Such case is not a lonely one. The government officials or orphanage staff would typically say, “What can we do?! The responsibility to control how former orphans are being raised in a family is not my task.
Double orphan status
Humanitarian catastrophe is becoming to sound more frequently in the Russian society. Since when did we come to a point when thousands of former orphans who were adopted are now being returned back to orphanages?
There was an incident that sparked this humanitarian catastrophe. In March a family returned a boy who was HIV positive. When he was born his mother abandoned him right away. For the first year and a half of his life he was in a specialized kindergarten until the medical examination had shown that he was healthy. He then was transferred into a normal orphanage. On one of his birthdays he received a gift, which was a family that adopted him. It was a young couple who had a newborn child and they decided to adopt Mark as well. In less than two months the parents have filed a termination of parental rights because they found out that Mark was HIV positive. They claimed that the orphanage hid the information from this couple.
Well, it is actually not true. Based on a new law since 2008 a family that has more than two children can receive a onetime state financial compensation in the amount of 300,000 rubles ($10,000). Furthermore, the state was going to give them additional maternal federal capital compensation, which is another 250,000 rubles ($8,333). As soon as they knew that it was the case they quickly went to the bank to get a credit in order to purchase a new house. Well, the bank had denied their request so the very next day the family had returned Mark to the orphanage because they could not get the credit or the state financial compensation.
The orphans who have been adopted by Russian families lately have been returned to the orphanages more than ever. The director of a charitable organization had said that they suspected that such catastrophe can happen especially when families adopt orphans just to get a bigger housing and as soon as they get it they no longer need an orphan so they return their adopted child back to the orphanage. Unfortunately there is nothing could be done. Furthermore, according to the law this orphan has no right for this housing since these adoptive parents are no longer his/her parents. Our government does not punish families for returning an orphan or abandoning him/her for the second time even if adoptive parents had a legit reason for termination.
Orphan’s dowry
The specialists who are responsible for the orphan catastrophe are convinced that the biggest disturbance that caused this dilemma was a new bill that came into effect as of September 2008. From four forms of social care (adoption, guardianship, foster care family and private orphan care) in all cases except for adoption a financial compensation is paid to parents.
Today if you want to adopt a child any person can do that with legit documents and no criminal background history. Most private orphan care parents have never seen the children and do not know how to raise them so they take them without a clue. Children are chosen based on one database that takes into consideration the preferences of parents for the child they would like. Once the child is outside of the orphanage the state officials have no interest whatsoever how he/she is being raised. There is a different government entity that is responsible to control the care of children in the private orphan care system. How parents supposed to raise these children is no one’s problem except a headache for parents who now have a child.
In the past there was one adoption system and database. A minor child was under one government and specialist supervision: psychologists, doctors, social workers, etc. Today this has been divided into many different government entities or organizations and for the most part it is just unnecessary paperwork. The papers get shifted from one place into another and from one organization into another.
Domestic adoption among Russian people is the least popular form of social care. If it is politically correct to say it is also the least economically “profitable” one. If you do adopt then the state will pay limited 8,860 rubles ($295). According to statistics at the beginning of July 2009 only 5,554 orphans were adopted whereas in 2008 more than 13,173 were.
The majority families prefer to use a guardianship form of social care. This is when they take orphans into a family as a guardian. Guardians will be paid a limited financial compensation in the amount of 9,592 rubles ($325) and depending on the child’s age the state will pay monthly compensation anywhere from 5,410 rubles to 6,160 rubles ($180-$205). This does not include other compensations from different local government entities that could be as much as 300,000 rubles ($10,000). Thus, in 2009 more than 38,000 orphans were taken into guardianship form of social care whereas in 2008 more than 75,000 were taken into the same form.
But even at such “profitable” guardianship form less people are now taking orphans from orphanages. Last year through all forms of social care for orphans more than 65,000 had found new families whereas this year only 44,000 did.
It might seem that there are fewer orphans in the orphanages, but it is an illusion. From year to year there are more orphans coming into the state system. The statistics are brutal: based on how many orphans there are for every 10,000 young children in the country, Russia has one of the leading places in the planet.
Furthermore, even in 2002 we have exceeded the level of orphans after the main meat grinder of the XX century-World War II, had left in the entire Soviet Union 678,000 orphans! Today there are more than 800,000 orphans and that is just in Russia!
Dear and kind citizens, what is wrong with us?
What has happened to the society? To whom was the Bible commandment written “Do not forsake and look after orphans and widows”? How is possible that as soon as we building ourselves nice lodges in the outskirts we quickly return orphans back to the institution? Who allowed for orphanages to be overcrowded because the ones that used to exist were either closed or simply given to someone else for other needs?
Can you really blame the financial crisis for this catastrophe?
The government officials basically speculated. They begged citizens to take orphans by tempting them with various financial compensations-the chairman of the Russian children’s fund and the author Albert Likhanov is convinced of that. I know that in different departments for unemployed people the officials would agitate citizens take children from street shelters or orphanages because it was a good thing to do and the pay was good. For awhile adoption movement was truly active. The children were given to citizens in groups/packs without carrying who parents were. Orphanages were being closed and former boarding schools were sold and given to private entrepreneurs.
Based on conviction of Likhanov, “the distribution” of children into “good” hands up to a certain point was a good thing especially for the regional government budget.
He states that he heard with his own ears that a governor of a large region on the territory where there are more than sixty orphanages said that it was “profitable” to place orphans into families cause it was cheaper for the state than raising orphans in the orphanage or a shelter.
It is true that in order to raise one orphan in the state institution it cost from 150 to 200,000 rubles ($5,000-$6,666) per year. Whereas if a child is raised in a private orphan care even with the best financial compensation it still cost the state three times less. It seems that everyone is gaining: an orphan has a family, there are fewer orphanages, which is a positive statistics for the reporting) and the state budget has saved some funds.
