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The last few months have been filled with activity at Love’s Bridge – projects – both well-established and entirely new have made their mark on a lot of really needy children and teenagers. All of those who arrive at the centers for the first time come to us with trepidation, they’re perhaps anxious, aggressive, defensive, and sometimes positively reluctant! But with time, patience, consideration and respect, we always see the tiny sparks of change – a quick glance in the eye, a shy ‘hello’, an unexpected ‘sorry!’, or even, if we’re lucky – a full-blown ‘thank you’.

It’s hard to measure success, especially when the changes in our kids happen slowly, but we’ve learnt that time gives young people opportunities, and time is one thing we always have for the kids in our care.

Family Values

Many of the children and teenagers who come to Love’s Bridge are overshadowed by daily problems and dilemmas in their family lives. Some tell us of the physical, verbal and emotional abuse they experience by those who are meant to be caring for them. Others may not tell so openly, but their behaviour shows us what they are experiencing at home.

When we ask kids what they want from the future, the vast majority talk about ‘having a family’, and have the idealised ‘TV’ image of what that family should be like. The incredible discrepancy between this image and the grim reality of their own family situation is often hard for them to come to terms with.

We strive to create an atmosphere in the Love’s Bridge centers that makes the kids feel at home – safe, protected, comfortable and respected – but once the kids leave the centers we have no way of sustaining this protection or support. This is why we decided to develop a programme to help teenagers build the solid emotional foundations necessary for creating a stable family environment. We’re never scared to discuss emotional or delicate themes, and encourage teenagers to discuss how they see themselves, what problems they might face as future spouses, maybe even parents…!

It’s never too early to learn the skills to resolve conflicts, avoid fights and vent anger in a constructive way. We hope these tools will allow our kids to break away from the example that their own parents or guardians are setting them, and one day fulfill their own potential as caring partners and parents.

Tamara’s story

Some children come to us because they attract far too much attention, usually of the negative sort, from parents, teachers or the local authorities. But some come to us having experienced quite the opposite – they are lost in the midst of large families, large school classes, with no-one to provide help, support or just much-needed attention.

Tamara was one of these kids. On coming to Love’s Bridge she was totally lost. She surprised us by telling us that she had not a single friend at school and as the result of her poor health, she was often depressed. Her parents were unable to provide the much-needed extra support with schoolwork, and she was beginning to fail at the tender age of nine! The staff at Love’s Bridge realised that Tamara needed very individual and gentle attention, so with the help of one very dedicated volunteer, we signed her up to the “School Without Lessons” project, aimed at helping underachieving children to improve grades and self-esteem at school. Tamara’s most dreaded subject was English, and, as usual, we saw a massive improvement in her self-esteem and grades after just a few sessions with her volunteer mentor. Kids like Tamara show us that lives can be changed, little by little, with just the tiniest bit of extra dedicated help and support!

The Journey of Life

As you may know, the vast majority of children who are brought up in state orphanages do actually have living parents – they are ‘social’ orphans in the sense that those parents have either been deemed unfit to raise their children, or have themselves given up their children because they lack the material or emotional necessities to raise them. This sad fact makes being an orphan a very traumatic experience, and many children raised in orphanages face a wide range of emotional and sometimes medical consequences of being unwanted or taken away. Over the past few years Russian society has become more supportive of orphans, with people or companies sometimes donating toys or clothes to the orphanages, sometimes organising tea-parties or New Year’s celebrations… Although it’s wonderful that orphans nowadays don’t lack in any way materially, these kind actions are limited in their impact.

At Love’s Bridge we have gone several steps further in trying to better the lives of our local orphans by filling in the missing link between them and the rest of society – simple, human interaction.
Kids from orphanages come to Love’s Bridge with expectations. They come with wants, needs and desires. They come to us and watch to see what they can have. But in time they stop watching, and they start participating in the life of the centers, and this is our key to success. This is why the project, which is called ‘The Journey of Life’ is pretty self-explanatory!

