Archpriest Andrey Voronin Athos Monastery. Pedigree of Anna Akhmatova

Orthodox Church and other religious organizations are recommended to actively strengthen the family and popularize a healthy lifestyle. The corresponding resolution was adopted on May 15 at the round table "Strong family - strong Russia" in Furmanovo. It was attended by politicians, regional officials and church representatives. Religious organizations are also ordered to hold actions dedicated to the problems of family development, spiritual, moral, cultural and legal education. // Ivanovo-Voznesensk diocese

[real values] Newspaper "New Life" - about the family of priest Andrey Voronin: “Six children in the Voronin family are brought up on good traditions, Orthodox principles and parental love. [She] is known to everyone who constantly visits the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Staraya Sereda and the Nativity Chapel Holy Mother of God where Father Andrey serves. For those who are fans of the creativity of mother Anna and her children. The Voronins have been together for 17 years. In my youth I often visited St. Michael's Church to Father Jerome to sing in the choir. [He] offered Fr. Andrey to accept the parish. For many years, Archpriest Andrei was the rector of the St. Michael the Archangel parish in the village of Mikhailovskoye, and since the end of 2007 he was transferred to the Furmanov parish. Matushka Anna, church choir director, works as a music director at a school, an orphanage, and a city youth center. For almost 14 years, she led the folk chamber choir at the Central Palace of Culture. Young people [get acquainted in Nizhny Novgorod], studied together at the conservatory. In the choir where Anna [sang] there was not enough tenor, so she had to [perform] the male part. The regent said: "If you find [a man], you will sing the female part." Anna looked after Andrei for this role. By Christmas, he sang with her, this was the beginning of their joint story. Being the rector of the church in the village of Mikhailovskoye, Father Andrey wrote and published a book about the locally revered Archimandrite Leonty (Stasevich), built a chapel over the miraculous spring, raised the relics [of the holy elder]. Hundreds of pilgrims flocked annually to the local temple, where peace, comfort, greetings from the priests and choral spiritual singing awaited them. For a year and a half, the Voronin family has been living in Furmanovo: they were given an apartment. Their main work is the restoration of the destroyed temple of the Ascension of the Lord. In this, the spouses are supported by parishioners, students of local schools [and] vocational schools, and public organizations. The roof was covered. On the eve of Easter in Tutaev, 5 bells were [acquired] for the church. After [many] years of silence famous temple comes to life. Public life for the Voronins is not at all a tedious duty. Father Andrey is a regular guest in the museums of the city, at school class hours dedicated to the problems of spiritual education, the fight against drug addiction and alcoholism, at the [school] medalists' ball, at theme parties, and is engaged in distance learning for disabled children. Mother Anna is trying to introduce Furman's children to the world of music, to spiritual choral singing. [Both] are regular participants in city, regional [and] Russian [festivals]. "The most musical mother" - Anna Evgenievna received this prize in the competition "Such different mothers". The Bishop of Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Kineshma awarded Archpriest Andrey Voronin for his participation in the festival of children's creativity "Christmas Gift". The administration of the Nerekhtsky district thanked [the spouses] for participating in the festival of sacred and folk music dedicated to St. Pachomius of Nerekhtsky. Both have a musical education, live music, spiritual songs, instill this love in their children. Batiushka made a harp with his own hands and recorded a CD-album with old spiritual songs performed by him. The four Voronin children attend a local music school. They play not only folk (harp, balalaika) instruments, but also traditional ones - the piano. O. Andrey shoots documentaries. One of them is about drug addicts who are undergoing rehabilitation in one of the Orthodox parishes Ivanovo diocese. The film "My Spiritual Garden" at the All-Russian Film Festival of Short Films "Family of Russia" won the main prize [in the nomination "Song of the Family"]. In [it] in 2 parts, filmed with a difference of 10 years, father Andrei and mother Anna, their children talk about how they live, make friends, love, how they try to keep their "spiritual garden" always fresh and bright, did not fade for a minute. The Voronins love to go to their father's homeland on the Gorky Sea, to engage in winter fishing there. O. Andrey grew up in the countryside, so he became attached to winter, to the forest. Once he built a house, an apiary, and grew a garden with his own hands. Russian traditions are honored in the family, all six Voronin children are brought up on them - [Alexander, Ekaterina, Ivan, Tatyana, Nina, Vasily]. Choral singing, church services, commandments and prayers are all familiar. [Together with their parents, children observe fasts, celebrate holidays, receive guests, put on scripts for Orthodox publications, and speak to parishioners]. "We do not try to accustom children to church rites, services, to the Christian routine - they must come to everything themselves," says Father Andrey. At school, the Voronins study like everyone else. The eldest, Alexander, is a tenth grader, practically already a programmer. He independently creates programs, has his own website on the Internet. Nastya is fond of "Ranetki", she is engaged in circles of the [city] center for children's creativity. Vanya performs at [music reviews, plays the balalaika]. [Several years ago] in the regional competition "Father of the Year" Father Andrey was recognized as the winner of the regional award "Best Father of the Year". Spouses do not try to raise children according to any particular system, there is no time for this, and there is no need. They educate by example. Now the Voronins live in an apartment, and the guys have more free time. But even a year ago, in Mikhailovsky, it was [them] who had to worry about the apple orchard, about the apiary, about ensuring that the stoves were heated on time. Joint trips, the search for a way out of difficult psychological situations hardens, promotes family unity. “There are 8 of us, plus a cat and fish. And it’s not crowded for all of us, but, on the contrary, it’s very joyful and bright to live in a common house,” says mother Anna. And that, perhaps, is happiness." //

