Please have a look at our performance report on the 2010 – 2011 school year.

About 80 children attended the Center at the beginning of the school year. However, after several classes a group of fifth-graders of Dmitrov Boarding School were no longer able to attend due to the reasons beyond our control. In their place, a group of seventh-graders, who had been studying at the Center since its establishment, began to come more often.

It is worth noting that about 80% of each group attend the Center without fail, while others come and go from time to time. Occasionally someone falls ill, others have an important rehearsal at their boarding school. New children are often invited. All in all, it is difficult to say how many children exactly attend classes. In addition this year up to seven family children attended classes.

The Center conducted classes every day, except Saturday.

Moy Mir (My World) Moral Development Program

The classes, from January 2011 to May 2011, were conducted by Natalya Atroshchenko, Assistant Director of the Center and the author of the program.
The four following groups were taught under the program:
1) Seventh-graders from Dmitrov Boarding School; 12 on average. They attended classes more often than the others, every Monday and every other Friday, i.e. three times every two weeks.
2) Sixth-graders from Yakhroma Boarding School; 11 on average. These students came to the Center every Tuesday, but attended only a part of the program classes. Since the students in this group are not so diligent, we decided to alternate these classes with sessions with a psychologist.
3) Fourth and fifth-graders from Yakhroma Boarding School; 19 children on average attending the Center every Wednesday.
4) Fifth-graders from Dmitrov Boarding School, with 12 students on average attending the Center every other Friday, i.e. once every two weeks.
Prior to starting classes under the Moy Mir program, all children were asked to take part in an anonymous survey. The teachers also decided to fill in the questionnaire. Below you will find the survey questions specifying how the children answered them (percentage) before and after taking the classes (before/after).
1. A famous ballerina posts her nude photos online:
- This is immoral (before taking the classes, 63% of children thought so. After the classes, 86%)
- If it’s beautiful, that’s all that matters (37%/14%)
2. If you were given $1,000, would you agree to kiss a person you don’t really like?
- Yes (11/10)
- Never (71/71)
- For $1,000,000, yes, of course (9/11)
- Only if no one learns about it (9/8)
3. Is it OK to condemn murderers deep down?
- Yes (49/24)
- No (51/76)
4. What kind of girl deserves to be a princess more?
- Beautiful and smart (30/21)
- Kind and caring (70/79)
5. Are you afraid of the devil?
- Yes (46/30)
- No (54/70)
6. Drinking beer:
- Is bad for you in any amount (63/82)
- Is not really bad for you at all (17/7)
- Is bad for you, but only in large amounts; a bottle of beer a day is OK (20/11)
7. Are Romeo and Juliet an example of perfect love?
- Yes (72/53)
- No (28/47)
8. Is it true that real, tenacious love means necessarily passion?
- Yes (44/45)
- No (56/55)
9. Do you believe that having faith in and aspiring to God can help overcome any problems and cure all illnesses?
- Yes (80/96)
- It’s a fairy tale for naпve people (15/4)
- To overcome problems and cure illnesses is unlikely, but if you ask God for something tangible like 1,000 rubles, He might give it to you (5/0)
10. If you found a wallet with a lot of money in it, would you give half of it to your friend (not a close one) in a difficult situation?
- Yes (52/70)
- No (35/21)
- Not half of the money but a little (13/9)
11. If you love someone who doesn’t care for you, is it OK to put a spell him/her?
- Yes (39/39)
- No (54/56)
- Only an innocent love spell (7/5)

