“We have no one to film! There are practically no orphans left!” - this is a kind of code that, in conversations with me, employees of guardianship and trusteeship authorities increasingly began to use, that is, people whose job is to place orphans in foster families. This code means that in some region, district or city of our country there are almost no orphans left whose video profiles I can film. I can’t, fortunately and unfortunately – at the same time.
I work at a charity, our goal is to help children living in an orphanage find a real home, find parents, a family. We mainly help children by making video profiles about them. Each questionnaire is a short video of one and a half minutes, where we try to show the child’s individuality, talking about his hobbies and desires, character traits, achievements, dreams.
Such videos are a chance for children from orphanages to be noticed by a potential adoptive parent. Over the four years of our foundation’s existence, out of 24,000 children whose profiles we created, this chance worked for 7,000 - this is how many children were eventually taken from orphanages by their mothers and fathers.
I tell all this to explain what, fortunately and unfortunately, has now begun to happen to orphans and our ability to help them.
Ekaterina Lebedeva
So, every year the Russian Ministry of Education reports on how greatly the number of orphans in orphanages is decreasing. The numbers are truly impressive: if at the beginning of 2014 there were about 106,000 children living in Russian orphanages, then in 2015 there were already 87,000. There are no official statistics at the beginning of this year, but, according to rough estimates, children in orphanages now about 70,000.
All this suggests that our foundation has to some extent less work, because we now need to take down questionnaires less – and this, fortunately. This is truly great news. In a sense, reducing the number of children in orphanages is a victory for all of us, a victory for our (pardon the pathos) society.
But there is also something “unfortunate” about these statistics. There are still tens of thousands of children in orphanages, so why, according to many guardianship officials, is it difficult to find someone to take profiles?
Firstly, as strange as it may sound, the reason is in the children themselves. Blue-eyed, blond babies and toddlers waiting for their moms and dads to finally take them from orphanage, is a myth. Children preschool age They were sorted into foster families long ago (again, fortunately), and there are practically no of them left in orphanages. What remained were teenagers aged 10-16 years and children with complex physical and mental illnesses. It is difficult to place them in families. Objectively difficult.
But there is another problem that goes beyond the figures of official statistics, which, it seems, is not measured by any statistics at all, or at least no one officially publishes these statistics. We are talking about “parental” children.
“Parental” are those boys and girls who have mothers and fathers or other relatives, but for a variety of reasons they cannot or do not want to take their children home. At the same time, parents do not legally abandon their children; they “simply” hand them over to orphanages by writing a corresponding application.
This “procedure” has been permitted by law for a long time, but, according to my personal feelings and observations, as well as my information from many social activists and volunteers, in the last few months there have been more “parental” children in orphanages.
Maybe it’s because of the crisis, because of which people simply no longer have enough money to support their children. Or maybe officials just don’t want to spoil beautiful numbers, proving that the number of orphans has decreased, and therefore somehow extend the status of “parental” children to children - after all, such children do not fall into any statistics.
Be that as it may, it turns out that there are children in orphanages, but it is impossible to take down profiles about many of them, and it is also impossible to look for foster families for them. Such a paradox. Legislative trap. How many children fall into this trap - tens, hundreds or thousands - is unknown. And when the mothers and fathers of these children will take them home (if they take them at all) is also unknown.
How many orphans and disabled children are there in Russia? What forms of adoption are there? What reforms should there be in the prevention of orphanhood? What are the stereotypes of how an orphan is perceived? What to do to adopt a child? Figures and facts.
Walter Langley, The Orphan (1889).
There are about 650 thousand orphans and children left without parental care in Russia. At the same time, as of September 2013, there were about 100 thousand children in Russian orphanages (the majority of orphans - more than 500 thousand - are being raised in families).
In Russia, there is a trend towards a decrease in the number of children left without parental care identified in one year. During 2012, 74 thousand 724 such children were identified (in 2011 - more than 82 thousand).
At the same time, there is a steady trend towards a reduction in the number of children placed in families for upbringing. In 2012, 58.8 thousand children were transferred to family placements (in 2011 - 67.5 thousand, in 2009 - 86.6 thousand). On the one hand, this is due to a reduction in the number of children identified annually as being left without parental care, as well as a reduction in the number of pupils in organizations for orphans and children left without parental care. On the other hand, this may be explained by the fact that there are many disabled children, teenagers or children with a strong attachment to their birth family left in orphanages. It is difficult to place these categories of children in families (for comparison: in Ukraine the number of children transferred to family forms of education is growing every year).
