Training benefits children straight away

We are delighted that, with your help, the lead therapist at our Moldovan partner, Rain Kids, has been able to start her studies to develop her skills in working with autistic children.  A particular focus of Ana’s traininng has been early intervention with young children aged between 12 and 48 months.  We all know how vital these early years are for child development.  Providing early support can make a great difference to an autistic child’s communication skills, their behaviour and relationships in the family.  Rain Kids are finding that more families are coming to them with their concerns at this early stage, so it is very positive that our colleagues now feel better equipped to help them.

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A big thank you from one of our deaf club families

Valentina Balobanova, who runs the Deaf Club we sponsor in St Petersburg, was doing her shopping recently when a woman stopped her. This was Nina, who used to go to the Deaf Club with her son Nikita. He is now twenty, but his mama still remembers Valentina and the Deaf Club. The meeting prompted her to write a thank you letter to Valentina, the other staff at the Early Intervention Institute, and to you, the donors who keep the Club running.

Nikita as a toddler
Nikita as a toddler
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“I would like to thank the Early Intervention Institute and Valentina Balobanova for the great help they gave me and my son son. A few words about us. My name is Nina Nikitina and my son Nikita was born in 2004. A year later, I found out that he could not hear and he was diagnosed with hedrocephalic syndrome (which was cured). Well, it would be an understatment to say that it was a tragedy for me. My world simply collapsed. I was raising him alone, and I had absolutely no idea what documents needed to be completed, or what to do with all this. Somehow, by chance, while sitting in the hallway of the audiology center, one of the mothers told me about the Early Intervention Institute. She told mme that they have an excellent diagnostic service there, and run classes. After some time, I realized this meeting was an incredible grace of God. Having come to the center, our family found care and friends with the same difficulties. I found out where to go, what documents to fill out, what benefits I was entitled to, and where to get his hearing aid serviced. Basically, I learned everything I needed here. I have never met such warm people before. We didn’t miss a single class or event that took place at the institute. This became our second home. I want to thank the sponsors who make this possible from the bottom of my heart. You do an incredible miracle for us, such families, children.”

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Winter newsletter out now

Our winter newsletter is out now. You can read how your generous response to our summer appeal allowed us to rebuild the dining room of the Sunflower summer camp after it was destroyed by fire.

Many of the stories in this issue are about the difference your donations are making to disabled young people. We have Ilya, who is suprising his mother by making great progress even at the age of 27. We have news from Rain Kids in Chişinău, Moldova, who are benefitting from training for a key member of staff.

Our Christmas appeal this year is to help Adelina and other children who like her have special needs in Calarasi, Moldova. Can you help us raise £5,000 to fund a speech therapist and a special needs teacher for one year?

Finally, if you download the PDF version of the newsletter, you will find extra stories and details of our Christmas cards and gifts, which didn’t fit in the blog.

Adelina’s story

Adelina on the left with her friend Ana

Adelina (on the left in the picture) is 9 years old and has Down Syndrome. She struggles with language and communication, but these difficulties don’t stop her from being eager to express herself and trying to make herself understood. She loves music and will arrange the other children in a circle while she pretends to play the guitar or claps along with her favourite songs. The children watch her and even applaud at the end of the song.

This year our Christmas appeal aims to raise £5,000 to pay for a speech therapist and a special needs teacher to support children like Adelina. Read on and you will find out how the team at The Wish Centre are helping Adelina flourish.

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Sunflower: licensed to train

Sunflower group standing with forest in the background

Quality recognised

Our partners Sunflower have come a long way since we helped them get started 17 years ago. For some years we have been helping fund them to run training courses for social workers and psychologists. Now the quality of these courses has been recognised. They have received a licence as a training organisation and are able to issue certificates for the courses they offer on effectively supporting orphanage-leavers and foster or adoptive families. Their teaching is helping to raise the level of care across St Petersburg, the Leningrad region and beyond.

Summer camps revived

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our appeal to restore the Sunflower summer camp. Their dining area is now usable again after being destroyed by fire in 2023. The summer camps are held in a very special place and Sunflower use their surroundings well. A walk through the forest to the local sand quarry is a highlight of both summer camps, for young families and for the teenagers.

