Projects
In all our projects, ROOF’s goal is to do the following for institutionalized orphans and orphanage graduates:
- provide top-quality education (both academic and life-skills education) free of cost to this segment of the population to which it is often systematically denied;
- impart grace and peace through a support community which incorporates physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual support;
- enable institutionalized orphans and orphanage graduates to make wise, mature and healthy decisions for their own lives;
- surmount and eventually change the prejudice against orphans that is so prevalent in Russian society.
Specific goals include passing a wide knowledge base on to our students, keeping them from falling behind in school, broadening their horizons and promoting increased motivation, self-esteem and responsibility levels.
ROOF achieves these goals by being an active and alive support community through which our students have access to:
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High-quality instruction in basic school subjects;
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Mentors who help negotiate the storms of everyday life;
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Community activities that help them engage with their rich cultural heritage and Russian Orthodox Christian faith;
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Cross-cultural experiences which broaden horizons, help them engage with the world and offer new opportunities;
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Educational opportunities and opportunities for creative development and artistic expression outside the institutional environment;
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Instruction in life skills and skills directly related to employment;
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Help in finding jobs and career training and counselling, especially for our older students.
ROOF also considers it a success when our projects gather enough local support to become independent local grassroots organizations in their own right. Over the course of more than a decade of work, we have seen three independent charitable organizations form from ROOF projects: Rostok in the Pskov region and Bolshaya Peremena (Big Change) and more recently Vverkh (Step Up) from the Moscow Education Centre.