Citizens have quickly realized that orphans are far away from being angels. Many orphans have enuresis, or have bad habits, or some their genes take it course. Then financial compensation was delayed; thus, the children were being returned back to orphanages. But wait, where you should place double abandoned orphans? Orphanages have been shut down as soon as the bureaucrats have reported that the orphan problem has been solved. Thus, they are being placed into already overcrowded orphanages and shelters.
According to sociologists the last year more than 6,000 children have been returned to orphanages or shelters. This year this number is going to be at least double that.
Of course the Ministry of Education and Science has its own statistics:
In 2008 the government has terminated more than 1,216 cases of families who have taken orphans into their family, but did not do their job. This was said by Aleena Levitskaya the Director of State Politics Department in the sphere of education and social protection of children. All together there were over 3,000 cases.
Torture of babies
According to Levitskaya after the series of tragic death of children who were adopted by foreign citizens serious precaution and control steps were taken. In 2008 about 4,125 children were adopted from Russia, which is a lot less than the year before.
Let me remind to you the murder in May 2006 by an American adoptive mother Peggy Sue Hilt who killed a two-year old Vica. As a result the state had made some significant changes to the foreign adoption procedures. In 2008 a new series of negative and critical critiques were expressed by government officials toward foreign adoptees. This happened due to another case of two adopted boys who were killed/died. Only a lazy one who would not feel that it was his duty to scream “Shame to Russia! Our children are being killed and we are quiet.”
In the entire history of foreign adoption for all adopted children there were only 18 registered cases. Now for justice let us count how many of our own children have been brutally beaten, tortured, handicapped, raped and killed by Russian adopted parents. According to the Ministry of Health Department only in 2006 there were 1,220 deaths in adoptive families. Let us be honest with ourselves that not all these children died as a result of negligence, but…
This year has been a horrible one with different stories of murder or torture of children. In the Primorie region a woman had killed a four year old Polina who lived with her new adoptive mom for just a few weeks. Let’s remember four year old Gleb who had the worst burn degree ever. A sadistic family that had starved two brothers to death in a basement. There is another investigation that is still going which states that a family had sold a year old son for organs. Three year old Danila was starved and tortured for many days. Then while he was still alive he was thrown into a river tied with an old accumulator.
Here are some more statistics: in 1991 there were 40,152,440 children in Russia, in 2008 there are 27,000,000. Yet there are more orphans now than ever…
Horrifying numbers
Shelters, orphanages and boarding schools are more now than after World War II
In 1998 in the orphanage and shelters there was only 87,000 children whereas in 2007 there were more than 735,000 and in 2009 there are more than 800,000.
Annually there are 120,000 children come orphans in Russia. About 80% of them are considered social orphans kids who are without a family yet they do have parents, but raised in the state institution.
Forty percent of orphans upon emancipation become alcoholics, drug addicts or criminals. A true number of girls that end up in prostitution is unknown. In 2009 more than 15,000 children or teenagers were part of some kind of criminal activity.
Annually over 100,000 parents or guardians lose their parental rights or guardianship permit due to negligence.
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Orphanages of Russia
10% do not meet simply sanitary and technical conditions, 48% need a capital renovation of buildings, 5% are considered in emergency stage condition.
This info was released from the report by the Minister of Internal Affairs-Rashid Nurgaliev, Moscow, 2009
How is it there?
In foreign countries traditional state institutions have become a history since 1950’s. In America for instance, a child who was taken away by social services from a family that neglected him/her will be placed into a foster care family. This can be a temporary one - a few months or sometimes even weeks or until a better more permanent family will be found. What is the most important thing here: the child is constantly placed in a family atmosphere.
Why is it like that? The research had shown by doctors and psychologists that a month of stay for a child in a state institution significantly slows the development by three times. The further stay will delay it even further. The delay in intellectual and psychological development is even noticed among the children who before a shelter or an orphanage were perfectly healthy and developed faster than their peers.
A view from a sixth floor
A few years ago the president who was shocked by the number of orphans in institution has order to urgent resolve such complicated and unusually difficult social dilemma. The bureaucrats have promptly responded to this request best to their ability by active imitation. Later on many reports began to flow stating that we shut down so many orphanages and this many shelters. Children were quickly shoved into families without even carrying who was who and if that family was even fit to raise this child. Financial compensations were paid out and the only thing that concerned the state that the parents would not use funds for alcohol.
It was not important for the state to prepare adoptive families to accept new family member. Yet according to specialists this has to happen at least six months prior to finalizing adoption or any other form of social care.
Where is the control by social services for how the children are being raised in a new family with dad and mom? Inspectors with low salaries in social services have no time to do anything else except for dealing with piles of papers that are constantly getting bigger on their desks. Sometimes they have no time to even visit an orphan in the orphanage; thus, they will never visit him/her in a new family.
For many years I have been collecting this data how social orphan issue is being solved in Russia. The latest statistics show that for the last couple of years massive returns of children into orphanages and shelters are happening everywhere from Karelia to Sakhalin. Of course, it is so much easier to blame the financial crisis for all of this. But it is not the case. If a child has truly become one of yours then will you ever try to measure that on the material level? Very rarely when adoptive parents or guardians return a child & shamelessly say the pay was low. Typically they say that they had hoped that there would have been some social perks, divorce of parents, big conflicts and fights especially during teen age. Many of these problems could be solved if social services and other organizations would prepare and teach families how to raise children who were in the orphanage. Unfortunately we have decided to save money on that because we see no value in that.
Alexander Milkus, the editor for the department of education “Komsomol Pravda”
How to solve the orphan problem in Russia? Let’s discuss!
