RUSSIA: "OUR FAMILY" Foster Care Project - MOSCOU

Around one million children in Russia are abandoned and nearly 500,000 of these are living in old, impersonal institutions. In 1990, Baroness Cox led an investigation which revealed that about two thirds of the children in Russian institutions were wrongly labelled as mentally retarded and treated accordingly. Since the CSW has been successfully working with the Russian authorities to change the System of child care for abandoned and orphaned children, from brutalizing institutions to foster care;
	"Our Family" Project has been developed as a practical model for the reform of services for children at risk in the Russian Federation. Children coming into "Our Family's" care usually stay in one of three family-style homes, where they receive loving care and any professional help they may need. This prepares the child either for return to his or her own birth family or to be placed with a foster family. Since 1996 "Our Family" has successfully placed more than 100 children with trained foster parents.
Based on the success of the "Our Family" Project, in Moscow, the Russian team has developed an in-service training course and are now implementing the "Our Family" model of child care services, using existing local authority resources. A further 15 regions are waiting to take the course. JSM has initiated a French medical and paediatric response and planned an assessment visit to Moscow. It is seeking further professional and media participation so that French expertise can help extend the work of the "Our Family" Project throughout the Russian Federation

Would those interested in this Mission please give us their name and field of expertise: