There are over 5,000 orphanages in Russia today where over 250,000 children are living permanently.

There are around 10% of the orphanages currently in a terrible condition and don’t meet basic standard of living, 40% needs urgent total refurbishment as many of those buildings are in the state of breakdown, 40% of orphanage graduates become alcoholics or drug addicts, 40% break the law and end up in prison and only 20% of them manage to do well in life.

In certain establishments for children the things are really bad. Imagine children who make shoes for themselves using old car tyres or who don’t come outside during the winters because they don’t have anything to wear. Such problems come up every day and everywhere. The further from the centre the worse is the situation. Can you imagine that during a medical examination it was established that 50% of the examined children had a bad vision because of the lack of vitamins and malnourishment and, what is the most upsetting, in some cases because of the lack of lightbulbs in rooms where the children do their homework and in playrooms.