• Total graduates from our House on 01/01/2017. - 56 people.
• Placed in various forms of family replacement (adoption, guardianship, foster family) - 43 children.
• Returned to the birth family - 6 children.

PI "KOVALEVSKY CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S HELP".

The Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children (until September 2015 - the Kovalevsky Orphanage) was opened in 1996 on the basis of a decree of the head of the administration of the Kostroma region and an order of the head of the education department of the Kostroma region.

From the first days of its existence, for more than 20 years, the Children's Home exists and develops within the framework of a private-state partnership.

UNIQUENESS Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children lies in the fact that it is not a state institution. Subject to all the rules and requirements imposed by the state on such organizations, we minimize formalism and our wards not only live at home, but live a full-fledged home life of ordinary children.

We have historically developed friendly relations with government agencies, they exercised strict control over our activities, financial relations have always been complex and ambiguous.

The Kovalevsky orphanage is located 5 km from the urban settlement of Nerekhta, in the village of Kovalevo. Initially, it was located in the restored building of a rural school, in 1999 a new two-story building with apartment-type accommodation was built (area 1600 sq.m), in 2000 the construction of a modern sports hall (800 sq.m.) was completed.

During the first years, the Orphanage was located in the building of a former rural school, restored and reconstructed from the ruins by the parishioners of the Church of the Transfiguration, whose rector was Fr. Andrey Voronin.

The life of the children in the orphanage corresponded to the norms generally accepted in the country at that time: the children lived in groups formed according to the age principle, ate in a common dining room, there was a games room, a sports room and a room for classes. The children had no personal belongings, only seasonal clothes and shoes, as well as individual space - things were given out according to the season, the children lived in bedrooms with bedside tables.

It should be noted that since the opening of the Kovalevsky orphanage, everything possible has been done for the children so that the orphanage becomes their home, and living in it is comfortable and happy.

But the work strictly according to the "Model regulation on an educational institution for children - orphans and children left without parental care" was not effective.

Since December 1999, the system of upbringing and living arrangements for children in the Kovalevsky orphanage has changed radically. A new model of an institution for orphans and children left without parental care has begun to be created. A new residential building was built with “apartment type” accommodation: a beautiful two-story building now houses apartments where children live, there is a medical office, a speech therapist’s office, a social pedagogue, a psychologist, a head teacher, a room for extra classes on various subjects, a modern children's carpentry workshop, a large Fireplace Hall for holidays and meetings of friends (a real, working fireplace).

Children's Families were formed and the process of developing a new concept for the development of the orphanage, its educational and educational programs and working out all the main provisions in practice.

The whole life of the Children's House is built around the home church in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.

In 2000, a gym was added to the residential building, one of the best in the region, which has a modern climbing wall and tatami for wrestling, wall bars, and tennis tables.

The old building was reconstructed, which now houses a modern kitchen and dining room, a hall with the necessary carpentry equipment, a ski lodge and a storage for sports equipment.

Children have never been closed in the strict space of the Institution. They always visited city children's preschool organizations, studied at ordinary schools, studied at the city sports school, communicated with peers with pleasure and invited friends to their home, to the Family.

All these years, the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children has to maintain and maintain its own transport, because in the village. Kovalevo is only our House, no more than two dozen houses of permanent residents and, of course, excellent ecology. There is no shop either, food is brought by a truck shop. But there is a bus stop and a modern street pay phone. Bus service to the city of Nerekhta is carried out twice a day: in the morning and in the evening.

Work is constantly underway to improve the territory, a sports ground on the street and a small children's town have been built, administrative and outbuildings have been erected.

In May 2014, the Government of the Russian Federation, by its Decree No. 481 “On the activities of organizations for orphans and children left without parental care, and on the placement of children left without parental care in them”, legislatively consolidated the model of the House for Children, which existed in the Kovalevsky Children's home for 17 years now.

In September 2015, due to changes in the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of protection of children's rights, the Kovalevsky Orphanage was renamed the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children.

At the moment, the founder of the Kovalevsky center for helping children is the religious organization Kostroma diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The activities of the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children are based on the principles of democracy, humanism, accessibility, priority universal values, citizenship, free development of the individual, protection of the rights and interests of pupils, including the secular nature of education and upbringing in the spirit of the best examples of the cultural and historical heritage of Russia. The Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children is not a religious organization.

The development concept of the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children from the first days of its creation included work on the selection of acceptable family-substituting forms of placement for children (foster and guardian families), including the adoption of children.