Today in Russia about 85% of orphans are social orphans, that is, children with living parents (5 years ago this figure was less than 75%). Russia has not yet developed a system for working with a child’s birth family and preventing social orphanhood. IN lately in Moscow and large cities the first steps are being taken in this direction (for example, the Moscow Department of Social Protection in 2013 developed and adopted the Concept of a model for the prevention of social orphanhood, which, however, has not yet begun to work). Until now, guardianship and trusteeship authorities operate within the framework of a binary paradigm: leave or take a child from the birth family. A system of social services and family support in difficult life situations has not been developed. There is still a shortage of NGOs that are capable of taking on the functions of helping a specific family.
Among the orphans in orphanages there are 17.5 thousand disabled people. In total there are 576 thousand disabled children in Russia. In most cases, these children are disabled with mental disorders. Although in 2013 the allowance for a disabled child was increased, and the amount lump sum payment For those parents who adopt disabled children, state support does not cover even one tenth of the needs of such families.
In Russia, the secondary education system does not meet the needs of disabled children; there is a lack of qualified rehabilitation and medical care, such children are deprived of further social and educational prospects. Disabled people with mild mental or mental disorders cannot get a job (whereas in developed countries, for example, people with Down syndrome are required to be hired simple work). Many potential adoptive parents are stopped by the fact that after the death of the adoptive parents (in most cases, the adoptive parents are people of middle and older age), the disabled person is doomed to social death - placement in a psychoneurological boarding school, where he will be isolated from society for the rest of his life and will certainly lose all acquired social skills. A way out of the situation could be the organization of training apartments and private houses cohabitation disabled people under the supervision of healthy people, etc.
In connection with the so-called Dima Yakovlev law (a ban on the adoption of Russian children in the United States), the topic of orphans and their adoption in Russia received wide publicity and attention.
By 2018, the Russian government has set a goal to halve the number of orphanages. Over the past four years, the number of state orphanages has decreased from 1,770 to 1,344 (data as of May 2013). In Moscow in 2013, state orphanages were focused on placing children in families: each orphanage received the appropriate order, the fulfillment of which determines the amount of salary and further employment of directors of institutions. Over the course of several years, it is planned to maintain two types of orphanages in Moscow: small-scale (less than 30 people) and family-type orphanages. In accordance with the presidential decree of December 28, 2012, an item on the proportion of children left without parental care was added to the list of indicators for assessing the effectiveness of the executive authorities of the country’s constituent entities.
In 2012, Russia adopted the “School of Adoptive Parents” program, within the framework of which targeted work began with those families who intend to adopt a child. Currently, there are about 50 such schools in Moscow, and they are also open in other regions.
In 2013, a reform of the system of orphanages began in Moscow, where an infant left without parental care is forced to stay for up to 5 years. During this time, the child loses significant development due to lack of attention, communication and, in fact, through the efforts of the state system, is forcibly protected from all needs except vital ones. In Moscow, 7 orphanages have been closed; starting from 2014, it is planned to transfer the remaining 10 institutions to the management of the social protection department (previously they were under the jurisdiction of the health department) and establish a process for the prompt transfer of children to families there. Unlike Moscow, the problem of orphanages is still relevant for other Russian regions.
In order to avoid a situation where a child remains in a medical institution for a long time without attention and supervision, it is necessary to consider a mechanism for the prompt transfer of newborn children to professional foster families. While the issue of the rights of the birth parents is being resolved, the child must live in a professional foster family, which, if necessary (returning their rights to the birth parents), will be obliged to return the child to the birth family.
Photo from the site http://fishki.net/anti
The procedure for placing a child in a family
In Russia, there are 5 forms of family placement for orphans and children left without parental care:
— adoption;
— guardianship (trusteeship);
- creating a foster family;
- temporary placement of children with families;
- creation of a foster family.
Adoption assumes that all the rights and responsibilities of an adopted child are equal to the rights and responsibilities of natural children. In most cases, this form is used when we're talking about about babies.
