This Summer’s Urban Activities: Building Family Bonds

Posted on By Sarah.SGF

We’re all looking forward to the warmth of summer, but the long days can be a challenge to families, especially those with social and financial difficulties. The cost of living crisis will make the summer holidays tough this year for our families in St Petersburg.

This year Sunflower have taken the decision not to run their usual rural summer camp for parents who grew up in orphanages and their children. This is partly because of cost, but also because the families in their current group would find the journey and change of environment stressful. However, Sunflower is always adaptable. Instead they will use the time to develop the skills needed for families to spend time together well in St Petersburg without spending a fortune.

Continue reading This Summer’s Urban Activities: Building Family Bonds

Home visits stop Polina and family slipping through the net

Posted on By Sarah.SGF

With support from St Gregory’s, our colleagues at Sunflower run support groups for young people living in children’s homes and those who have recently left. They have recently extended their service to offer home visits from a social worker to a few young mums who don’t yet feel ready to join their support group specifically for parents.

Polina* is one of those parents. She is mum to a one year old little girl, who she is raising on her own in a one room flat. Polina herself left home at 13 and was taken into care. Her older sister took custody of her when she was 16. At 20 she started living independently and very soon got pregnant. Polina is focussed on making sure that her daughter is fed and clothed, which she is doing well. Her daughter is physically healthy, but she finds it difficult to bond with her, and uses friends to babysit as often as she can.

Polina feels to anxious to visit the support group, so the home visits are an important way of keeping in touch. Our colleagues are teaching her to recognise how her daughter is communicating her needs. They are also helping Polina and other mums access help, particularly a nursery place for her daughter so that she can learn to socialise with other children. These are the first small steps on what we hope will be a longer journey, that will give Polina the confidence and the parenting skills she needs to break the cycle of disadvantage.

* Because of the family’s vulnerability, we have changed the name and appearance.

Change to this year’s summer camps

Posted on By Sarah.SGF
Mother and toddler daughter painting together

On April 20, volunteers from “Sunflower” headed to Dolbeniki and got to work cleaning up the site, including the kitchen, fire pit, and bathhouse. While there, they ran into a big problem: the small pond that had always provided water for showers, the bathhouse, and dishwashing had dried up. Drinking water was always brought in from a nearby village, but without the pond, there’s no way to get enough water for a group—especially families. Talks are ongoing with the site owners to figure out solutions. One idea is drilling a well, but it’s tricky because water layers are deep in the Valdai Hills, and finding a reliable source could mean multiple expensive attempts.

Continue reading Change to this year’s summer camps

Mother’s Day inspiration from Sunflower

Posted on By Sarah.SGF

Timur finds it difficult to play

The session leader attracts Timur’s attention

Timur enjoys playing with his mother, who takes a more active role.

Dilyana grew up in a family and works as a teacher.  So why does she need Sunflower’s help to raise her 3-year-old son, Timur?

Families can take part in the Sunflower programme whether one or both parents grew up in an orphanage.  In this case, it is Timur’s father, Sasha, who had the orphanage childhood.  Indeed, he is the pride of his children’s home and still works there to this day.  Although on the surface, this family look as if they are coping well, Sunflower’s experience teaches them to pay particular attention to the way children are treated in families such as this.  As they put it, in families where a woman marries a man who grew up in an orphanage, it is “as if her social skills and understanding of safety are somehow blocked.  The woman from the stable background often submits to her husband’s initiative, and observes his rules, which were laid down in his children’s home past.” Continue reading Mother’s Day inspiration from Sunflower

Mothers who grew up in orphanages mentor others

Posted on By Sarah.SGF

Galina with Natalia's son
Galina with Natalia’s son

Our partners at Sunflower in St Petersburg are training mothers who grew up in orphanages to support and mentors younger mothers in the same situation.  Sunflower helped Galina when her children were young.  Now she is helping Natalia care for her baby son. Continue reading Mothers who grew up in orphanages mentor others

Sunflower did the impossible – they saved my daughter for me

Posted on By Sarah.SGF

Liza and her mum“For two years I have been taking my daughter, Liza, to the Sunflower centre and in the summer we spend a week at camp with other families.  This gives me the strength to carry on and gives me hope that my and my daughter’s lives will work out”.

All of our families come to us with difficult stories, so it it wonderful when we are able to light a path for them through to brighter times.  If Liza’s grandmother had had the help her mother’s found with us, a whole world of suffering could have been prevented.  We’re just glad that, thanks to you, we can be here for the family now and have been able to break the cycle of misery.   Continue reading Sunflower did the impossible – they saved my daughter for me