At first there was a piece of clay

The work of the teacher with adolescents who have committed a crime resembles a work on a pottery circle

We help the center of sotsadaptation sv. Vasily the Great collected 3 962 777 R required 3 956 089 r

The collection of funds is over

Cyril is a former physical education teacher and coach. For two years, he has been working as a teacher at the center of social adaptation of St. Vasily the Great. Three days a week from ten in the morning to ten in the morning of the next day, he will be on duty in the apartment, where eight difficult teenagers who are convicted of crimes of varying severity are now living. The center was created as an alternative to the children's colony in a maximum security colony in order to give teenagers a chance to really get better, and not to become criminals for the rest of their lives.

On the pottery

In the apartment, which the French charity fund bought for the center, is very unusual. You enter into the porch - and here you are a gilded vintage, a great, screwed to the ceiling, and the bell is nearby. The "muzzle" from old Lada with working headlights illuminates the space under the stairs with a wicker chair, they say, go, sit down. On the ground floor, the door, behind which several rooms are a large and small bedrooms, educator and tiny cuisine. Here, the teacher on weekends for breakfast prepares porridge and soup, on weekdays, sponsors bring ready food.

Cyril lunch with pupils in the center of Vasily the Great photo: Maria Gelman for TD

The bedrooms are comfortable and beautiful, even the beds and two -story. One of the former pupils decided to make a gift to the next generation: he made angels from clay and hung it on the walls. Opposite the residential block, also on the ground floor - the hound to the pottery, where these angels were created to help Cyril keep the boys and trumpets when the guys are thinking arson or try to smoke home hash brought from the absence of home.

In the potter’s huge rack with stucco circles, plates, stands, figures, ready to give out mothers and girls. “They do all this almost with great interest. This is a craft that simply cannot but not build a person, even if the guys do not notice this. Here was a piece of clay, and here is a clay pot. But one careless movement - and it was worth it, and with each circle it is rapidly losing its shape, bought up, and then you need to take it off, and everything is new, starting with a lump of clay. This is a very vital process, the same thing happens with them. One careless phrase, action, inattention on the part of the mentor - and the almost already strained guy again becomes a “piece of clay”. ”

Cyril lubricates with ointment with one of the pupils photo: Maria Gelman for TD

Rules of firing

Cyril has never been pounding with the guys, but he really wants to. While they sculpt, he is working on other works (from repair to packaging paintings in the museum), to somehow live, because salaries in the center sometimes can wait a month, two, three. And he provides a family, a year ago he became a father and finally dreams of helping his mother, who worked all her life without turning her hands out to feed her son.
Cyril did not have a father. But there was a grandfather, cousin, who became his family forever and replaced his father with more than. “Any boy needs an example, not necessarily a father, but the one who wants to be like in childhood and then all his life. I always wanted to be like grandfather. "
Grandfather was distinguished by two qualities that Cyril gives a real man and which he seeks to broadcast his wards. First and most importantly - a man must be able to keep a word. He said - I have to do it.

Cyril solves problems by phone after classes in Irish dancing Photo: Maria Gelman for TD

When Cyril was still a schoolboy, his grandfather took him and his own granddaughter and went with his children to the country, skiing. Cyril dreamed of skiing almost the entire second quarter. And finally, on vacation, everything was collected and ready. But when the skiers were in place, it turned out that at home they forgot the ski lubricant.

“I remember falling asleep and almost cried. “Well, that's it. The skis were covered. " Grandfather did not tell me anything then, because, probably, he himself was not sure that he would find a way out. And the next morning I found that the skis were ready for operation. Only after many years I learned that he rubbed them all night with pieces of paraffin from old cores of candles found in different corners of the country house. ”

The second quality that Cyril appreciates so much and without which he considers it impossible to work in the center is resourcefulness. “These guys have a very lively mind, and he always works ahead of lead. We have to react quickly: to arrange the conversations of tete-at, when you see that the situation is getting out of control. There are days when in these conversations passes all day, it seems to have done nothing special, but the feeling that he unloaded the wagons. ”

Cyril called an ambulance to one of the pupils and talks on the phone with his father photo: Maria Gelman for TD

Cyril is not alone in such psychological work. In the center there is a psychologist’s office, he is on the second floor of the same house. Often, Cyril looks at the psychologist himself to discuss the urgent problem. “A lot of difficulties are due to the fact that the guys, in addition to the general protest against the regime, rules, forced trips to theaters, museums and classes, also breaking. Almost everyone who entered the re -education over the past year is sitting on drugs. Yes, these are not severe drugs, but there is an effect, and this complicates the work. You really begin to reach a person when he has already a little shone for the absence of a “buzz”.

Not everyone cope. But the indicator is good - about two -thirds of the pupils manage to change their attitude to life in the center and go up the axis of their coordinates.

Fork and fork

“The guys often fight and pose a danger to each other, as they find out the relationship seriously. Once at dinner, two quarreled, arranged a verbal skirmish, and all would be nothing, but one of the wards, removing dishes behind him, attacked his comrade. He poked him in the neck with a fork. The wound was frivolous, but my partner-educator and I force them in the corners, I called the police, and issued the incident. While they were waiting, they sat with them in these corners, engaged in explanatory work. The victim refused to write a statement. But the very fact that the police arrived was extremely important. It is necessary to resemble periodically that such measures exist. ”

The attacker after that incident became a little quiet, but turned out to be a strong nut - climbed into the rampage, tried to intimidate. For example, he did not allow himself to search, although Cyril knew that he was hiding the forbidden lighter, and even stole condoms on the medical commission. “He threatened that he would accuse me of sexual harassment. Checked for strength. But I still searched it, and, of course, no statement was written on me. ”

Kirill feeds the seagulls on the embankment next to the center of Vasily the Great photo: Maria Gelman for TD

The time spent by boys in the center is difficult for everyone - both for them and for those who are trying to re -educate them. But, as one of the favorite writers of Cyril, St. Exupery, whose quotes, by the way, hang in the pottery says: “He who cares about the possibilities of growth for a person prepares his help that will serve him tomorrow. That's why I called all the educators and said to them:
- Your duty is not to kill a person in small people, not to turn them into ants, condemning an anthill into the life of an anthill. I do not care about how pleased the person will be. I care about how much human will be in it. ”

These are human Cyril and four more educators, psychologists and social service workers of the Center for Vasily the Great by bit, they get teenagers from bristled souls every day. The state does not finance the center, but in our power to make sure that this hard and very necessary work is at least paid on time. Please issue a monthly donation in favor of the center right now! This has already helped many guys stay “afloat” in life, this will serve us and tomorrow, having helped out those who need help.

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