The children who are currently coming to us are aged between six and fourteen. They’re all different, all special. Some come regularly, some hardly at all. Some are lost in thought and barely speak, others are desperate to talk but can’t find the words to talk about the issues that affect them… HIV, their past, their future…

Through working with their hands on simple projects such as paper-mache, the children start to relax and feel at home in the center and in our presence. With time and encouragement they start to talk – not as a group, but individually with our trained staff and volunteers who are able to deal sensitively to the their individual needs. Sometimes we go out for walks, and arm in arm, we talk, share our feelings, express our ideas and, well, just be ourselves – an experience rarely felt by a child growing up in institutional care. For once the child is not just another body in a large group, not a name that only gets called to be ordered about or told off, but a person – a human with feelings and thoughts that need to be expressed and engaged with.

Another tiny success in this project is shared work. In the past orphans have come to us with no idea how a cup of tea is made, or how to use a knife and fork. Simple life skills have been missed because in a large institution, everything is provided but not much is shared. We paid special attention to do everything with the group, rather than for the group. In time we noticed that instead of waiting for the table to be set for tea, one participant started doing it himself. Then another tidied up. Then the others picked up on it, and soon, instead of a group of observers and takers, we had a group of participants. It might seem like a meagre success, but these are the tiniest foundations being laid of a successful and independent adult life. Skills that you and I take for granted!

We hope that the success of this project will attract more volunteers to Love’s Bridge. When the children come to us with bright eyes and huge smiles on their faces, eager to get busy, we truly realise the huge value of simple, honest and heartfelt human interaction.

They started with two camps that we held in June, in the city.

The first one was called “I’m proud of Perm”. For two weeks 17 children and teenagers were hosted there. In the first part of the day they participated in educational activities and classes about the history and sights of their home city. And after lunch, which was very important for some of the children who don’t have regular nourishing meals at home, they went out on to an excursion or activity outdoors. They visited the Art museum, discussed films after a visit to the cinema, took part in the environment protection campaign cleaning the river bank, etc.

Between the two camps we organized a special trip for the youth who had been actively participating in the project “Healthy and Happy”, learning about protecting themselves from HIV and other serious health problems, as well as informing their peers on these issues. Thanks to generous support from our partners the teenagers enjoyed their rafting and hiking trip with a lot of exciting activities.

During the second camp in the city called “My records” the kids had a chance to learn about the great achievements of other people and about their own abilities. Besides classes in the Love’s Bridge center they visited Perm museums and some places of work that showcased some of the achievements, for example the Perm confectionery, which aroused a lot of interest!

Currently a group of 10 teenagers with teachers and volunteers together with the Youth Memorial have left Perm for rafting trip and a volunteer camp in a historic place on the territory of the former correctional-labor prison camp ‘Stvor’. The camp is set on the bank of the Chusovaya river, which is very clean and features beautiful nature. During the youth’s stay there they will enjoy activities in the nature and help collect artifacts for the open-air museum.

Throughout the remainder of the summer both of our facilities will remain open, for those children and teenagers who were unable to leave town. We’re planning a wide assortment of activities and excursions to make sure all of the kids have a chance to spend their time productively and enjoy the rest of the summer!

See more photos in the album.

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.

Knowledge is Power!

This fall yet another project was added to the diverse Love’s Bridge portfolio. The kids involved came up the name “Healthy and Happy” for the project, which is aimed at raising awareness of health issues that affect young people.

We gathered a group of vulnerable 14-18 year-olds experiencing various difficulties in their lives – some are struggling at school, others are not attending school at all. Some have emotional problems, mild learning difficulties and some face various domestic problems at home, such as alcoholism, violence and neglect.

They meet every week in a small group with Love’s Bridge staff where they learn a great deal about protecting themselves from serious health issues. More importantly they are also being trained to be inform their friends and peers on the health problems and risks they face every day.