As of January 2017, 43 children were taken to foster and guardian families, including those adopted, and 6 children were returned to their birth families.

Along with the work on the transfer of children to families, the issue of preventing the return of children from foster families to state orphanages has always been acute.

For this purpose - the placement of children in foster families, the strengthening and development of the institution of foster families - it was decided to create a cottage village for foster families within walking distance from the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children. Simultaneously with the construction of residential cottages, the material and technical base and administrative infrastructure of the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children was strengthened in order to organize effective support for foster parents and their wards, the opportunity to use the experience and all the resources of the Institution.

How we are working.

Preparing orphans and children left without parental care for an independent life has always been an acute state problem. And it will be so in our country for many, many years to come.

The traditional educational system and organization of life in state institutions with round-the-clock stay of children (orphanages and boarding schools) is inherently no longer viable and does not correspond to the tasks (rather, challenges) of the time.

The social adaptation of a child - an orphan and his socialization - as a process of integrating him into society, as a result of which his self-awareness and role-playing behavior, his ability to self-control and to build adequate relationships with others, will be formed, is very difficult to successfully implement in a government institution. It is difficult, even if the pupil will actively participate in classes in home economics circles, culinary and carpentry circles, in sports sections and in planned thematic weeks and events of the institution.

In the process of socialization, the child develops personality and self-awareness, he assimilates the basic social norms and skills, stereotypes and social attitudes, forms of behavior accepted in society, communication and options for various life styles - and how to do this successfully in a closed government space, with a catering system and dorms? Life experience can be acquired only by living this very life in real conditions. The child will grow up most safely if he regains a sense of home, family, if he is helped to build a spiritual core, on which he will rely in later life, and if he is given a spiritual “compass”, by which it will always be possible to find the way to the Truth and Good, even if the child in his adult life goes astray.

Often, the very organization of the life of pupils in boarding schools is arranged in such a way that they form only one position - the position of an orphan who does not have support and approval in society. This role is realized by a person throughout his life and keeps orphans in an infantile dependent position, blocks the manifestation of potential opportunities. In connection with the difficulties of socialization, the tasks of adaptation are not solved.

In other words, the pupils of the orphanage, going beyond its threshold, know how, with rare exceptions, "to be an orphan." They rely on patronage, have "learned helplessness", not suspecting that they can rely on their own resources.

Transition to independent living important point in anyone's life young man: and the one who leaves the institution, and the one who goes into adulthood from the parental family. This transition to an independent life is associated with serious stresses.

Yesterday's graduate of the Institution needs to get used to an independent existence, to responsibility for his life. Like teenagers from relatively well-to-do families, they try to understand themselves, to determine their own path.

The state, represented by the administration of children's boarding institutions, assumes the obligation to educate, educate, provide orphans and children left without parental care with everything they need. But independent, adult life poses problems for the guys, for which in reality they are not ready.

Graduates of orphanages more often than their peers turn out to be participants or victims of crimes, lose their jobs or housing, find it difficult to create a family, become alcohol and drug abusers, victims of suicide much faster. Their entry into an independent life is fraught with great difficulties and is not always successful. The reasons for the difficulties of the child's entry into the system of social relations can be completely different. First of all, they are associated with inadequate perception by orphans of the demands that society makes.

Ideal for any child left without parental care is his placement in any family format, from a foster family to adoption. This is a very difficult task, and at present this process is underway in the country, it is proceeding successfully, but experience shows that there are still many problems with the placement of children in families.

If we solve the problem of social adaptation and socialization of children - orphans and children left without parental care, who for various reasons live in the Institution, then this should be done only in the context of the spiritual and moral education of children, organizing the life of children in conditions as close as possible to home and relying on the love and experience of people who are directly interested in the fate of their wards.

We have created optimal conditions in our House for children who, for one reason or another, cannot be placed in a foster family.

In addition, we have begun very important and responsible work to prevent social orphanhood: we accept children whose parents are temporarily and for very good reasons unable to fulfill their parental duties, but at the same time do not want to part with their children. Help and timely support of blood parents help to save the family, not to deprive children of shelter and love of the closest people.

When creating the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children, it was decided that it would be a Home for Children, it would have to live a full-fledged life at home and in no case should it turn into a year-round children's camp with children staying there around the clock, and the upbringing of children should not be replaced decent leisure activities and the organization of useful planned events - there are other institutions for this: children's camps, sanatoriums, institutions of additional education, etc.

The essence of the educational space of the House of Children is that the life of our children is not only organizationally as close as possible to life in an ordinary family, but internally it is not formal, it is not divided into decades of “politeness”, “patriotism”, various actions and events.

The system of school education is the most important component of organizing the life of our wards. Most of our children find it extremely difficult to master the secondary school curriculum. Many of them simply did not have the opportunity to study normally in the primary grades, so schooling skills are simply not formed. There are other reasons that gave rise to this problem, but in any case, study is a very hard and painstaking work for both children and their educators. Specialists work with all children: a psychologist, a speech therapist, a speech pathologist, in addition, the practice of attracting tutors in mathematics and other subjects to comprehensively help children in mastering educational standards is widely used. There is no school in the Kovalevsky assistance center, all the children study in educational institutions of the city of Nerekhta. The Kovalevsky Children's Help Center is forced to have and maintain its own school bus.

