Parents who grew up in Russian orphanages often have great difficulty bonding with their children and looking after them practically. They are also wary of the authorities and find it difficult to ask for help. This puts their children at risk of neglect or abandonment. We have many years' experience of motivating and equipping orphanage-leavers to improve their own lives and the lives of their children. We can help them become the loving parents they never had themselves.

If you grow up in an orphanage in Russia, you have no positive experiences of family life, you are traumatised by being abandoned or taken from your mother, and you are thoroughly institutionalised. It is no wonder orphanage leavers struggle when they have their own children. It is common for children of orphanage leavers to be taken into orphanages themselves but we can break this cycle. We support 38 families year-round to become better parents. The summer camp is the high point of the year

We offer a home and vocational training for up to 20 homeless teenagers in Tbilisi. In the last 10 years, 400 children and teenagers have passed through our rehabilitation process and almost all have now built successful, independent lives. We run several small enterprises to provide training and work including a printer cartridge refilling service, which helps to fund our work. In today's tough climate, we are struggling and have had to turn teenagers away because we can't feed them.

The earlier a child with hearing impairment receives help, the more likely it is that they will learn to communicate verbally. Our deaf club is the only place in St Petersburg which helps babies as young as 4 months. Just as importantly, their parents are supported as they come to terms with their child's disability and learn how to lobby for treatment and education for their child. As a result many of "our" children go on to join mainstream kindergartens.

Teenagers in St Petersburg orphanages and recent orphanage-leavers are supported by psychologists and volunteer families to help them make the difficult transition to adult life. Group activities and individual therapy helps them overcome childhood traumas and prepare themselves for living independently, finding and keeping a job, and forming positive, trusting relationships.

Imagine leaving school at 15 and spending the rest of your life house-bound and unable to communicate with anyone. This is the future facing many people with complex disabilities in Russia today. Russian people with disabilities are missing out on lo-tech and hi-tech solutions that could help them overcome physical and/or intellectual challenges. We work with two groups of children and teenagers to improve their communication and then spread the knowledge throughout Russia via webinars.