Once the group is fully trained we plan to visit other local schools and speak to more at-risk teenagers about these problems, and we hope that being in the same age group, our young volunteers will be able to get the message across even more effectively than we would by ourselves!

A world turned upside down

Dima came to our center with his mother, whose thin and exhausted face said it all. She was clearly feeling at the end of her rope, and had come to the center in desperate need of support. As she spoke, a picture emerged of the family’s situation. A single mother, she had recently brought her two sons to the city from a village in one of the remote parts of the Perm region. She had managed to rent a room for her family, and had got a job working in a school canteen. Dima’s father lived separately and provided neither financial nor moral support. She was clearly struggling to provide for her children. Dima, aged twelve, was thin and very small for his age. His clothes looked entirely inappropriate for the cold weather outside. He was extremely timid, but pleasant and polite. The family’s struggle to find their feet in the city was clearly reflected in Dima’s problems at school – he was barely passing any of his school tests and assignments.

Immediately we started working to discover Dima’s interests and invited him to take part in “School without Lessons”. He was assigned a mentor who would work on his Math and English. Once Dima started regularly visiting, we saw his confidence gradually grow, and his obvious pleasure at being welcomed at the center. He started taking part in other activities, and proved himself a trustworthy and responsible teenager. He has started making friends, although this has been a slow process as his shyness has been quite inhibiting.

One of the greatest joys of the project is being able to treat every child as an individual. With each tiny step we see Dima moving towards his goals. As such a small and specialized organization we are also able to keep up regular contact with Dima’s mother, and offer her help and support in bringing up her children. We are proud of the progress Dima makes every day, and know that by the end of the school year, he will not only find the confidence to do well at school, but also to make friends and make his way in the world.

The Perfect Match!

We work with a variety of ages, from kids who have barely started school and are already in trouble, to teenagers on the verge of adulthood yet still need support.  We are always on the lookout for ways to enable the children to help themselves… and each other!

This autumn we started activities for a group of 7-10 year olds from a nearby orphanage that cares for children with learning disabilities. The group is varied in their abilities – some aren’t able to read, but can draw beautifully! Others watch closely what the teacher is doing, but then forget what to do when they need to work independently. We decided that for this particular group, every child needed an older helper, and enlisted the services of some of the teenagers.

During the sessions, which are usually arts based or related to skills development, the younger children and their new friends have formed lasting bonds. Every child receives the individual attention and support they need, and the small age difference has made it easy for them to relate to one another. The younger children wait for the teenagers with huge excitement, and after the class they often spend time playing outside, listening to music, or just talking. For the teenagers, too, the project has been very successful. They have learned the value of helping others, and the art of being patient and gentle. We hope that this experience will inspire them to help others throughout their lives.

We usually get the group to come to our center, as the change of scenery makes a world of difference to the kids. When we do visit the children in the orphanage, they go mad from the excitement of having visitors. They want to show us every single thing they own, from photographs to colored pencils to tiny little souvenirs.

It has been a pleasure to see relationships grow amongst the younger kids and their new found friends. In spending time with the older teens, they can learn about the world outside their orphanage, and, most importantly, escape the isolation of their institution and feel part of a wider community.

Let’s keep it up!

Many thanks to all of those who have made our work possible this year! Special thanks to the S.L.A.T.E. charity and Michael Kerins, who continue to raise funds in Scotland and bring them directly to the project in Perm himself. The kids are always delighted to meet the people who make our projects possible.

If you would like to organize some fundraising for the project, or have already done some, we would love to hear from you!

Thank you again for your support and please give all you can for the kids in Perm – a little goes a long way to brighten the lives of some very needy children.

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!