Guardianship- a form of placement of minor citizens under 14 years of age (from 14 to 18 years of age - guardianship), in which the corresponding duties are performed, as a rule, free of charge. Most often, guardianship of the ward is established by his relatives.
Adoptive family- guardianship or trusteeship of a child or children, which is carried out under a foster family agreement concluded between the guardianship and trusteeship authority and the foster parents or foster parent, for the period specified in this agreement. The guardianship authorities undertake to check and help the adoptive family. Adoptive parents receive a monthly remuneration and funds to support the child.
Temporary placement of children with families– transfer of children to families during holidays, weekends or non-working periods holidays and in other cases for a period of no more than 1 month. As a rule, it is used in emergency cases while relatives are collecting documents for guardianship or foster family.
Patron form of the device- on at the moment almost never used. The difference between foster care and guardianship and adoption is, first of all, that this form allows for the selection of families, vocational training and support for the family after the adoption of the child.
Basic requirements for adoptive parents:
- adulthood;
— no cases of restriction of parental rights, removal from duties of a guardian, foster parent, or adoptive parent;
— legal capacity;
— no criminal record;
— absence of medical contraindications;
— permanent place of residence that meets sanitary standards;
- income that provides the child with a standard of living not lower than the subsistence level;
- undergoing preparation for adoption.
Steps to Adoption:
— Obtaining the status of a candidate for adoptive parents
— consultation with guardianship and trusteeship authorities;
— training at school for foster parents;
— collection of necessary documents;
— obtaining a conclusion on the possibility of becoming an adoptive parent;
— registration with the guardianship authorities.
— Selection and introduction to the child
— acquaintance with the general database of children left without parental care;
— receiving referrals for acquaintance and getting to know the child;
- making a decision on adoption.
— Judgment
— obtaining a conclusion from the guardianship authorities on the advisability of adoption;
— court decision;
- preparation of documents.
Problems of placing children in a family
Despite a number of positive changes, the country still does not have a system of assessment and qualified control over foster families. Schools of foster parents are limited in their powers and in fact cannot issue negative conclusions about the possibility of placing a child in a family, and guardianship and trusteeship authorities are very often not competent enough to adequately resolve this issue. In addition, a system for training specialists in the school of foster parents has not been developed.
As before, many orphanages, especially homes for disabled children, are semi-closed institutions where access for volunteers and public organizations is difficult (the exception is Moscow, where government institutions are required to admit volunteers). Many state-run orphanages still house more than 100-200 children, undermining the idea of individual care and attention for each child.
In the process of adoption The interests of the potential adoptive parent, rather than the child, are put at the forefront. The official website, where the federal database on children left without parental care is published, literally involves selecting a child by eye color, hair color, etc. The system is built on the principle of a store and is based on an attempt to persuade potential parents to take a child, whereas in world practice it is not the parent who is matched with the child, but rather the opposite – the parent is matched to the child. In order to change this approach, it is necessary to rebuild the system and create a database of adoptive parents. A parent must be selected for a specific child depending on the child’s individual qualities and characteristics.
Not many people in Russia decide to take orphans into their families. This is often associated with stereotypes: a negative attitude towards the fact of adopting a child, the desire of parents for the mandatory success of their (adopted) child. For various reasons, having an adopted child in Russia is considered shameful. Foster parents in most cases wish to adopt blue-eyed, beautiful babies whom they hope to raise as their own children. Many are not prepared for the real situation (most children are teenagers over 10 years old with their own sad childhood history or are disabled).
In Russia, the number of children of labor migrants, mostly of non-Slavic origin, is growing every year. Due to problems with documents, parents of such children do not apply to government agencies, while there is an obvious shortage of non-state institutions to help migrant children.
Statistical information taken from open sources (website usinovite.ru, RIA Novosti, statements by P.A. Astakhov, O.Yu. Golodets, etc.)
The problem of orphanhood, including social orphanhood, is one of the most pressing in our country. Orphanages and shelters are filled to capacity. There is often no place for abandoned children in an orphanage; they are forced to wait in hospitals for their turn.
According to the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Women, Children and Family Affairs, Elena Mizulina, there are 4-5 times more orphans in Russia than in European countries and the United States. According to statistics, the number of abandoned children in Russia currently exceeds the post-war figure. But there are not many people who want to take children into the family.
