Spring greetings from Love’s Bridge!
A number of you have contacted us, wondering about the lack of recent updates… well, we are a very small organization, and sometimes important events can have a big knock-on effect. Such was the case at Love’s Bridge when project managers Hamish and Hannah-Louise Heald celebrated the birth of their first child, Francesca, in January. All the family are healthy and happy, and are grateful for the many messages of goodwill they have received!
Life at Love’s Bridge has also been very busy, with lots of new kids visiting the centers and attending our courses. You can read all about it right here…
New Year’s Fun
Although a few months have past, lots of our kids keep reminding us about our New Year celebrations. We had a fantastic party followed by a week of games and outings over the holiday period. We asked Boris to share his memories with our supporters:
Hi! My name is Boris and I’m eleven. I want to tell you about how I spent New Year.
This year I had two parties, one at home and one at Love’s Bridge. My brother and I started coming to the center on the 17th or 18th of January 2009. This year has shown me the reason I’m alive. It’s important to be good, if you want other people to be good to you.
The thing I remember best from this year was the ‘Star Bears’ group at Love’s Bridge. I liked drawing about Happiness, What We Would Do If We Were Wizards, and other things. The year went so fast I didn’t notice it. This year was a good one.
We started preparing for the celebrations early. In the Theatre group we did a play. I played the role of Delightful Boy. I liked the play a lot. It was called A Christmas Carol. I especially liked the scene about childhood.
After the play there were lots of interesting performances. For example, the boys did a ‘parkour’ demonstration, then the girls and teachers dressed as gypsies and did a gypsy dance.
After these performances everyone got presents. We were given bags of sweets, and I really liked the calendar made of photos from the Centre too. At home I helped Mum to make different salads and then I ate them myself.
Mum and my Stepdad didn’t give us presents, but we had a lot of sweets from the center. And later presents arrived from Ireland.
With that news, I leave you. Thank you everyone for this New Year!
We’d like to give special thanks to our Irish friends for sending over presents for all the Love’s Bridge kids again this year! It’s a big operation, and the kids appreciate it so much – most of them wouldn’t otherwise get anything much at all.
A New Start
After some months of careful planning and preparation, we have officially started our new line of work at our Consultation Center. Our staff there have started running courses for Perm’s most vulnerable teenagers, adapted from other Love’s Bridge materials, as well as providing more psychological consultations than before. On average ten teenagers visit the center every day, and it can be hard getting them to leave at the end of the day when the center closes! Most of them have very difficult domestic situations, and the center has quickly become a real refuge for them.
We are working very closely with local schools who can’t cope with the problems their most ‘difficult’ pupils present for them. As always, the most important aspect is our individual approach to each child and their problems, making sure they get the attention they deserve.
The first courses are coming to an end, and we have a special weekend away planned for the kids to reward them for their efforts, and to give their new life after the course a great start. We will go out to the countryside for campfires, horse riding and plenty of fun, as well as a graduation ceremony.
These unique opportunities are so important to the development of Perm’s most vulnerable teens, and a $100 donation will cover the costs of one of the participants. Please use our site to donate to this wonderful cause: www.lovesbridge.org/donate
Figure it Out
We would recommend you reading this piece on the BBC website to give you a better idea of some of the problems we are fighting with out here in Russia:
Russia’s HIV Epidemic
To summarize – over half a million Russians drink themselves to death every year, but rampant alcoholism is now being rivaled by HIV/AIDS because of spiraling heroin addiction. In Russia there are over 2.5 million heroin addicts, compared to 800,000 in the US and about 250,000 in the UK.
Unfortunately, heroin abuse is something we have seen more and more of amongst the young people who come to Love’s Bridge, and HIV prevention is now a key part of our work. We are greatly helped with this by a number of groups – some local NGOs such as the Anti-Narcotics Alliance, and annual visits from our friend Michael Kerins, a writer and storyteller from Glasgow, Scotland.
Michael conducts open, honest conversations with the kids about HIV and sexual well-being, and brings a big box of condoms which we can distribute for free amongst Perm’s most vulnerable young people. One would imagine that a country with major heroin and HIV problems would already be running such seminars and schemes, but this is not the case, and Michael’s help is invaluable. He also brings a small donation for a fun activity, and lets the teenagers choose what they want to do with it, encouraging them to take responsibility whilst enjoying themselves.
We’d like to thank Michael and SLATE (the charity which supports his trips) for the fantastic work they do, and look forward to seeing him again later this year!
Sew Stylish!
This year has seen the kids at Love’s Bridge turn their hands to a new sewing project – making Russian-style bookmarks. Some friends of Love’s Bridge wanted to organize presents for their wedding guests, and contacted us to find out if we would be interested in a joint-project. We of course agreed, and everyone is delighted with the results!
Here’s how it works – kids come to the Love’s Bridge centers, and can choose to take part in the sewing club. If they want, they can learn how to make the bookmarks and join in with the project. For each completed bookmark, the kids earn ‘points’ which they can then spend in a few different ways – playing on the computers; obtaining some clothes, stationary or other things for home; renting ice skates from the center.
The kids are not only kept busy learning some valuable sewing skills, they also understand the value of hard work and see the fruits of their endeavors almost instantly. They are also happy with the extra computer time and new things they get, and keep coming back for more sewing!
Love’s Bridge hasn’t just gained a great new project; we have also been given a donation for the finished bookmarks, and look forward to the increased awareness of our work when the guests get their beautiful new bookmarks! Please get in touch if you have any imaginative fundraising ideas!
And Finally…
On behalf of all the kids, staff and volunteers, thank you for your ongoing support!
Our projects would not be running if it wasn’t for your valuable help, letters and donations – so please remember the important role you’re playing in the lives of Perm’s most vulnerable children and young people!