Work with young offenders

“Nikita is only nine years old, but is already serving a sentence for a serious crime. When I recently spoke to him, he told me with great difficulty about the feelings he was left with after a frightening dream. He dreamt that he was in prison, and had decided to try and escape. He had a moment of terrible realization of the responsibility of his actions and the implications that they were going to have on his future – if he tried to run away he would surely be prosecuted again and would remain in prison for several more years. Upon waking up, Nikita felt a huge sense of relief. He felt happy that he hadn’t made a further mistake which would have had even more of a detrimental effect on his life. Our work with Nikita and other children like him in the Perm Temporary Holding Centre for Young Offenders is vital and pressing. We are able to educate them in the most basic and fundamental way, in the way which their parents failed to do while they were at home. We can show them that even though they have made mistakes it’s possible to turn a corner, and avoid such terrible situations in the future.” – Svetlana Kozlova, Project Coordinator.

Love’s Bridge has been working with young offenders for several years now. The vast majority of those in young offender institutions are there for petty offences such as antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and fighting,  although there is also a small number of children who have been involved in much more serious offences. Young offenders face a myriad of problems, both inside and outside their institutions, and we are often overwhelmed with the difficulties of the tasks set before us. Several years of experience have shown us where our strengths lie in this field, and we are pleased to be further developing relations with more young offender institutions in the region. Our main priorities in this field are:

• Helping young offenders within their institutions adapt to their situations, develop the skills to deal with anger and other emotions, analyze their feelings and successfully resolve conflicts;
• Helping young offenders (particularly those who are in prison for the first time) employ constructive coping strategies to relieve stress; and
• Enabling young offenders to realize the detriment their former lifestyle has had on their situations and motivate them to lead a more positive and constructive lifestyle.

The more celebrations – the better!

Volunteers from around the world have played a huge role in the life of Love’s Bridge, especially when it comes to celebrating different festivals. Halloween has become a much loved day of the year for all of us at the centres, and the children and teenagers take particular delight in this quite unusual day! On Halloween everyone seems to let their hair down, express their feelings and are able to leave all their negative feelings behind and look forward to fun, games and a lot of mess! Our staff and volunteers are able to find their “inner child” on this day, and seem to get as much out of the fun and games as the children do. Together we made costumes, a celebratory Halloween feast and prepared plenty of ghoulish games. For many of the children who come to our centres it is a rare and great opportunity to forget their troubles and enjoy a fantastic party!

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!

The participants of the second camp were children aged 10-14 years old. We were determined to make the camp not just a nice break for them, but also a platform for learning and involvement in the life of the Love´s Bridge center and the local area. The kids were given the opportunity to volunteer and really improve the center and local vicinity by taking part in ecological campaigns.We were pleased by the response of local people, some of whom even started to help out themselves whilst we were clearing up litter on the bank of the river Kama. We hope that this positive experience will inspire the kids to go on volunteering and taking pride in their city and region.

Volunteer Camp at the Perm-36 Museum

The most highly anticipated event of the summer was without a doubt the second Love´s Bridge volunteer camp at the Perm-36 Museum of the Gulag in the countryside about 120km from the city. Following the success of the camp last year, staff, volunteers and teenagers aged 14-18 years old were keen to get back to the beautiful location and enjoy 10 days of hot sunshine, fresh air and swimming, whilst also contributing to the maintenance of the museum, which is the only one of its kind in all of Russia. The 10 days were spent engaging the group in the general renovation of the museum as well as lots of fun activities. Staff and volunteers organized games and training sessions which helped the teenagers in their personal development, and return to the city refreshed and inspired!

We’d like to share one of our new volunteers’ feedback on the camp:

My volunteering experience with “Love’s Bridge” in a summer youth camp on the territory that used to be a political prison “Perm-36” was my first inside of Russia, as I previously had only volunteered abroad. This made it new and unique, especially because it involved the emotionally difficult work of social adaptation of troubled teenagers. I don’t regret for a second that I made the decision to volunteer.

