Education Centre

In 2000, ROOF opened the Education Centre in central Moscow in order to provide a space and a community to support 'graduates' from orphanages supplement their education to a level which would enable them to pursue their aims either in finding work or in going on to further study.

The Education Centre grew over the years to become ROOF's single largest project, and also one of the most publically visible.

In 2002, the first Educational Director of ROOF's Education Centre, Irina Ryazanova, on the basis of the experience with ROOF in the centre of Moscow, formed a new organization to provide the same services elsewhere in the city. Her organization is called Bolshaya Peremena ('Big Change') and more information can be found on their website at www.bigchange.ru

In early 2010 we began planning for the original Education Centre in central Moscow to become an independent Russian organization also, and the new organization, called 'Vverkh' or 'Step Up' was formed at the beginning of the 2010-11 academic year. A high proportion of funding for the Centre had already been sourced locally, and the new organization was able to become fully independent of ROOF in terms of funding after the first year of its existence. More information on the Centre's current work is on Vverkh's own website at www.vverh.su