Our colleagues say this about the children’s experience this year:

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Communication Space helps Ilya

Ilya

Iya is 27 years old. Since birth, he has suffered from profound intellectual, visual, and motor impairments. He was also diagnosed with autism. Ilya is one of 20 children and young people who benefit from personalised help at the Communication Space Centre, which assists with their communication and independent living.

Due to his severe impairments, Ilya is unable to use communication books and pictures, relying only on natural gestures and pointing to objects. He fears and avoids unfamiliar public places, which can often lead to epileptic seizures. Ilya lives with his mother, Irina, and needs constant care and support from adults.

Last year the Centre’s specialists helped Ilya to adapt better to new places. He has become particularly good at understanding the difference between a hardware store and a grocery store, and he behaves differently in them. Grocery stores are his favourite! The main positive changes in his communication are related to food—it is during meals that Ilya began to initiate contact more often. At home, he has learned to rely on the daily routine.

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News from Moldova: Rain Kids

Five-year-old Alex lives in Chişinău with his family. The family turned to the Rain Kids Centre when it became clear that Alex was developmentally delayed. Their ambitions are simple, and ones most of the parents share: “I wanted Alex to start talking, eat independently, dress and undress by himself, to be more autonomous, to socialize.”

The staff at Rain Kids are very motivated to help the children in their care reach these goals. Last year, we helped them by providing supervision from an experienced practitioner from Romania. Now, we are funding Rain Kids’ lead therapist, Ana Cislaru, to raise her qualifications so she can offer training and supervision to her 8 colleagues.

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Alternative Communication improves every aspect of life

Andrei is 21 and he has Fragile X Syndrome, which affects his learning ability. He has been coming to Communication Space for group and individual sessions for more than ten years.

Alternative Communication is helping him in so many areas of his life. He uses the centre’s visual timetable and timers to understand what is going on through the day, which helps him stay calm.

He continues to make progress with his communication book. He can put together simple phrases and knows around 300 symbols. He can ask for help or ask for a break if an activity is getting too much. He has even started keep fit exercises using visual prompts. Now Andrei is working on the skills he will need to start using a tablet to communicate.

Communication Space write on their website:

People think that it’s all good here. And it really is good. But it didn’t happen by accident. It is the result of our accumulated experience and constant effort, which we put into creating a welcoming space, building a good team, putting together our programme, establishing our relationship with families. It’s good here because we don’t rely on formal interactions where the teaching task or organisational task is the most important, but on humanity.

What is for sure is that without the ability to communicate, it would all fall apart. Finding ways to communicate with those who can’t use speech is the key.

The value of a good supervisor

Since we started working together, The Rain Kids Centre’s goal has been to improve the quality of the therapy they are able to offer children with developmental disabilities, such as autism. St Gregory’s has been funding supervision by an experienced therapist from Romania. She has visited to observe the work of the centre and provide training sessions.

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SGF supporters visit Mkurnali, Georgia

Our recent fundraising trip to Georgia was an eye-opener for St Gregory’s supporters. Not only did we enjoy the famous Georgian hospitality with our Mkurnali partners, but we also were given the full tour of the shelter we sponsor, including a jewellery-making workshop. This shelter gives a home to young people who faced homelessness or experienced the criminal justice system. Here they also find a pathway to a vocation and an entirely new life.

The shelter provides a variety of workshops, including jewellery-making, car and printer repair and more. We also viewed the newly renovated loft completed by Nino Chubabria and her team, designed to house more families and youths. The immediate goal is to furnish two rooms, with a local donor already contributing a sofa and a toddler bed. Future plans might involve purchasing a garage near the shelter to start an income-generating venture like bicycle repair, offering valuable apprenticeship opportunities. The late George Guest, one of our main supporters of Mkurnali, was passionate about developing Mkurnali’s infrastructure, and his legacy continues to support these efforts.

Currently, Mkurnali is home to approximately 15 young people and two families. Four children, between one to ten years old, live there with their parents. Our group congratulated Christina, who has become Georgia’s official athletics champion and was recently featured on a TV programme, the Georgian equivalent of Little Big Shots.