The people I shared this experience with were young participants in Love’s Bridge projects who earned the trip by making progress in school or other ways, teachers, and volunteers with the organization “Memorial”. As a volunteer, my first task was to set an example of the positive effects that volunteering has on a person’s life and development. My second task was to fill a role I wasn’t used to: teacher and coach. That was something completely new for me, and at first it scared me a bit, but with time it because quite interesting for me. I learned two things: working with children and teenagers is delicate work that requires confident and effective actions; and valuable experiences don’t always happen when you expect them. I only started to feel positive feedback during the second park of my time at the camp, and when I did I was incredibly happy with the emotions and feelings that it gave me. Honestly, before the camp I didn’t expect to experience anything like that. It turns out, I just needed to wait, believe and hold the line.

I think the time at the camp benefited everybody: every one of the kids, volunteers and teachers had an opportunity to think about themselves and the world around them. It’s important now to not rest on what has already been accomplished, not just to use our bridge of love, but to strengthen and reinforce it.
–Oksana Sosnina

Keeping Active

We are pleased to have started a brand new project for the underprivileged young people of Perm. The project “Active Summer”, which has been funded by the local Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications, was inspired by the following conversation that one of our psychologists had with a young person in police custody:

¨Why are you here?¨
¨Stealing¨
¨What did you steal?¨
¨Some skis… with the poles…¨
¨Couldn´t your parents have got some for you?¨
¨They don´t have any money.¨
¨Couldn´t your school lend them?¨
¨They don´t lend them.¨

The aim of the project is to provide youngsters with a wide range of sporting equipment, enabling them to keep fit and busy over the summer period. Items such as footballs, basketballs, volleyballs, frisbee disks, tennis rackets, roller blades and skateboards are available to borrow from our centers. The organization of this project is run entirely by volunteers. The enormous success of the scheme has inspired councils within the Perm region to start the free sport rental for children in two small towns nearby.

There is still plenty more to do this summer – giving underprivileged children and teenagers a chance to get out of town, keep busy, learn new skills, have regular meals and physical exercise. In spending time at Love´s Bridge these kids have the opportunity to feel good about themselves and learn from the positive role models they meet while taking part in our projects. Inspired by the staff and volunteers, they will go on to achieve more and lead a healthier and more productive life in the year to come.

I began my professional life as a Russian teacher in Perm’s schools, but after volunteering for a youth organization providing psychological support I understood that I was more interested in the social sphere, where I have been working for over ten years.

I became a manager of a section of a psychological center for Perm’s youth, I worked for the youth section of the local government, and was the director of Perm’s ‘Youth Information Service’ for two years. I was mainly responsible for social issues which affect Perm’s marginalized children and young people.

I worked as the head of a commercial firm for some time to support my family, but continued to volunteer for youth organizations, and soon returned to working full-time in the social sphere. Last year I worked on projects to help child drug addicts, juvenile delinquents and young people suffering from HIV.

I started working for Love’s Bridge in June 2010 and am now Project Manager here. I was won over by the staff here and, of course, the kids who come to us. I think we’re doing something very important – we help the kids to find themselves. We show them that they can live happily and successfully, looking after their health and the wellbeing of those close to them.

I’m convinced that in our city, in Russia, and in the world there are many people who share our views. We thank everyone who works with us and supports us, and we look forward to making new friends, partners and colleagues.

Last year she took an active part in our ‘Independent Living’ course, and recently she has been attending our volunteering sessions. In fact she has already become a regular volunteer in our new center ‘The Little House on the Hill’, where she helps run craft activities for children from an orphanage.

Natasha says: “They haven’t got any parents, just like me, and I know how hard that is. That’s why I’m here, I want to help them study better, help to sew dolls, make presents and just spend time with them playing games and going for walks.”

Natasha is also studying at a vocational school, goes to drama classes and is a bright spark around the Love’s Bridge centers – we’re very proud of her progress!

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.

5 Years in Perm – A Retrospective

After dedicating five years of their lives to running Love’s Bridge, Hamish and Hannah-Louise Heald have decided to return home to Britain with their baby daughter Francesca.

“Working for Love’s Bridge has been a totally unforgettable and amazing experience, something that’s difficult to sum up in a few paragraphs. We have worked with some wonderful people who put their whole hearts into helping the children in Perm, and we’d like to thank them for their support.