Teaching our children together with ordinary children growing up in a family undoubtedly contributes to their development through the creation of educational situations in the school environment, the expansion of their social contacts, and self-esteem. Highly interesting fact from the life of our children: never, not once, they were teased by “orphanage children”, there were no conflicts on this basis.

The main problem and misfortune of the state system of charity for orphans is the isolation of socialization programs for orphans from real life, raising children "in parts": labor education, intellectual, aesthetic development in the form of lessons, knowledge about the family and the world around them - excursions, conversations, thematic classes. This gives rise to the lack of opportunities in children for self-realization, for self-identification, for arbitrary and free knowledge of the world and positive human relations in it.

In the post-Soviet period, before the entry into force of the Federal Law - 273 "On the Education of the Russian Federation" dated December 29, 2012, the life of orphans and children left without parental care was regulated by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and built in accordance with the requirements for standard orphanages.

On January 1, 2015, Federal Law No. 442 of the Russian Federation “On the Fundamentals of Social Services for Citizens of the Russian Federation” came into force, and on September 1, 2015, Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 481 “On the activities of organizations for orphans and children left without parental care, and on placement in them of children left without parental care” - from that moment in the country, in a fundamentally new way, tasks are set and solved for the life arrangement of minors left without parental care.

The need to adopt Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 481 is due to the new edition of Art. 151.1 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the powers of the Government of the Russian Federation include the establishment of a list of activities carried out by organizations for orphans and the services provided, the procedure for carrying out this activity, the requirements for the conditions for the maintenance and upbringing of orphans.

NOU "Kovalevsky Orphanage" from 01.09.15 becomes a social institution, the Kovalevsky center for helping children left without parental care. We are now not just working, but providing social services.

Targeting the provision of social services: children - orphans; children left without parental care; children who have legal representatives who are temporarily unable to perform their duties in relation to the child for good reasons; persons from among children - orphans and children left without parental care.

It is supposed to take into account the regional features of social policy in the field of child protection with a very high federal standard.

Positive changes with the adoption of new legislation in the social sphere of work with children in difficult life situations - the geography of recipients of social services in our institution can now cover all regions of Russia (when appropriate interdepartmental procedures are developed) and there is an opportunity to work with the birth family of a child in a difficult life situation, to prevent his removal from the family and transfer to a state institution.

A hard priority in the work of any organization for orphans and children left without parental care is the placement of children in foster families, under guardianship or adoption.

Practical implementation of state policy to improve the situation of children in the Russian Federation, in particular, minors left without parental care.

The material and technical base for the practical implementation of the state policy to improve the situation of children left without parental care is available in the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children in the required amount.

Principles of building work in the Institution:

The principle of separation of boys and girls. The experience of 20 years of work has shown that the separation of children contributes to their more successful social adaptation and socialization. Our children do not live in a closed space, they attend city kindergartens, study in ordinary schools, meet friends, including girls, invite them to visit them, to the Family, participate together in all school events and competitions.

The principle of the hierarchical-value structure of education. Education in the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children has a clear hierarchical-value subordinate system, at the head of which is education of the spirit, then psychological assistance and pedagogical correction, and, finally, strengthening the body and forming healthy lifestyle life. Spiritual and moral sphere, religious, is of central importance in the hierarchy mental strength, but there is no psychological need for its development to provide a lot of purely religious material. The experience of many years of work has shown that just everyday life and its atmosphere can nourish and deepen religious forces, educate the moral core - everything depends entirely on the spiritual attitude, depends on the spirit that reigns in the House, the Family. A living memory of the spiritual, moral, cultural and historical heritage of Russia and education on the best examples of native history make the educational process meaningful and meaningful. The task of religious education should be accepted not as a system of external coercion, but as helping adults to reveal the best movements of the child's soul, as cultivating free love for the Church - and that this freedom nourishes love for the Church.

The principle of nepotism and tradition. Home education. By forming the spiritual and moral cores of children, it is possible to change the system of their life values, change the motivation of children, and, accordingly, their behavior. Only a family can cope with such a difficult task. The family, as an island of love and reliability, allows the child to learn the experience of generations in all its complexity and versatility in the most natural and logical form, while at the same time giving a sense of support and confidence in their past, present and future. Only an Orthodox family, using thousands of years of experience in Christian education, can ensure the continuity of generations and bring up full-fledged respectable citizens, responsible family men and Christians. HOME EDUCATION at the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children includes all the multifaceted, complex, interconnected work on the rehabilitation of orphans and children left without parental care, on their socialization and social adaptation based on Orthodox pedagogy, in which leading role plays the contact of children with the Sacrament - especially with Confession and Communion, and all life is built in an atmosphere of free, total, trusting love for the Church, for its history and traditions, inextricably linked with the history, culture and traditions of the Fatherland.