Pervouralsk journalist and historian Anatoly Gusev cited interesting statistics in his blog. In the hungry year of 1942, when just over 57 thousand people lived in Pervouralsk, Pervouralsk residents adopted 21 children. In 2011, the city already had about 150 thousand inhabitants, there were almost no barracks, many families had dachas and cars, and only 20 children were adopted! But out of this twenty, Russian citizens adopted only 12. “The Soviet people are gone. The Russians are left!” concludes Anatoly Gusev.
Government officials are calling Russian citizens to adopt children more actively, for which they propose to encourage them by creating conditions in the country under which citizens of the Russian Federation will adopt children more often than foreigners. In one of his speeches, Vladimir Putin commented on the situation: “I mean, first of all, providing housing, creating conditions for reducing those who adopt from abroad, and in some near future reducing this to zero, encouraging Adoption of children into Russian families."
Everything seemed to be fine, the state was supporting the family who took the child into their home. This support is quite significant: payment of up to 300 thousand rubles upon adoption of a child, issuance of housing certificates, salaries to parents in the amount of up to 17 thousand rubles per month for each adopted child, as well as a number of other benefits. In the end, everyone should benefit, including the child and the society into which this child will enter upon reaching adulthood.
But the special cynicism inherent in our time is manifested in the fact that many citizens decide to take advantage of this opportunity to improve their material well-being! Moreover, foster families have become especially popular in rural areas, where wages are much lower than in urban areas, and homestead farming requires extra hands, because existing rules They are allowed to take up to eight children into one foster family! Can you imagine how many times the income of adoptive parents increases, who most often do not have basic pedagogical training?
And how does such a large so-called “family” differ from an orphanage? Surely neither sincere relationships, nor manifestations of mutual tenderness, nor sincere conversations. Perhaps children in orphanages lack all this, but the latter are staffed not only by professional teachers who are well acquainted with the specifics of working with orphans, but also by psychologists, methodologists, medical staff, etc.
Unprofessional foster parents, interested primarily in material incentives, find themselves unable to cope with raising children (especially when they reach adolescence) and return them back to orphanages. The tragedy of “twice rejected” children is scary to even imagine. And there are currently (think about it) 30 thousand of them across the country! Secondary orphanhood deeply traumatizes children and entails their moral and mental degradation. Being abandoned for the second time in their lives, children lose their remaining trust in adults and become disillusioned with the institution of family; their problems with attachment to loved ones deepen.
Why is family and, above all, mother so important for a child? She personifies love, tenderness, and security for a child. It is in the relationship with the mother that the child learns to care, love, and express his feelings. Therefore, children raised in orphanages are unable to establish deep, trusting relationships and are often unable to start a family and raise their children. Even with siblings, the child remains lonely - after all, in orphanages they are divided into different groups according to age, which is not conducive to the establishment of close relationships.
How can a graduate of an orphanage, accustomed to the fact that someone else makes all decisions for him and he is provided with everything, adapt to life in our capitalist society, where man is by no means a friend to man? But the good news is that there are still people who are ready to provide their shelter and their love to no one the right child, although they themselves are by no means rich.
If there were more such selfless people, then the problem of overcrowding in orphanages would begin to be solved, and society would grow with full-fledged new members, ready to develop and improve this society.
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Dynamics of orphanhood since 2000
Currently, various ministries, departments and state statistics bodies collect a significant amount of statistical and analytical information related to orphanhood and family troubles. However, much of this data is not publicly available, making it difficult to analyze and publicly discuss. However, even on the basis of available statistical data, it is possible to assess the current situation in the field of orphanhood, as well as to trace the direction of the dynamics of ongoing processes.
In Russia, from the 1990s until the middle of the last decade, the number of orphans and children left without parental care, as well as the number of orphans identified annually, increased (Fig. 2). This is explained, on the one hand, by the significant deterioration in living standards that occurred as a result of the economic crises of the 1990s, which led to the marginalization of certain segments of the population. And on the other hand, the development of a system for identifying families and children in disadvantaged conditions during the same period. However, as can be seen from Fig. 2, starting from the mid-2000s, these indicators in absolute terms have been gradually decreasing. Thus, if in 2004 the number of orphans and children left without parental care was 726.9 thousand, then in 2005-2006 it decreased to 726.6 thousand, by 2010 - to 682.9, by 2011 - up to 664.5, and by 2012 - up to 649.6 thousand.