It hasn’t been easy, and there have been some real moments of frustration when you feel overwhelmed by the problems the kids here face compared to the resources Love’s Bridge has at its disposal. But we have always got through those moments, because we can see, hear and feel the real difference Love’s Bridge makes to the poverty-stricken and unprotected children of Perm.

Just small changes in behavior, a slight crack in the wall they’ve tried to put up to protect themselves, the first smile or ‘thank you’… All of the children and young people we have worked with respond well to our methods, because they are in so much need of what we can give them – love, warmth, attention, guidance, trust and true friendship.
Probably the most inspiring people I have ever met are the Love’s Bridge kids who have managed to turn their lives round, believe in their dreams and make something with their lives. Surrounded by friends and family who try to drag them down to lives of addiction, homelessness, prostitution and crime, they have found the inner strength to believe in themselves, and they instill this in their own children now.”

Hamish Heald
Project Manager 2005-2010
Board Member

We’d like to thank Hamish and Hannah-Louise for their dedication, and welcome Rafael Davletov as the new Love’s Bridge Manager.

Welcoming Rafael!

“I began my professional life as a Russian teacher in Perm’s schools, but after volunteering for a youth organization providing psychological support I understood that I was more interested in the social sphere, where I have been working for over ten years.

I became a manager of a section of a psychological center for Perm’s youth, I worked for the youth section of the local government, and was the director of Perm’s ‘Youth Information Service’ for two years. I was mainly responsible for social issues which affect Perm’s marginalized children and young people.

I worked as the head of a commercial firm for some time to support my family, but continued to volunteer for youth organizations, and soon returned to working full-time in the social sphere. Last year I worked on projects to help child drug addicts, juvenile delinquents and young people suffering from HIV.

I started working for Love’s Bridge in June and am now Project Manager here. I was won over by the staff here and, of course, the kids who come to us. I think we’re doing something very important – we help the kids to find themselves. We show them that they can live happily and successfully, looking after their health and the wellbeing of those close to them.

I’m convinced that in our city, in Russia, and in the world there are many people who share our views. We thank everyone who works with us and supports us, and we look forward to making new friends, partners and colleagues.”

Rafael Davletov
Love’s Bridge Project Manager

A Regular Visitor Returns

Michael Kerins, our storytelling friend from Scotland, visited us again this year, giving an enthusiastic talk at Love’s Bridge about sexual health. The kids soon warmed to his charisma and enjoyed listening to his stories, as well as finding out some potentially life-saving information. This year Michael brought some other guests with him, and the kids were delighted to meet them and find out about life in Scotland. Michael closed the session by telling one of his stories in a theatrical style, and revealing a special surprise – a box of presents and clothes for the Love’s Bridge kids.
By old tradition, besides a generous donation towards the project needs, Michael left one last present for the kids – a small sum of money, which they can choose to spend on something special. The kids love this custom, and it’s great for teaching them how to make important decisions in a group.

Here’s what one of the kids wrote to Michael: “My name is Irina, I’m 15. I was frightened to start with when I first saw you, but I soon understood that you are a very good person. I especially liked how you tell your stories, and you gave us some fantastic presents. I really liked all your stories, but most importantly I want to thank you very much for the presents. It was super!”

We’d like to thank Michael and Dominic Kerins, Frances Logan, Ian Ferguson and Rona Barbour, for their support for the project and positive influence on the kids here in Perm.

The Little House on the Hill

We’ve started working in our first municipal Social Center where we have our own office and access to large sports and activity rooms. The ‘Little House on the Hill’, as the kids have named it (it’s on top of Perm’s main hill) already has plenty going on, including a new educational course just for girls, and providing help for local pensioners.
We asked some of the kids why they wanted to help elderly people:

“I like helping elderly people, because when I’m old someone else will help me too.” Vanya

“It was interesting, I found out about the history of my country, that there was a time when you weren’t allowed to give your opinion, that you could be put in jail for just saying the truth.” Misha

Nadya, the Love’s Bridge psychologist for the center, says things have got off to a great start: “We agreed with the orphanage for a group of 7-11 year olds to come to the center once a week. Our group of teenagers had come early and were there at the same time, so when they saw these little kids they decided to help out too. They sat down in pairs with them whilst they did some craft projects, and afterwards they organized some fun activities for them. They have now decided to come along and help out with them every week!”

