Embassy Pilots Skills Program for Orphans

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow recently conducted a pilot vocational skills program designed to provide real-world exposure and social adaptation skills to selected students aged 16 to 19 from a nearby orphanage.

Under the program, five students—two girls and three boys—were approved for compound access to unclassified areas. They worked directly with locally employed staff for six hours daily to observe support activities. These included everything from office management and drafting to greenhouse and groundskeeping, carpentry, plumbing and electrical work.

The students received certificates when they completed the program. The International Women's Club of Moscow furnished the students with daily metro transportation to and from the embassy along with a small daily stipend and lunch.

As in many of the states of the former Soviet Union, the social status of Russian children living in orphanages is very low. Once institutionalized, they become victims of a long-held belief that abandoned children are in some way “defective.”

Because these children are largely isolated from the rest of the community and lack positive role models, they are ill prepared to enter society. They also tend to gravitate toward substance abuse, develop poor relationships, and have poor working and family lives.

The embassy is exploring ways to help orphans find work they are qualified to perform and inspire others in the international community to undertake similar campaigns.

FSN instructs orphaned youth.

[Article and photo courtesy State Magazine, March 2004.]