As expected, the greatest progress was achieved by the seventh-graders of Dmitrov Boarding School, who attended classes more often than the others. On the other hand the children  with more serious diagnoses and those who attended classes the least often achieved the lowest results. According to the final survey of results, some conclusions can be drawn on the topics we should focus on the next year.
The questionnaires completed by the teachers show that by the end of the school year they had also demonstrated changes in the way they viewed the world. No doubt they had derived benefit from being present at the classes all the time.
We came across many unexpected things from the questionnaires completed by the children before the first class. For example, a girl asked us who the devil was. Many children didn’t know what ‘immoral’ meant. In some younger groups almost no one hadn’t heard of Romeo and Juliet and didn’t know what ‘put a spell’ meant. Therefore, we had to explain certain things  during the survey. One boy aged 12 couldn’t read or speak but wanted to take part in the survey anyway. Natalya, who was conducting the survey, read him questions and answers aloud, and the boy nodded when he heard the necessary answer.
The classes were made up of the following parts: 20-minute-long theoretical part comprising a question-answer dialogue with children followed by activities to reinforce newly presented material, i.e. drawing on the topic discussed, and tea. As the school year drew to a close, the children began to feel more tired and didn’t want to draw as much. Then they were given a choice to draw, do collages, or act out sketches to reinforce new material. Those who were drawing usually managed to take a glimpse at the sketches. Children were asked to act out situations and sketches on such topics as “You’ve ended up in a foreign city with no phone, money, or ID,” “Your child is lazy,” “You’ve run over a pedestrian,” “Your girlfriend’s broke up with you, “The utility company has shut off water and electricity for several days,” “You’ve lost your job” and such like. The children had to act out what they would have done in this or that case and if they didn’t know we tried to find a way out all together.
Apart from these creative tasks the children enjoyed taking part in short training games on the following topics: Looking for the Good in Others, Excuses, See Yourself through Others’ Eyes, Good Deeds, and Feel Like Millionaire. During the training sessions children were offered situations which allowed them to see themselves and others from an unexpected perspective and see what true values really were.
The children attending classes made many important discoveries, such as,
- the distinction between humility and passivity;
- not every complaint to an adult is telling on someone and how to distinguish between the two;
- how to make friends with a person who is not interested in you;
- the importance of the ability to make sacrifices;
- the right way to treat yourself;
- why having idols is a bad idea;
- why do we need troubles and how to solve them;
- the meaning behind rituals;
- how the main religions are different from religious cults;
- why wishing only to receive without giving anything back is not good;
- love is not only about pleasure but constraints, too,
and many others subjects.
Interestingly, some topics were absolutely clear to children and didn’t require any explanations, while others had to be explained in detail and raised dozens of questions (especially issues of alcohol and relationships between men and women). We often digressed from the curriculum, integrating several topics for children to obtain as much knowledge as possible on what they are interested in and what they need; and how to learn to treat both the outer and inner world in the right way.
We would like especially to thank Yevgeniya Valeryevna, a teacher at Dmitrov Boarding School, for taking an active part in the classes. She knows her students (seventh-graders) very well, both their strengths and weaknesses, so she came up with interesting patterns for developing the given situations, helping children to better understand what is going on in their own lives.
When asked if they enjoyed the program, the children said they liked it a lot, understood everything, and thought it was useful to learn more about life and how to behave in various situations. They also liked being able to ask any questions they wanted to and all in all it was interesting. They also asked why no one had talked about things like that before and why other children didn’t have similar classes.
It was also nice to hear words of gratitude from the teachers who attended classes. They confessed they had learned a lot, too. We hope it will certainly positively influence  how children feel,  because they spend 8 hours a day with their teachers. It is by joint efforts that we, adults, can help our children become productive members of the society and simply happy people.

