Guest Post:
Liliya Shakirzyanova
M.A. Public Administration Candidate, 2014
Hello everyone! I’ve been very lucky to implement my project in one of the Russian orphanages this summer. This is being done with the help of Kathryn Davis Peace Project. My target audience is teenagers who are getting ready to leave the orphanage soon. Preparing them for independent life is incredibly important.
The orphanage I work at has about 65 children. It is hard to give an exact number because there is a constant flow of newcomers and out-goers. The age range is from 2 to 18.
My working day usually starts at 5.45 because the bus to the village leaves at 8 am. It’s quite difficult to get all the kids together. Some of them are outside, others are out and about, some are in their rooms. Finally, when we are all together, we start our workshops. The last lesson was about budgeting. I think we managed to make the kids interested introducing them to Monopoly (Russian style, with Russian companies). While we were playing we were talking about what taxes are and why we have to pay them, about the importance of budgeting and saving, about credit cards and loans. At the beginning of a game/lesson some boys said “I’ll definitely take a loan. Who wouldn’t? It’s free money!” Many of them did not know how the system works.
That lesson was definitely a success. But it’s not always like that. Very often we come there and see that the teenagers who were asking for a lesson or a game and couldn’t wait for it a day before, are now passive and not interested at all. I couldn’t figure it out at first. Then I found out that sometimes kids call their parents or relatives (some of them have them and keep in touch with them) or are even taken home sometimes, and when they are back, they are upset, reserved or aggressive. The kids have different stories; almost all of them are so-called social orphans. It means their parents are alive but don’t take care of them for some reason or another. At first the kids take a defensive position, do their best to show you that they don’t want you to come there but when they get to know you better they trust you and even share their stories which make me shiver.
Working with such kids is not easy but incredibly rewarding.
One Comment
Amazing work! And the budgeting workshop really sounds great in the Kathryn Davis Peace Project. This kinda real-time workshops will definitely gonna work much better for kids! I would suggest to refer some kids related websites like Hope, which may also help the teenagers.