The principle of practical orientation of education. The main problem and misfortune of the state system of charity for orphans is the isolation of socialization programs from real life, the upbringing of children "in parts": labor education, intellectual, aesthetic development in the form of lessons, knowledge about the family and the world around them - excursions, conversations, thematic lessons. This determines the lack of opportunities in children for self-realization, for self-identification, for arbitrary and free knowledge of the world and positive human relations in it. We strive to raise active people, adapted to everyday life, capable of mutual understanding and communication, possessing a conscience and able to apply all their knowledge and skills in life. Our children must know not only their rights and be able to defend them, they must know their duties and the measure of their responsibility in all spheres of life.

According to the National Standard of the Russian Federation GOST R 54343-2011

"Social services for the population. The procedure and conditions for the provision of social services to children" in the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children, a full range of social services (social, social, medical, socio-psychological, socio-pedagogical, social and legal and others provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation) to provide pupils with the most complete and timely social adaptation to life in society, family, training and work.

The National Strategy for Action in the Interests of Children for 2012-2017 (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 761 dated June 1, 2012) proposes to pay special attention to vulnerable categories of children, including children left without parental care. To this end, it is proposed to form a new public-state system of raising children that ensures their socialization, a high level of citizenship, patriotism, tolerance and law-abiding behavior, including the development and implementation of forms of work with such children that allow them to overcome their social exclusion and contribute to rehabilitation and full-fledged integration into society. This task is proposed to be solved with the help of the active development of a system of additional educational services.

The Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children has a serious block of work that ensures the implementation of additional general educational general development programs, and not only our children, but also children from the surrounding society, can engage in sections and circles, free of charge.

The Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of May 29, 2015 No. 996 - r "Strategy for the development of education in the Russian Federation for the period until 2025" as one of the priority strategic guidelines of the state is called work to improve the effectiveness of comprehensive support for vulnerable categories of children (left without parental care and children – orphans), contributing to their social rehabilitation and full integration into society.

A unique system of support and upbringing of children has been created at the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children: from their home education in the Family to work on their rehabilitation and development through a system of additional education, outdoor activities and medical support.

In addition, one of the most important areas for the development of education in the country are:

• Development of the variability of educational systems and technologies aimed at the formation of an individual trajectory for the development of the child's personality, taking into account his needs, interests and abilities.
• Development of forms of inclusion of children in intellectual and cognitive, creative, labor, socially useful, artistic and aesthetic, physical culture and sports, gaming activities, including through the use of the potential of the system of additional education for children and other organizations in the field of physical culture and sports, culture.
• Labor education and professional self-determination in the government policy document on the development of education in the country is considered from the point of view of updating the educational process, taking into account modern scientific achievements and on the basis of domestic traditions, and suggests:
• Raising in children respect for work and people of work, labor achievements.
• The formation in children of the skills and abilities of self-service, the need to work, a conscientious, responsible and creative attitude to different types work activities, including education and household chores.
• Development of teamwork skills, the ability to work independently, mobilizing the necessary resources, correctly assessing the meaning and consequences of their actions.
• Promoting the professional self-determination of children, involving them in socially significant activities for a meaningful choice of profession.

The strategy of construction and the quality of work in the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children fully comply with the main tasks of education set at the state level, and therefore the Institution is included in the register of providers of social services in the Kostroma region.

Training of pupils of the Kovalevsky center for helping children to an independent life.

Preparing orphans and children left without parental care for an independent life has always been an acute state problem. The state care system covers almost all children in need of care, and undoubtedly creates the necessary material prerequisites for their full development and preparation for adulthood.

However, the traditional educational system and organization of life in state institutions with round-the-clock stay of children is not always able to give children the necessary skills for the conditions of an adult, independent life.

The most favorable and best thing that the state can do for a "no one's" child is to choose foster parents and guardians for him, return him to live and grow up in a family. But this is not always possible to do.

Sadly, orphanage institutions, social organizations for children left without parental care will exist until the mentality of the inhabitants of the whole country changes. As long as there are parents who refuse to take care of their own children, there will be orphanages. As long as the institution of a foster family is imperfect and there are children who, for various reasons, cannot be transferred to foster families or be adopted, there will be a need for the state to help such children and give them a home. Therefore, it is necessary to do everything possible for the favorable living there of children and their upbringing.

Spiritual and moral education in the Establishment is an integral part of daily work. Federal Law - 124 "On the Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation" dated July 24, 1998 guarantees "promotion of the physical, intellectual, mental, spiritual and moral development of children, the education of patriotism and citizenship in them, as well as the realization of the child's personality in the interests of society and in accordance with the traditions of the peoples of the Russian Federation, the achievements of Russian and world culture that do not contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal legislation.

THE MAIN MEANS of the spiritual and moral development of the child and his upbringing is the creation of such an educational and educational environment A home that would fully contribute to the spiritual renewal and formation of the personality of the pupil, in which an adequate hierarchy of goals and values ​​of his life would be laid and the necessary components of his full-fledged life would be formed, both in the Kovalev center for helping children, and when entering an independent adult life. Living and raising a child in a Family - an artificially modeled large family of different ages, in which life is arranged according to Orthodox traditions, has become such a main means in the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children.

