As part of the meeting of the International Discussion Club “VISION 3000”, which took place on January 26, 2024, Smirnova Daria Andreevna, Head of the Tourism Committee of the Youth Commission of the Moscow Coordinating Council of Regional Communities under the Government of Moscow, assistant to Mother Superior Abbess Yerotiida Nikolo-Solbinsky Convent, member of the Board of Trustees of GBU My family Center “Young Guard”.
Daria Andreevna highlighted the topic “Adaptation and socialization of orphaned children, children left without parental care and children in difficult life situations using examples of public and private practices.”
There is an unusual place near Pereslavl-Zalessky: far from settlements, the handsome Nikolo-Solbinsky Monastery has grown up for a quarter of a century, whose main concern was the upbringing of children: in the most modern living conditions, surrounded by Orthodox churches, more than 200 girls of all ages live and study under the bell ringing – from kindergarten to senior teenage. So that people with a spiritual core inside multiply in the country.
First, in 2007, a shelter appeared in the monastery, where girls who find themselves in a difficult life situation are accepted. According to Sister Tatiana, children are often brought from dysfunctional families by grandparents or uncle-aunts who are unable to cope with the task of raising an orphaned child. These children often have health problems. But the question of admission is always decided only by the abbess, who, by the way, has already adopted nine girls herself. And since children need to be taught, a kindergarten and a school have been established within the walls of the monastery, for which specialists have been invited.
In addition to secondary schools, children additionally study painting, home economics, needlework, theater, study music in depth, and sing in the choir. They are handled by highly qualified specialists with state and international awards and titles. They often perform concerts and performances in Russia and abroad, participate in festivals, contests, exhibitions, go on educational trips and excursions, and love to help with the housework at the monastery. The Solba Choir performs at the best venues in Russia – in the Kremlin, the Temple of the Russian Armed Forces.
All the children play in the theater and sing in the choir. During the year, the director of the theater puts on two performances at Christmas and Easter. The only Orthodox college in Russia teaches in three areas: a pastry chef, a seamstress-a designer of clothes, a regent-choral conducting.
“The church should be open to people, to go down a step lower, to a person. Do not close yourself inside, but go towards someone who is looking for God and does not know how to find him. Very often, people are stopped on this path by some patterns, traditions that are worthless at all: how a person is dressed or what kind of hair he has on his head. For God, every soul is valuable, therefore, the approach of our monastery when meeting with those who come to us is to understand a person, his condition, soul, needs and meet them halfway”, Abbess Yerotiida, abbess of the Nikolo-Solbinsky monastery:
The main principle of the Nikolo-Solbinsky Convent is social service and upbringing of children.
Now I want to tell you about government support measures
About the orphanage “Molodaya Gvardiya”, it has existed since 1919. Now it is called in a modern way GBU “My family center “Molodaya Gvardiya”, located in Moscow, Vnukovskoye settlement.
My family center “Molodaya Gvardiya” has been helping families in times of crisis and children left without parental care for many years. The main goal of the institution is to create a unified system for the prevention of family problems.
The specialists of the institution are tasked with organizing timely and high-quality assistance to the family in overcoming a difficult period of life, mobilizing its resources, increasing parental responsibility and competence.
Thus, it seeks to protect childhood and the values of family education.
Support of substitute families is one of the priorities of the center’s work. The specialists of the institution face the task of becoming coordinators not only for working with children in need of state assistance, but also to organize the work of the support service for families in difficult life situations. The close cooperation of specialists contributes to the return of children in the hospital to their families and the competent support of families.
Since 2019, the institution has been providing post-international support for persons from among orphans and children left without parental care, aged 18 to 23 years, according to the order of the Department of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the city of Moscow dated June 5, 2019, 522. The majority of graduates receiving support services have a high level of adaptation, they receive or have received professional education, work, and have created families.
The school of foster parents operates on the basis of the institution. This activity on the preparation of foster parents is carried out in accordance with the order of the Department of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the city of Moscow No. 890 dated 09/02/2022 “On the results of the selection of authorized organizations for the exercise of certain powers in the field of guardianship and guardianship and support of families who have adopted a child (children) for upbringing.”The work is carried out by psychologists who have extensive practical experience working with orphaned children and children left without parental care. The school program includes individual and group classes. The training takes place in the form of trainings, consultations, and lectures.
The goal is to help students make an informed decision about the adoption of a child into a family and comprehensively prepare them for this step.
Upon completion of the training, students receive a certificate of completion of the SPR of the established sample, which meets the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, set out in Order No. 623 dated August 20, 2012 “On approval of the requirements for the content of the training program for persons wishing to adopt a child left without parental care into their family, and the form of the certificate of completion Such training is carried out on the territory of the Russian Federation.”
All the activities of the institution are aimed at preserving families, adapting and accompanying children. In this work, the interaction of children with the outside world is important and this is one of the tasks of the Board of Trustees.
Since 1996, the CCSS has been operating The Board of Trustees of the charitable foundation for the support of pupils of the Young Guard Center. It is headed by Nikolai Solovyov, President of the Association of Special Forces Veterans Units of the Codex Group of Companies.
To mark the 100th anniversary (2019) of the Young Guard, the foundation established a commemorative medal “We give our hearts to children.”
The Board of Trustees organizes holidays, field events, patriotic and spiritual events, clean-up days, summer children’s camps.
The above work is very important and in demand. Proper education of children and youth is not easy and requires a lot of resources. Helping such organizations is the task of each of us.
