Summer hike for orphanage-leavers

Posted on By Sarah.SGF
Vadim, taking part in the summer camp for the first time

This year, the summer camp for young orphanage-leavers took the form of a 3-day hike. A group of six took part, some had taken part before and some, like Vadim, were first-timers.

The whole experience was a challenging one for our young people. Right from the planning stage, they needed to learn new skills and to take responsibility.

Read more: Summer hike for orphanage-leavers

They worked out the menus and the budget for a significant part of the trip. During the hike, the most challenging part was navigating the route and identifying suitable places to camp. Some of these experiences caused stress and anxiety, but the staff were there to help the young people cope with their difficulties. Over this short time, the young people grew more confident and resilient. This will be particularly useful for the three who are preparing to leave the programme, having worked with Sunflower for a few years. At the end of the hike, one of the young people said, “Now I can understand what my aims are for the summer more clearly, and I’m confident that I can reach them.

Alongside the walking and camping, the young people also had exercises to help them reflect. One interesting game was to find objects in their surroundings that expressed their personality. Their answers give us quite an insight. One likened themself to a little ant carrying a heavy load, another to a hare, which is scared all the time, but carries on. Kostya said, “I am like a path. Everyone walks on me, but I am solid and unchanging.”

Summing up at the end, one of the group said, “I was beginning to realise, but now I understand properly that I have to look after myself. Before I looked after the cat and my friends better than myself.” Sunflower will help the group transfer this learning into their ordinary every day lives back in St Petersburg. It should give them a great step forward as they become more independent and resilient.

Vadim’s story

Posted on By Sarah.SGF
Vadim

Our partner organisation, Sunflower, supports young people who grew up in children’s homes. For many, the support group is the best way of supporting them. For some with complex needs, a period of individual support, either on its own or alongside the group, is more appropriate. This individual help can be in the form of counselling or helping to resolve practical issues.

Vadim is 19 years old and is one of those being supported individually, as well as being part of the group. Sunflower have worked with Vadim for about a year and a half. During that time he has moved into his own flat, left to him by his parents.

Read more: Vadim’s story

Our colleagues are working on a whole range of issues with Vadim. Firstly, they are helping him understand which documents he needs and why. They are helping him go through a medical commission so that he doesn’t lose his disabled status. In parallel, they are working with Vadim to help him understand and accept his special needs.

Again, on a practical front, our colleagues are working out with him what maintenance work is needed on his flat and how he can make it comfortable.

Most urgently, because of his special needs, Vadim finds it difficult to build safe and trusting relationships. He has often been taken advantage of by so-called “friends”. He is the first to admit that he can’t say “no” to them. “I am afraid they will kill me if I don’t give them money.” After the last incident, our colleagues helped Vadim understand how he could avoid this kind of situation, and where he can turn for help if he feels threatened.

For Vadim, the next step is helping him to find a job and adjust to working life. We wish him well.

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HRH Prince Michael of Kent speaks in support

Posted on By Sarah.SGF

In February, our long standing supporters, Damon de Laszlo and Alexandre Demidoff, the President of the European Demidoff Foundation, organised a fabulous reception at the iconic Lord Byron’s Chambers, Albany. The evening raised a wonderful £6,500 towards Sunflower’s work with orphanage-leavers that St Gregory’s is helping to fund.

We are very grateful to our organisers, to our Patron, HRH Prince Michael of Kent for attending and speaking about Sunflower Centre, which he has visited. Below you can read a copy of his speech.

As Patron of St Gregory’s Foundation, I am very pleased to be here with you all this evening, and thank you for coming.

St Gregory’s remains one of the very few British charities approved by the Charity Commission to operate in Russia and help the most disadvantaged. And it has been doing so for the last 32 years. In these devastating times in Ukraine and the resulting crises, this amazing small charity continues to work hard helping children and families in dire need – the homeless in Georgia, refugee children and families in Ukraine, orphans and disabled children in Russia.

