10 May 2006 we – members of “Right of the Child” (Svetlana Pronina and author of this Article) – as experts of Public Chamber of Russian Federation participated in elaboration of detailed system-building proposals targeted at realization of priorities of President’s Message. (The elaborated Proposals became official document of the Public Chamber on 30 June 2006 – Note at translation). The essential part of Proposals covers the problems of organization of the orphanhood prevention work and family placement work (the “flood of orphans from the population” in Russia reached now 130 thousands of new orphans per year and it only increases). To organize this plural work first of all municipal guardianship and trusteeship bodies must be strengthened with accompanying professional services, but this can’t be done without appropriate additions and amendments in the federal legislation. Also there is great need in the targeted Federal Program of reforming of some Orphanages into Orphanhood Prevention and Family Placement Centers associated with municipal guardianship and trusteeship bodies.
 
Special chapter of the elaborated Proposals are the measures targeted at making Russian adoption system more friendly to in-Russia adopters (these proposals were elaborated by “Right of the Child” in cooperation with Alexei Rudov and Galina Krasnitskaya – organizers of the “In new family” project). The proposals include the necessity to establish by Federal Law the financial support of adopters and to cancel the existing demands of deprivation of adopted child of all privileges which he/she possessed as an orphan, i.e. before the adoption. It is necessary to establish by the Law the special medical insurance for adopted child and also establish the right for paid leave for one of adoptive parents in case of adoption of the child of ANY  age. The Law must make it obligatory for all guardianship and trusteeship bodies to organize in all Orphanages and Baby Homes located at their territory the “Open Days” for officially registered potential adopters. This may be a remedy to the present unacceptable situation when child placed into the institutions system practically “vanishes from sight”. The only sign which remains from the institutionalized child is a short “derivative information” and rather bad child’s photo which are shown to adopters by not always friendly workers of State Regional Bank of Data of Children Deprived of Parental Care…

15 June 2006, Moscow

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Boris L’vovich Altshuler is a Head of the “Right of the Child” NGO, Member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Expert of Commission on Questions of Social Development of The Public Chamber of Russian Federation, Coordinator of the Section on Children’s Rights of the Expert Council under Ombudsman for Human Rights of Russia, Member of Coordinating Council of the All-Russian Union “Civil Society – for Children of Russia”.