We have many ways in which you can get involved, find out more about our work, and help build a future for vulnerable children and families. Whether you’d like to shop, donate or visit our partners, we have something for you.
Each year we publish a review of our finances along with reports on how we spent the donations that we have been trusted with. Here is a short summary. For the full accounts, you can check out our Annual Report.
2024 was a challenging year due to internal and external factors. Fundraising difficulties for our Russian partner organisations, along with a growing number of retired and lapsed donors, significantly affected our income. Despite this, we fully funded our approved projects in Russia and increased support for our Moldovan and Georgian partners. The charity closed the year with a deficit of £41,061 (2023: £36,558 surplus). After asset reevaluation, the net movement of funds was £2,356 (2023: £43,778).
Despite the income decline, grants to Russia
were sent throughout the year in a fully vetted, Charity Commission-approved manner, with minimal impact on our reputation. Thank you to everyone who made our work possible. Your regular giving enables us to continue delivering life-changing support to families in Georgia, Moldova, and Russia. Every £ counts — please continue to support St Gregory’s Foundation!
Jyoti Tandel and Julia Ashmore
Our partners at Communication Space in Moscow continue their core work of teaching disabled young people to communicate. Here a communication book is enabling a chat about dinosaurs.
Excitingly, in the last year our colleagues have had the opportunity to teach others their methods. After an online training session on adapting books for non-verbal children, a specialist went away with plans to create a reading corner full of adapted books at her centre. Their teaching session at a conference on alternative communication was praised by delegates as one of the best of the conference. They continue to work too on guidelines aiming at more consistent use of alternative communication for those who need it across Russia.
If you missed our September AGM, you can still read the presentation from Ana Gorea, co-founder of Rain Kids, a small charity that works with children with special needs. She lays out how St Gregory’s grants to provide training for their staff are helping to raise standards of care.
With details of all the projects supported by St Gregory’s, this guide will show you how you can make a difference. You’ll see how your donations are helping disabled children and their families, homeless young people and young care-leavers. Together we can change lives for the better.
The main request of the Rain Kids charity in Chişinău, Moldova, was for staff training. They offer therapy to children with special needs and are acutely aware of how low the level of professional skills are in Moldova. We are funding their chief therapist, Ana Cislaru, to take an eighteen month training course to qualify her as a supervisor in ABA therapy, so that she will be able to offer training to their other staff. Due to a lack of suitable training in Moldova, the course is provided by a Romanian charity and is accessed largely online. Here Ana explains how her training helped her plan the programme of therapy for Alex. Despite a difficult start, she was able to find the key to his progress. Incidentally, the stigma attached to autism is still so high in Moldova, that many families do not want photographs of their children to be used publicly. We respect their wishes, but sincerely hope that one day autism won’t be a source of shame or embarrasment to families in Moldova.
Continue reading Find out how staff training is helping AlexThis year, with the summer camp base out of action because of water shortages, Sunflower organised a day-hike for a group of care-leavers. This was no ordinary hike. The group had to be prepared for a long day, travelling deep into the countryside by train and bus, and cooking over a camp-fire. As ever, not everyone who was invited was able to negotiate the time off work, but a small committed group gained a great deal from the adventure.
Every family that comes to the Deaf Club we sponsor in St Petersburg has its own story, and that is not always straightforward. This was the case for Maxim (on the pink rocker) and his parents. His parents really struggled to accept his diagnosis, and visited several centres for a second opinion.
After his hearing was checked for a second time at the Early Intervention Institute, the family was invited to join the Deaf Club. Here, Maxim’s parents were encouraged to use the hearing aids Maxim had been fitted with. Maxim is a lovely boy, but he is hyper-active. At the Club we are able to show his parents how to attract his attention to the toys, or to other people, including to the sounds around him.
The family’s are just starting out on their path. They have recently discovered that Maxim has a genetic condition. Fortunately, our colleagues are able to support them as they adjust to the news. They will be able to speak to a psychologist with experience of working with parents of children with disabilities. They will also be encouraged to appreciate Maxim’s strengths at the weekly club sessions and will be able to see older deaf children who are flourishing. Without this support it would be difficult for some parents to see past the diagnosis, which in a society where disability is stigmatised, feels like bad news. We wish them all well.
On 16th June, 2025, our founder, Irina von Schlippe, sadly passed away. Some of you will have known Irina, and will have your own memories of her. We would like to share our own tributes, and those of our colleagues in Russia whose charitable work owed much to Irina’s energy, imagination and care.
Nina is 29 and she has an infectious smile and loves talking about her family. We’re chatting in one of the offices at The Wish’s Centre in Calarasi, which her son Liviu attends. He’s here too, a bit wary of strangers, though he sneaks a few glances at us. Since he obviously doesn’t like having his photo taken, it is Nina you can see here.
Liviu and Nina’s experiences expose just how little understanding there is about how to support autistic people in Moldova. Thank goodness Nina found The Wish, where Liviu could get the support he needed.
Continue reading Support not sedatives for autistic boyTell us your interests to get the news you want.
