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Varvara Grankova

Now the boarding school is an absolutely abnormal world, similar to a prison with pathological control

Teach and release

What needs to be changed in the system of raising orphans, says Lyudmila Petranovskaya

Despite the protests, the State Duma last week and the Federation Council on December 26 approved a law banning the adoption of Russian children by Americans. A powerful flow of information on this matter evokes strong emotions, but does not bring a clear idea of what is happening. Friday discussed this topic with a psychologist who has been working with adoptive families for many years, the author of several books on the topic, a popular blogger and one of the founders of a new public organization - the Institute for the Development of Family Structure ( IRSU ) - Lyudmila Petranovskaya.

— I read in your blog that the “ response law” could push for reform of our system of raising orphans. How?

“This will be possible if public interest in the problem does not disappear after the adoption of the “ law of meanness.” Since officials are in the dust because of the law, now is the time to put forward their demands. Five to seven clear and specific demands, so as not to receive in response many general words that we have been hearing for more than a week.

— What are the requirements, for example?

— For example, the disaggregation of boarding schools. Where 300 children are locked behind a fence, there is bound to be violence. Sometimes our boarding schools formally become family-type, but no family structure appears in them. The buildings are being redeveloped, and children of different ages are moving into the resulting apartments. But the rules of life remain the same: you cannot sit on your bed during the day, toilets and showers are not locked, lights out at 21:00 even for 17-year-old boys during the World Cup. Now this is an absolutely abnormal world, like a prison with pathological control, pathological sterility, pathological regime.

— What do you mean by pathological sterility?

— The other day I was in Ufa , there is a good orphanage there. SES officers come to them and say: carpets are not allowed on the floor, soft toys are not allowed, flowers are not allowed on the windowsills. The director is a forced man, he cleans everything. A day later, Astakhov comes to them and says: why is it like in a barracks - no toys, no flowers? Directors spend all day dealing with the requirements of the SES, firefighters, and accounting; there is no time left for children. Over the past 15 years, for the sake of the safety of children, everything that could give a child some kind of self-realization has been excluded from boarding schools: workshops, household plots, “ living corners.” Can you imagine not having a hamster? Children are climbing the wall. Prohibitions that create the illusion of safety lead to children doing whatever they want: running away, bringing various substances with them.

— What else is needed to solve the serious problems of children in orphanages?

“Now one of the sources of their insecurity and violence is the closed nature of boarding schools. It’s a big deal for volunteers to come to an orphanage, but the Ministry of Health doesn’t even allow children into children’s homes. If children are placed in a regular environment - go to a regular school, walk in a regular yard, visit a regular clinic - they will have much more options where to complain if something happens. Now they are completely isolated and depend on several adults - it’s good if they are not bad people. It’s good if the teachers themselves take care of all the children, but I know that in most cases they organize hazing: they communicate with two or three leaders who build the rest of the children.

“Such a requirement may turn out to be unpopular: not every parent wants their child to go to school or hang out with children from a boarding school - their behavior is probably somehow different.

“I understand, it’s easy to send everyone to Mars.” Only this train does not have the last carriage. Now we will send the orphanage students there, then the D students, then maybe the C students. Then they will come for you. The establishment of a ghetto has never led to anything good in history. If you are not ready to destroy everyone in this ghetto, you need to do something about it.

I'm not saying it's easy. I’m not saying that children from boarding schools should be released just like that. Of course, someone must accompany them, communicate with others, resolve conflicts. It’s not for nothing that my comrades and I opened an institute that trains practitioners in this field, both for government agencies and public organizations.

— Or maybe, as movement , organizer of the Otkazniki.ru Elena Alshanskaya , suggests in an online petition that has collected more than 3,000 signatures in favor, transfer all orphans to foster families, and let the employees of former orphanages, having retrained, advise and help foster parents?

“This needs to be done in parallel, and this proposal is related to the idea of disaggregating orphanages. What does closing the orphanage lead to now? 20-30 children are taken to a large orphanage in a neighboring area, and those who were visited by relatives - grandmothers, for example - have their connection with them severed. If the child’s grandmother lived in a neighboring village, she could visit him here a couple of times a month. From the age of 13-14, a teenager could be allowed to visit alone. The neighboring area will not let one go. Grandmother simply won’t go: the roads and transport are very bad, and she’s really poor, her entire pension could go on just one trip. The child loses all connections with real life, to which he has to return.

And from a disbanded orphanage it would be possible to turn into a service for accompanying foster families or a day shelter - for socially disadvantaged regions this is simply a salvation. Recently I was in the Dnepropetrovsk region, and they set a task for the director of an orphanage: in two years, transfer children to foster families, retrain specialists and organize a consultation center.

- Do they do this somewhere here?

— We do not have a strategy or manager responsible for this area. The same situation existed in Ukraine, but five years ago practitioner Lyudmila Volynets came to lead this area. She began to build a system for protecting the rights of orphans and carried out a total retraining of personnel. Over the course of five years, half of the pupils left children's institutions. We see: problems can be solved.

- How is it happening here?

— All our actions in this area are a reaction to some laws and regulations. All achievements appear in spite of themselves, thanks to heroes who swim against the tide . But such heroes last for two or three years, then they simply burn out and leave. Directors are not given clear tasks. If the director of an orphanage has fewer than 40 children, he sits on a suitcase, because at any moment a fax can come from above: in two days we will transfer all the children to a neighboring orphanage.

— Do you mean the recent scandalous story with a small orphanage in Reutov ?

- This happens everywhere. In this situation, naturally, directors begin to hold on to their children, and they think not only about themselves; in many villages, boarding schools are city-forming enterprises. Now there are many complaints that it is impossible to get a child out of the system. It seems like everyone agreed, the baby is definite - and then it begins: we need to complete the treatment, we need to further examine it, the birth mother called.

— To listen to you, it turns out that all the legislation in this area in our country is akin to the latest scandalous law - it is adopted for reasons not related to orphans?

“Otherwise, firefighters and SES employees would not have such power over life in orphanages. The sphere is becoming more and more regulated, control is being increased, and huge amounts of money are being poured into it. I think somewhere at the top the corruption of this process is simply growing. I talk a lot with directors, they all complain: thanks to “ transparent” government orders, they regularly have to buy clothes that quickly break down, expensive office equipment that gathers dust without use. But Tuzik cannot be placed in a booth to please the children.

— Is the same nonsense happening with the training of foster parents and specialists? Why did you organize the Institute for the Development of Family Structure?

— From September 1, potential adoptive parents were required to undergo training at the School of Adoptive Parents; without a certificate of completion of the child, they could not receive it. But in many regions these schools exist only on paper. When accompanying foster families became mandatory in Moscow or the region, I don’t remember, colleagues from psychological centers started calling me, who were simply assigned to this work without being trained in anything. We still haven’t even begun work on creating a system for training specialists who would work with families and children in difficult situations. There is no such qualification - a specialist in family arrangement. But there are more than enough controllers in our field.

Dossier:

1967

Born in Tashkent.

1998

Graduated from the Institute of Psychoanalysis, specializing in family counseling, psychodrama.

2002

Laureate of the Russian Presidential Prize in the field of education.

2012

She created the Institute for the Development of Family Structure, a public organization that trains practitioners in this area.

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