If the main means of spiritual and moral education in the Kovalevsky help center is, first of all, the warm, loving upbringing of the child in the Family, these are spiritual exercises of the mind, feelings and heart of the child, then the BASIC FORM educational work is a joint service to good in Everyday life adults and children, it is the desire for mutual understanding with each other and with the outside world.

The joint activity of the child and the people around him, their good interaction, empathy, their rejoicing and compassion are a necessary condition for the emergence and manifestation of one of the most important abilities of the child - his kind, merciful and active attitude to people as to himself. The kind-hearted and trusting relationship of a child with adults and children in the Family and in the House protects him from lies, bad influence and aggression of the unspiritual world, and the attentive, demanding and correct attitude of adult educators towards their wards encourages the creation of an atmosphere of mutual understanding in the Family.

When creating the Kovalevsky orphanage (or simply the House), and now the Kovalevsky center for helping children left without parental care, a fundamental decision was made 20 years ago that children would live and be brought up in families, in conditions as close as possible to normal home conditions.

Each such family, designed for a maximum of 8 children, lives in a separate apartment on almost complete self-service, with the children there is always an educator on duty. The composition of adults who work with the Family does not change. The guys live in rooms designed for 2 or a maximum of 3 people. Each Family is a separate apartment, where there are children's bedrooms, a teacher's room, several bathrooms, a common room and a pantry-dining room.

Each family has its own small plot of land.

Such a home principle of organizing life helps to create conditions for the development of various functional roles in the family in a natural way by children. The family way of life plays an important role in the destruction of the psychological stereotype of a hostel, characteristic of this type of children, where everything is common, “no one’s”; the guys have a conscious master's streak - this is my thing, this is the thing of our family, they need to be monitored and protected.

Family upbringing makes it possible to compensate for the fact that children live from the moment of birth, not only in disadvantaged social environment but also surrounded by informational, emotional hunger. The guys lived without bright colors, without love and warm smiles, without children's games and mother's songs, without reading books, without drawing and much more. Family upbringing allows you to create a diverse, rich and understandable developmental environment for children.

Male educators in the Institution, unfortunately, do not stay long because of the low salary, therefore, in the personnel and social policy of the House, there is an inviolable rule - all adults should be worthy to be an example of an Adult for a child. This applies to the coaching staff, numerous friends and trustees who take an active part in the life of the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children, participants in hikes and travels, employees of the administrative and economic department.

Each Family is strictly individual and unique. Everything is unique: the layout of the apartment (no one is the same), and the composition of the educators (with their experience, knowledge), and the interests of the children, their health, character and their preferences, their favorite food, pets, holidays and traditions - all that what constitutes a unique style that defines the very concept of "family".

The ESSENCE of the educational space of the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children, therefore, lies in the fact that the life of our children is not only organizationally as close as possible to life in an ordinary family, but internally it is not formal, it is not divided into decades of "politeness", "patriotism", into various promotions and events.

Spiritual and moral education, sports, work, travel, competitions, homework preparation, health care, etc. - all these are elements of our everyday life, they do not exist on their own, they are interconnected, complement and enrich each other.

In view of the above, in the Kovalevsky Center for Assistance to Children Left without Parental Care, the Russian Mental Book Program was developed, aimed at solving the problem of social adaptation of orphans and children left without parental care, their socialization. The Russian Menologion program is based on the concept of goals, objectives, main directions and principles of activity of the Kovalevsky Assistance Center.

The calendar basis for the construction of educational work under the program "Russian Mental Book" - Orthodox church calendar, in accordance with which all educational and educational work in Families is planned and built. Such an eventful and meaningful basis for planning work allows you to most fully take into account all the features of living and raising children in the Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children: the life of children in the Family, in conditions as close as possible to normal home life (very unlike the organized round-the-clock life of a children's state institution); combination of individual work with each child while maintaining the integrity and uniqueness of the atmosphere of each Family and the entire House for Children. Individual work involves the upbringing of children, taking into account their age and psychophysical characteristics, the state of their somatic health, their interests and hobbies.

Home measured life with its daily and seasonal concerns, state, Orthodox holidays and holiday traditions Families, vacation trips and communication with interesting people- all this brings joy to children's lives, communicates a special rhythm of spiritual life to children and adults in the Family and in the Children's Home, helps to understand the meaning of the spiritual and cultural-historical traditions of their country and remain in the memory of the child "a drop of happiness."

Our work experience and analysis of the life arrangements of graduates of various forms of foster families have shown that the best way for the harmonious and moral development of an orphan child is a substitute real family with full-fledged family relations.