Figure 2. Number of orphans and children left without parental care
Source: data from the collections “Russian Statistical Yearbook”, forms 103-RIK
The reduction in absolute indicators in the number of orphans and children left without parental care observed from 2005-2007, however, is not associated with the positive effects of the policy implemented in the field of orphanhood, but with the ongoing reduction in the total number of children in Russia as a whole. This is evidenced by the dynamics of the share of orphans and children left without parental care in the total number of children in Russia aged 0 to 17 years. As can be seen from Fig. 2, this figure increased until 2009, when it reached 2.8%, and only after that it began to gradually decline.
When calculating the total number of orphans and children left without parental care, Rosstat includes in its consideration children given up for adoption, as well as those transferred to all types of family placements. This approach is not entirely correct. When placed for adoption, children lose their orphan status, are legally fully equal to their own children and lose all connection with the system of institutional structure and state support for orphans. The situation of children placed in various forms of guardianship and trusteeship, in foster families or family-type orphanages, also differs from the status of those living in institutional institutions - primarily in terms of living conditions, psychological and emotional comfort, opportunities for socialization and adaptation to independent life.
The dynamics of the number of orphans and children left without parental care, minus those given up for adoption and those placed in family placements, in comparison with the total number of orphans, is shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen that the absolute number of orphans and children left without parental care living in institutional institutions has been gradually declining since 2004, while the other two indicators have shown a downward trend only since 2007. Probably, this ratio of indicators can be considered as evidence of gradual institutional changes in the system of placement of orphans that have taken place over recent years, aimed primarily at the spread of family forms of placement.
Figure 3. Number of orphans and children left without parental care, taking into account various forms of placement
Source: Russian statistical yearbook for different years.
Distinctive feature Russian orphanhood is its “social face”. The share of biological orphans in the total number of orphans and children left without parental care still remains below 20% (Fig. 4). From the mid-2000s to 2009, the share of biological orphans in the total number of identified orphans decreased, and at the same time their absolute number decreased. Since 2009, against the backdrop of a continuing trend in the dynamics of the absolute number of biological orphans, there has been an increase in their share in the total number of orphans and children left without parental care. This situation is explained by the drop in the total number of orphans noted above. Observed in recent years the combination of the dynamics of absolute and relative indicators in general may indicate the presence of positive changes in the system for identifying families in crisis, the gradual emergence of primary preventive work with families and the prevention of the removal of children.
Figure 4. Share of biological orphans and children younger ages in the total number of orphans and children left without parental care identified annually
Source: Form 103-RIK data.
02/08/2019 The Ministry of Education will submit a bill on changing the procedure for the adoption of minors to the Government .
February 8 in the Public Chamber Russian Federation Hearings were held on the bill “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation on the Protection of Children’s Rights.” The event was attended by Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation T. Yu. Sinyugina.
During her speech, T. Yu. Sinyugina said that the department is ready to submit a bill to change the procedure for the adoption of minors to the Government.
We have met with you several times over the course of six months. And the reason for our meetings was an interested and caring conversation and work on a bill, which today is ready for us to submit to the Government,” said T. Yu. Sinyugina.
For information
In December 2018, members of the Interdepartmental working group The Ministry of Education of Russia has prepared a bill “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation on the Protection of Children’s Rights.” The bill was posted on the federal portal of draft regulations for wide public discussion.
The bill contains new approaches to the transfer of orphans to families that will develop the institution of guardianship and improve the conditions for training people who want to take an orphan into their family.
For the first time, the bill proposes to introduce the concept of “escort” into federal legislation. It is planned that this authority will be vested in authorized regional authorities and organizations, including non-profit organizations.
The document pays special attention to the adoption procedure; a provision has been added on the procedure for reinstating adoptive parents in the responsibilities of parents if they were previously deprived of this opportunity.
Grisha is the fourth child of Sakhaya Ivanova. When the baby was four months old, it turned out that he was seriously ill. It was not possible to make a diagnosis at the place of residence in Yakutsk. But I managed to send him to Moscow to the world-famous Center for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology named after Dima Rogachev.