Sessions with a Psychologist

The sessions were conducted by Victoria Khalimonova, our psychologist at the Center.
They lasted from October 2010 to May 2011.
The following two groups attended sessions with the psychologist:
1)  Sixth-graders of Yakhroma Boarding School, 11 on average. Those children came to the Center every Tuesday.
2)  First - and second- graders of Dmitrov Boarding School, 10 on average. The kids visited the Center every Thursday.
Starting in October, each Tuesday (as several sessions on Friday with the sixth-graders of Dmitrov Boarding School), the psychologist conducted sessions using exercises representing three areas of correction activities, i.e. body-oriented therapy (“Brain Gym”), art therapy, and conversational training. Brain Gym exercises enabled the creation of a perfect atmosphere for children to fulfill their potential. During busy sessions children did special exercises, played games and drew and managed to do it all at each session. There were also sessions devoted to optional activities, usually before vacations and public holidays, when children were allowed to do what they wanted, for example, sewing, drawing, making collages, and bead weaving. Everybody liked those sessions a lot!
Thursday sessions were for the youngest group of first- and second-graders, who are behind their peers in terms of their mental development because of various special needs diagnoses. The main objective of having sessions with those children was to develop their manual dexterity. As Vasily Sukhomlinsky, a famous pedagogue, said, “The mind of a child is on the tips of his fingers.” Finger games help the brain development, speaking skills, creative abilities and imagination development. Throughout the year the psychologist conducted interesting sessions, during which the children played games, modeled with play dough and salt dough, weaved necklaces with beads, and drew with pencils and brushes. At the beginning of the year, sessions started off with a ‘sandbox’ (with semolina instead of sand). It is a wonderful training device for getting child’s hands ready to write and do other special movements. Starting from March, sessions began with Brain Gym exercises representing a body-oriented therapy.
The children progressed during the school year; they started to write and draw much better. We would like to thank Elena, a teacher at Dmitrov Boarding School, for participating actively in those sessions, and our volunteers, especially Irina from Dmitrov.

Drawing classes

Classes were conducted by Nikolay Belonogov, a professional artist and the Director of the Center.
Classes lasted from September 2010 to December 2010.
The following three groups attended the classes:
1) Seventh-graders from Dmitrov Boarding School, 12 on average. They attended classes more often than the others, every Monday and every other Friday, i.e. three times every two weeks.
2) Fourth and fifth-graders from Yakhroma Boarding School, 19 on average attending the Center every Wednesday.
3) Fifth-graders from Dmitrov Boarding School, 12 on average, attending the Center every other Friday, i.e. once every two weeks.
Children learned to draw on wet and crumpled paper and to use the single-color technique. They made Christmas cards and 3D pictures, some of which were used for big collective works of art for the Dmitrov Orthodox Exhibition and Fair and Christmas Exhibition held at the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow.

Sunday Lessons for Orphans.

The lessons were taught by Nikolay Belonogov, Director of our Centre.
During weekends, only the orphans remain at the boarding schools, because all other children go home. And so the Sunday lessons and Sunday excursions are for orphans only.
During this academic year, a variety of interesting people visited us.
In autumn, Nastya from Moscow came to visit us and brought Remmy, her Labrador. The children were delighted! The good-natured dog let the children play with him as they liked, and the youngest even rode on his back :)
On New Year’s Eve, Victoria and Natalya, volunteers from Moscow, gave a workshop in soap-making. The children were very happy! They melted the foundation for soap in a microwave oven (all by themselves) and, under Victoria and Natalya's guidance, added oils, pigments, spangles, and then poured the soap into forms. They made excellent New Year presents!

During the Orthodox Fair we met Marina Vyacheslavovna, a teacher from a music school. Thanks to her we were able to take our children regularly to concerts at the music school, as well as to exhibitions in the Dmitrov Museum and Exhibition Complex. During this academic year, the children attended the autumn feast of Cosmas and Damian, Christmas performance and an exhibition of embroidered icons.
At the beginning of winter, during the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Yakhroma Boarding School, we met Irina, their long-time helper from Moscow, and immediately became friends. Irina assists in many of our events with great pleasure. She also introduced us to her friends, Denis and Anya rugby players . On January 6, 2011, they organised a sports event for children from both boarding schools. Every participant received a real medal from the sportsmen!
On Sunday, March 6, 2011, we organised a Maslenitsa feast for the children together with the employees and managers of Dmitrov Branch of VTB 24. After a generous meal the head of the branch told the children about core banking products and then the children had an adventure holiday!
Nina K. from Dmitrov visited us several times. Her hobbies are knitting and sewing. The children (even  the boys) really enjoyed learning from her!
On March 20th, 2011, our friends from Dmitrov Branch of VTB 24 visited us and brought with them Dmitry Trifonov, the saxophone player from the popular jazz band Den’ Tvorchestva (Creativity Day). He was excited to introduce our children to jazz. In our program, Dmitry played the saxophone, talked to the children about jazz and musical instruments, and even let everyone who wanted to, blow his saxophone!
On May 22, 2011, the orphans from Dmitrov Boarding School received a great surprise: they were able to ride horses. What’s more the horses came to the boarding school themselves! Elena and Julia, owners of a private stable in the small town of Gorshkovo in the Dmitrov district, agreed to bring three of their horses to the boarding school for a token payment. The children had 1.5 hour of pure delight!
During this academic year we organised several excursions for the orphans: to the branch of the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val; the Kremlin Armoury Chamber; the Podosinki Greenhouses;  to the Toy Museum and Chernigovsky Skete; the Zoo,  Borisoglebsky and Nikolo-Peshnoshsky Monasteries and the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra.