If we talk about the Institution for orphans and children left without parental care, then the system that has existed in the Kovalevsky orphanage for many years has also proved its effectiveness and it turned out that such an example of the life arrangement of children left without parental care is enshrined in the legislation of the Russian Federation, from 01.09.15.
An important part of our work is the support and support of our graduates. All our guys keep friendly relations after they go into independent life, they support each other morally and financially. There are also strong established friendships, real male friendship. The guys get an education, from secondary vocational to higher, work, arrange their own family life. We maintain relationships with almost all of our alumni in in social networks, many guys visit us in free time. Having excellent sports training and health, they serve with dignity in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and subsequently choose contract army service.
We help our children get into educational establishments, we accompany them during their studies, we solve their housing and all the problems that arise.
It is difficult even to calculate the number of coursework and theses, candidate and doctoral dissertations, which are written on the basis of the experience of the Kovalev Center for Helping Children.
The director of the Kovalevsky Orphanage, Archpriest Andrei Voronin, in addition to church awards, has a number of government awards: the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, the Patriot of Russia medal, and in 2006 he was named Man of the Year in the Kostroma region.
Home education in the Kovalevsky orphanage is unique. Experience in creating Families - family - educational groups, united common house, a general concept of development, but having its own individuality and uniqueness, has been tested on many years of experience and can become in our country one of the basic models of organizations for children who find themselves without adult care.

In this difficult task, we are actively assisted by our friends, who provide us with not only significant financial assistance but also give their time, attention and care.
We are grateful to everyone who has been with us for almost two decades.
Someone has been with us for many years, despite the crises and their own difficulties, someone has just begun to get to know us, is trying to help us and provides targeted assistance.
Without all these people with big hearts, our existence would not be real.

Hieromonk John Voronin (in the world Archpriest Andrey Voronin)

Hieromonk John Voronin was born on December 3, 1959 in Kerch. Graduated from the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University. Lomonosov (1985) with a degree in Glaciology, Theological Seminary (1989). He worked in the Magadan region, in Svalbard, in the Caucasus. Director of the Kovalevsky Orphanage in the village of Kovalevo near Nerekhta in the Kostroma Region (since 1995). Creator of the Children's Extreme Project. Director of the PI "Kovalevsky Center for Helping Children".

Please help. Inexorably, the time has come to replace furniture and some household appliances in families.

Dear friends!

We ask for help in buying new furniture for children, especially upholstered furniture. The old one will still serve for some time, but it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain it in good condition.

Dear friends!

In the fall of 2017, we installed a great outdoor door in the gym, and in the summer of 2018, we also purchased several new mats to ensure safety during classes.

In the spring of 2018, we completely renovated the entire medical unit: examination and treatment rooms, as well as an isolation ward.

Dear friends!

It is very important for us, despite serious financial difficulties, to preserve and develop youth sports on the basis of our House,

Not only children who live with us go in for sports, but also children from foster families, children from the village of Kovalevo and children from the city. We invite children from the surrounding society to classes free of charge, these are all children from families who do not have the means to pay for sports sections.

They are open, sociable, liberated. The handshake of many boys is not at all childish, and in climbing training they amaze with flexibility, tenacity and endurance. The ten-year-old children from the orphanage, together with their director, made the first ascent of Elbrus in 2001. Ten years later, the church orphanage has to fight for survival no longer in the mountains.

Why do they need Elbrus

For this ascent, the director of the Kovalevsky orphanage, rector of the Transfiguration Church in the city of Nerekhta, Kostroma Region, Archpriest Andrey Voronin, was listed in the Guinness Book of Records - such young climbers have never climbed Elbrus. The best climbers in the world - Alexei Bolotov, Valery Babanov - expressed their admiration for him. But not for the sake of glory and records, the father led the children to the mountains. He is convinced that extreme hikes are necessary for their education: “Ten days of such a hike replaces for me at least ten months of intense pedagogical practice. And then I'm not sure that in greenhouse conditions I would have achieved the desired result. And in the expedition I achieve exactly the goal that I set in advance. The kids are starting to trust me. After all, modern orphanages initially do not trust adults, because their parents and close relatives betrayed them. Getting into an orphanage, many of them can express affection for one of the adults, but there is no need to build illusions: this is not selfish. These children are pragmatic, they understand life as survival, and they want to use the staff of the orphanage for their own mercenary purposes. And without the child's trust in the teacher, education is impossible. In an extreme hike, when we hang with them on the same rope, together we get wet to the waist in the snow, such trust arises. Risky? Very, but this case the risk pays off. Children learn their margin of safety, begin to realistically assess the situation and interact differently in a team, the older ones help the younger ones. You can’t model this in an orphanage, there is continuous consumption. Of course, they are involved in cooking and cleaning at home. But everyone is well aware that if they refuse, someone else will do it for them. In the campaign, no one will do anything for them. There is real survival going on."

Father Andrey does not gamble with death (which some extreme people sin). He, who has experience in more difficult campaigns, never places his pupils in critical conditions. But for children, many camping situations seem to be critical, on the verge of survival.

The boys themselves are responsible for cleanliness in the barn. Removed on schedule. Many orphanage residents know how to milk a cow, give injections to animals, feed cattle, and take a calving from a cow

Where have the healthy kids gone?

