Love’s Bridge

We had a chat with our new psychologist Olga Zhdanova, and asked for her impressions of life in the Love’s Bridge centers:

It’s winter and getting colder by the day… but in the centers it always seems cozy and warm. That is thanks to the children who come to us every day: their energy knows no bounds, their enthusiasm, curiosity and desire to be around us and with each other is overwhelming. I love observing the children growing and changing every day, right before our eyes. They learn to be organized and responsible young people. But we must always bear in mind that they are still children! We should not expect them to become too serious!

Taking the age and background of the children into consideration, we have to be careful in choosing our methods of working with them. For example, when talking about health problems, trying to strike fear into them is absolutely pointless! Talking about the terrible consequences of smoking has absolutely no effect on these children whatsoever. It is only by giving the children a positive example, and educating them on the whole picture of a healthy lifestyle, that they are empowered to make choices for themselves that will positively impact their own future, and their families too. We do our best to help each child learn and develop at their own speed, and most importantly, enable them to know when and how they are going in the right direction! It is only through this independence that they can improve themselves, their situation, and their future chances in life.

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More school without lessons

With the start of the new school year in September came the re-opening of our own “School without Lessons”. Our innovative project, which is now in its third year, is growing from strength to strength. The project coordinator Oksana is now working with 14 pairs of volunteers and children, who work together up to three times a week on a wide variety of school subjects. Our volunteer mentors use a wide range of interactive activities in order to gain their mentees’ interest in the subject, and inspire them to work hard at their subjects.

We have seen great results in the participants’ school grades, and have had very positive responses from participants’ parents and school teachers. We are also working hard to develop relations with local businesses and organizations, and give the participants a taste of what career they might go into with the skills they are developing at school. We are expecting even more children to come to us for help in the coming months, and are always on the look-out for new volunteers!

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As you may know, many of the young people in our care previously haven’t had the opportunity to have a healthy or meaningful break during the long school holidays.

So far this summer we have run two thematic urban summer camps dedicated to inspiring and supporting kids who would otherwise be spending the long summer days left to their own devices on the streets. The first camp was a development course aimed at teenagers who have a variety of different personal problems, similar to the work we do throughout the year to help children and teenagers in need to deal with the difficulties that life throws at them. The summer camp gave us the opportunity to work intensively with a small group of teens over the course of two weeks. The course, “The Person I Am”, went through topics such as family and friendship, confidence, conflict resolution and lifestyle issues. The aim of the course was to get the young participants to look at their future and think about their relationships with family, friends and those around them.

Here’s what Denis (13 years old) thought about the camp:

I´ve been coming to the Love´s Bridge center since March. I really like it here. The staff are all very kind. I´ve met lots of new friends here as well. At the start of summer I was invited to come to the city summer camp, every day from Monday to Friday! First we do some exercises to wake up, then do some activities and classes. We can talk to the psychologist if we want. Then we have some food and at the end have all kinds of fun events. I really enjoyed it!

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A Year of Changes

In light of increasing economic difficulties (including a reduction in financial support, rising inflation and reduced subsidies) we at Love’s Bridge had to make some important decisions to secure the long-term future of the project. The main decision was to move out of the property on Chkalova Street and start working from new municipal Social Centers.

Rent and utilities costs had gone up from virtually nothing to around 10% of our annual budget, and the property was going to need further renovations if we wanted to continue working there. Instead, we decided to create partnerships with Perm’s Social Centers – a recent initiative that has created rent-free, newly renovated properties to be used by charities and NGOs throughout the city.

We believe that Love’s Bridge can have an even bigger impact by working this way – we can find new partners to work with, whilst continuing to refine a blueprint which can be used in Social Centers throughout the city. We also have more funds available for our core needs, and spend less time working on the upkeep and renovations of the center.

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Summer in the city

The Love’s Bridge summer started with two ‘city camps’ for underprivileged kids who were stuck in Perm and had nothing to keep them out of trouble. The first one focused on health and ecological issues, with the kids getting involved in lots of volunteer work which helped them understand how they can change the world they live in. They cleaned up the area around our center, planted flowers for the local community and ran an anti-smoking campaign.

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