Other activities at the Centre.

In addition to working with children, our employees are involved in other work as well: for example, they help boarding schools, participate in seminars and exhibitions, organize different events for children using the possibilities of friendly organizations.
From November 1 to  8, 2010, the 4th Orthodox Fair was held in Dmitrov. The fair received the benediction of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna. We participated actively in the fair. During the lessons our children set up two stalls: the tree of desire and a three-dimensional model of a children's village on the base of the Nikolo-Peshnoshsky Monastery, with which we co-participated in the fair.
On December 28, 2010, we organised a visit to the Circus on Vernadsky Avenue for 40 of our children from the Dmitrov Boarding School. Tickets for the New Year performance were provided by the Charitable Foundation, ''Centre for Helping Homeless Children'' of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, and the forty-four-seater bus was paid for by Dmitrov Branch of Vozrozhdenie Bank.
On February 22, 2011, we held a seminar on our My World moral development program at the 10th Specialised Forum ''Education and Career'2011'' in the Exhibition Center of Dmitrov Interdistrict Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The seminar was attended by pre-school teachers, teachers and psychologists from schools of general education, boarding schools, orphanages, specialists from institutions of professional education, and representatives of the local clergy (50 persons in total).
At the end of winter we helped the Dmitrov Boarding School transport  the children from a sanatorium in Pushkin District.
At the request of the administration of Dmitrov Boarding School, we found a sponsor who paid for the examination of one of the seriously ill children.
As a result of our cooperation with local organisations, the boarding schools regularly receive donations: children's shoes, clothes, New Year costumes, books. We also find charity foundations which help the boarding schools to repair their premises.
Natalya Atroshchenko, Assistant Director of our Centre, is a member of the Committee of Businesswomen of Dmitrov District. On May 24, 2011, an informal meeting of entrepreneurs from our district and nearby districts took place in the Great Hall of the Dmitrov Interdistrict Chamber of Commerce and Industry Natalya and Nikolay Belonogov, Director of our Centre, were invited to this meeting. Nikolay asked the other attendants of the meeting for assistance to help provide employment for our children as part of our work for the social integration of children after they leave boarding schools. Many businessmen and heads of organisations were very interested in this offer. At the end of the meeting we were introduced to each other and exchanged contact information.
In this academic year several of our boarding schools celebrated their jubilees. On December 3, the Yakhroma Boarding School celebrated its 40th anniversary, and on May 31, the Dmitrov Boarding School celebrated it 50th birthday. Both jubilees were marked with celebratory concerts in which the children and employees took part. We attended the concerts as honorary guests. Before the festivities there was a meeting of the Board of Trustees, of which our Director, Nikolay Belonogov, is now a member, in the Dmitrov Boarding School. During the meeting, Nikolay proposed to the members of the Board that a coordination center be established to help provide employment for children leaving boarding schools, based at our Center. V.V. Gavrilov, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Head of Dmitrov District, and T.Y. Dovzhenko, Head of the Department of Education of Dmitrov District, supported this idea and promised their cooperation.
You can read about our work in greater detail on the following pages of our site: Good Works, Excursions, Excursions to Monasteries and Convents, and on the main page in the section Important Events.
We thank all those who help us in our work for problem children, and invite everyone to cooperate with us! Come and visit us!