Today we are raising funds for our partner the Sunflower charity in St Petersburg and their work with children after leaving their orphanage. Sunflower enables people with non-visible disabilities to gain the support they need. When I visited them in October 2021, I returned highly impressed by their compassion and commitment to the young people in their care. That includes reducing the risk of dangerous behaviour and providing them with a smooth transition to independent living. And it teaches parents how to take care of their children and build a harmonious life. Your contributions tonight will help make it happen.

I would like to thank the generous long-standing supporter of St Gregory’s and sponsor of tonight’s evening: Damon De Laszlo. We warmly welcome Alexandre Demidoff and the European Demidoff Foundation, our close and long-standing partner for 12 years. The Foundation under the Patronage of my cousin Princess Elizabeth Karageorgevitch consistently supports St Gregory’s, through funding, and it introduces our important work to loyal supporters and new members, many of whom we meet for the first time today. Especially welcome are those guests who have travelled from Switzerland and Italy to attend today’s event. You all are new friends to St Gregory’s and go to prove that our network of supporters is expanding internationally.

By helping St Gregory’s Foundation you help us to continue our work in the best traditions of British and European philanthropy.

We are deeply grateful. Thank you.

Photo: HRH Prince Michael of Kent GCVO, Contessa Giulia Farneti Merenda Salecchi, Avv. Giancarlo Parrini

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Fedya’s became a homeless orphan aged 6

Posted on By Sarah.SGF

St Gregory’s Foundation works with a remarkable charity, called Mkurnali, in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. Mkurnali provides sheleter, vocational training and employment, and a legal service to homeless young people in their city.

Nino, Mkurnali’s director, met Fedya and his brother Artur in 2002. They were sleeping near Dighomi market along with other “street children”.  He was always cheerful and friendly despite all the difficulties. After the death of his father, Fedya, his mother and brother were thrown out of the house by their uncle and had no other place to go. They had to live on the street and sleep in cellars or wherever they could find a shelter. 

Continue reading Fedya’s became a homeless orphan aged 6

A challenging time for Sunflower

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For 15 years Sunflower has been supporting young people who grew up in orphanages. They have helped over 650 teenagers and young parents, 300 families in crisis, and 200 foster families with teenagers to build independent lives and develop their parenting skills. They have become a respected training provider, helping over 2,000 specialists who work with orphanage-leavers and improving standards across St Petersburg and beyond.

None of this has been easy, but this autumn, they face their most challenging times. In September, Elena Sukhorukova, director and co-founder of Sunflower, died after a serious illness. She is enormously missed by all who worked with her.

Since her death, the Sunflower team have rallied round. Such is their committment that they have been working largely as volunteers since September because of our difficulties transferring money to Russia. To make life even harder, their bank is not allowing them to access their account until Elena’s role is officially transferred, a process that has taken more than a month.

For Natasha Andreeva, who founded the charity with Elena, a key moment came when she ran training courses for professionals in October. This was a programme that Elena headed up. It felt like a turning point when the three-day course was a success. Everyone realised that Sunflower would be able to continue the work that Elena and Natasha started.

Having provided training for professionals from Izhersk, Volgograd and Chelyabinsk in October, Sunflower will be welcoming more trainees from Siberian towns this month. They aim to improve standards of care and reduce worker burn-out by helping trainees understand the particular needs of orphanage-leavers.

This year has brought challenges for all NGOs in Russia, and indeed for their beneficiaries. Despite this cluster of difficulties, Sunflower has managed to respond to increased demand for their parenting support groups. They are now supporting 50 families of orphanage-leavers, up from the 35 of recent years.

We are in awe of this committment, and relieved that the Charity Commission have approved a safe and legal route for us to transfer money to Russia. Although our colleagues continue to work in a very difficult climate, we are hopeful that we will be able to continue our funding. You can be assured that every care is taken with your donations.

Winter newsletter out now

Posted on By Sarah.SGF

Our winter newsletter is out today. Download it to read about:

Read the newsletter

Outreach to care-leavers in troubled suburb

Posted on By Sarah.SGF
Family in Lensovietsky

Lensovietsky is a new suburb of St Petersburg, which has become a “settlement of orphanage-leavers”. Its crime-rate and anti-social behaviour make it notorious. There is loud music, conflicts, fights, etc round the clock. Police raids and visits by social services have become the norm district. Understandable, orphanage-leavers are not popular with other residents. Quite apart from their antisocial lifestyle, they have run up debts for heating and water supply, and residents have complained about the disconnection of such necessary services. The infrastructure – medical, educational, social institutions – in the residential district is still underdeveloped. For leavers, this has become one of the main obstacles to their integration into society.

This is the context for a new class our partners, Sunflower, have set up this year for families in crisis with children under 5.

Continue reading Outreach to care-leavers in troubled suburb

HRH Prince Michael visits charity for orphanage-leavers in St Petersburg

Posted on By Sarah.SGF
HRH Prince Michael meets staff at the Sunflower centre

We are delighted that on 13th October our Patron, His Royal Highness, Prince Michael of Kent, visited the Sunflower Centre in St Petersburg to find out about their flagship programmes at first hand. The Sunflower Centre focuses on providing psychological support for parents who grew up in orphanages and for teenagers leaving orphanages in St. Petersburg.

Continue reading HRH Prince Michael visits charity for orphanage-leavers in St Petersburg

Supporting Masha through tragedy

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Seraphim and Masha met at their children’s home. They married and Masha got pregnant. Seraphim has been involved with our programme for orphanage-leavers for some time. He brought Masha and their son, Tolya, to the group when Tolya was three months. Seraphim was such a proud dad, always showing photos of his son. He even put up their New Year tree in November, he was so excited. So it was a great shock when Seraphim died later that month.

How Masha and Tolya would be faring now without Sunflower’s support doesn’t bear thinking about. When Masha joined the parenting group she was struggling to bond with her baby. She found physical contact, or even eye contact difficult. Tolya responded by crying when he was touched, which dented her confidence further. She would say, “He doesn’t love me. He won’t look at me.“

In the months before Seraphim’s death, Masha and Tolya had been making great progress. Sunflower used play therapy to encourage more contact between mother and baby. Each week showed Masha how to play simple games which encourage eye contact, physical touching and chatting. Gradually their bond grew with Masha holding Tolya closer and interacting much more. She started to relax, obviously enjoying their growing closeness. Tolya in return became less tense and more interested in the world around him. When he first came to Sunflower he had been stiff, almost like a doll. Now he could hold his head up and look around him. He no longer cried when he was held or touched.

Masha plays with Tolya in a Theraplay session.

During this time, Masha also built trusting relationships with Sunflower’s team. So after Seraphim’s death, Sunflower have been able to regularly visit her at home to support her through this traumatic time. They are happy that Tolya is receiving the care that he needs, and are committed to working with the family for as long as they are needed.

Thank you to all our donors who help this programme survive. We know there are many more orphanage-leavers out there having to cope with difficult life events without the backup of family or an organisation like Sunflower. Having seen how the right help can transform lives, we are working to reach more of them. This is through Sunflower’s support groups and their training for professionals working with families in crisis in St Petersburg and beyond.

Find out more about Sunflower’s life changing work

Life changed in so many ways for this orphanage-leaver.

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LenaLena grew up in an orphanage in St Petersburg.  She joined Sunflower’s support programme two years ago after she split up with her boyfriend.  She had realised that she was getting tetchy and tearful and was going out drinking more often.  At around this time, Lena lost two fingers in an industrial accident.  Her then boyfriend didn’t visit her in hospital, and this was when she decided to end their strained relationship. Not knowing how to live alone, she said, “I didn’t just lose myself, but my home too.  I would do nothing but work, even putting in extra shifts just to avoid having to think about anything.” Continue reading Life changed in so many ways for this orphanage-leaver.