The Perfect Christmas Present

We would love to see a Love’s Bridge project in all of Perm’s Social Centers – there are thousands more children who need our help. The only thing holding us back is a lack of funding, something we have felt acutely during these difficult financial times.

The perfect Christmas present for Perm’s most vulnerable children and young people is a contribution to help Love’s Bridge expand and give more of them the chance to transform their lives.

Please follow this link to give the perfect Christmas present this year: www.lovesbridge.org/donate

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.

With the second camp we wanted to show the kids other alternatives to life on the streets in Perm. We took part in free sports and cultural activities in the city and were visited by the local Boy Scout organization.

One of the best memories of the camps was when we took the kids to the State Philharmonic. We really had to talk them in to going – they said how it would be really boring, and only old women listen to classical music. Well, they soon changed their minds when they were treated to a private concert by an opera singer, and we got plenty of funny looks on the street outside as the kids took turns to try and emulate her afterwards!

Nature Lovers

This summer Love’s Bridge also ran three holidays for Perm’s most vulnerable children and teenagers, getting them out of the city and doing something positive with their energy.  The first trip was a week-long rafting trip, where the kids got to see some of the beautiful Russian wilderness, while learning many important skills along the way.

A group of older teenagers spent two weeks helping to renovate Perm’s unique Political Repression Museum “Perm-36”, which is based in a former GULAG political prison.  We saw some really big progress in lots of the teens who took part in the camp, as they spent a long, intensive period with a group of our volunteers. The final camp was also a volunteer camp, this time for younger teens, who helped to clear up a riverbank in a nature reserve.

Kids’ Thoughts

Katya (15): Thanks for the wonderful rafting trip I really, really liked it! There were really beautiful hills and rapids, it was all generally brilliant. It was just unreal there – campfires, singing along to the guitar, the ‘banya’, the instructors. I’d like to go on more trips like this.

Dasha (14): A big thank you for organizing such a great rafting trip. It was cool there, and really extreme. We all got  nice sun tans and came back in a great mood. This was the best trip I’ve ever been on.

Denis (15): I’m really happy that I took part in this camp. This camp helped me meet new and really interesting people, some have now become very good friends. Thank you very much for this – I really value what you do, and I want to help you as best I can. I also want to thank you for treating me as an equal. The camp was brilliant.

Scary Stories

Written by Yulia, Love’s Bridge Center Manager

We were staying in a really beautiful spot by the bank of the river, living in tents. In the morning we worked with the kids, and when it was hot in the afternoon we went swimming and played games. In the evening we sat around the campfire and told the kids scary stories about the spirits of the river and forest. We always put some of our adult thinking into the stories, to give them a meaning or moral, like don’t go wandering in the forest at night, you’ll disturb the spirit who’ll make sure you get lost. The kids listened with great interest – being scared and intrigued at the same time.

One evening they went to bed earlier than usual, and we told them that they could carry on talking as long as they weren’t too noisy. The next morning we made our way to breakfast – a 15-minute walk, including climbing up over 500 steps up the hillside! I got chatting with one of the girls, and I asked her how she’d enjoyed her evening. She said that they had been inspired by us, and stayed up late telling scary stories of their own. I immediately thought of silly children’s ghost stories from my own childhood, and wondered what stories kids nowadays told each other.

I asked the girl to share a couple of stories with me, to which she gave me a secretive look and asked me not to repeat the stories to anyone. She then told me that they had been talking about their own lives – how they were beaten, how their parents fought with each other, how some of them are now dead… about how scary real life can be.