After the ascent in 2001, father Andrey Voronin took his pupils to Elbrus three more times. The last time was in 2008. Today, there is no money for such long trips, but even if there were, the priest will not lead the current pupils to the mountains. He noted that after 2005, the health of children entering the orphanage deteriorated sharply. It is impossible to organize a group from the current pupils for such an extreme hike.

Father Andrei often meets with the directors of other orphanages, and everyone notices a sharp deterioration in the health of their newcomers over the past five or six years. The parents of most of the previous pupils grew up in Soviet times, in more or less prosperous families. Many of those pupils were born by healthy women, who then sank in the nineties, unable to withstand the social upheavals. Today, orphanages mainly receive children whose mothers themselves grew up in asocial families in those very nineties. Naturally, such mothers continued to drink, smoke, and inject during pregnancy. “None of our children are physically developmental for their age, and almost all are delayed. mental development", - says the doctor of the orphanage, Galina Sokolova, in the recent past, the chief pediatrician of Nerekhta.

Children live in families of eight people in two-story apartments: on the first floor there is a dining room, a kitchen, a room for educators, on the second floor there are bedrooms

Rospotrebnadzor against real men

Father Andrei believes that it is all the more necessary to take weakened children on campaigns. Climbing Elbrus they will not pull, but you can choose a route with elements of extreme sports according to their physical capabilities. But every year it becomes more and more difficult to organize and conduct such a trip. The main obstacle is the laws.

Sundays and church holidays orphans go to the liturgy in Church of the Transfiguration of the city of Nerekhta, where their director, Father Andrey Voronin, serves as rector. Beginners are not rushed to go to confession and communion right away

On April 26, 2010, Chief Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation Gennady Onishchenko approved the Sanitary and Epidemiological Requirements for the Arrangement, Maintenance and Organization of the Operation of Tent-Type Children's Tourist Camps during the Summer Vacation, developed by Rospotrebnadzor. “Now we can conduct hikes only with the permission of the Department of Social Protection of the Kostroma Region,” Father Andrey explains. - I have to send a request there with detailed description route, climatic conditions, waste disposal, children's menu during the trip. At the same time, the same request is made to Rospotrebnadzor. As if officials have an idea about the calorie content of certain products, physical costs during the route. This order is a formal reply in order to absolve yourself of any responsibility in case of any incidents during the campaigns. Tent camp can be held only at plus 15 and above. That is, all spring and autumn campaigns disappear, not to mention winter ones. The group must have a professional chef and a professional physician. All this ties our hands. And without the permission of Rospotrebnadzor, the Department of Social Protection will not give me permission, respectively, they will not sell train tickets for the group. Even if I manage to buy tickets, at any check (and children's groups on trains are carefully checked), we will be dropped off the train, and I will be held at least administratively liable. Now we are puzzling over how to continue to live, because in a consumer society with so many prohibiting instructions (and our officials have no alternative to the ban), it is impossible to engage in full-fledged education of boys, to raise men out of them.

Journey to the Pamirs, 2006. Climbing Peak Lenin

Normal teachers always go around

Last summer, Father Andrei went on a canoe trip with his pupils. He informed the Department of Social Protection that they were going to the Kostroma Bay, but without specifying the details. An experienced hiker, he knows perfectly well what security measures are necessary on a hike. The order of Rospotrebnadzor outrages Father Andrei not because he is against the rules, but because these rules, in his opinion, are taken from the ceiling, invented by people who do not understand the specifics of the campaigns. Security measures should be determined by professionals, not officials. "I'll still be doing hikes given physical abilities children. Let not as difficult as on Elbrus, but survival hikes. Otherwise, you can simply close the orphanage, - the priest is categorical. “These children need to create situations in which they can go beyond their stereotypes. We need to teach them to see the beauty of nature and be surprised by it: sunrise, sunset, dew, insects, fog, splashes on the water. Teach to develop their emotional world - they are all emotionally retarded."

Father Andrei Voronin with a new pupil. Contact is being established

You have to bypass instructions not only on hikes. Starting with Makarenko, occupational therapy was at the heart of the social rehabilitation of difficult teenagers. Current laws forbid it. As a result, pupils leave the orphanage without basic household skills. For example, they do not know how to boil water. In the Kovalevsky orphanage, boys are taught to work. But even such a trifle as washing dishes and cleaning is contrary to the rules of Rospotrebnadzor. What can we say about the work of children on a farm belonging to an orphanage! The farm has a milkmaid, a cattleman, a veterinarian, a machine operator, but pupils actively help them. Many guys know how to milk a cow, and give injections to animals, and feed cattle, and take calving from a cow or farrowing from a pig. And the boys themselves are responsible for cleaning the cowshed and the pigsty. Cleaned according to the schedule, every day after lunch three or four people go to the farm. It was a pleasure to watch how 13-year-old Artem was wielding a pitchfork. True, Father Andrei, in response to my admiration, said that it was he who tried so hard with me. But in any case, teenagers on the farm acquire basic labor skills.

It would seem that you have your own farm, what happiness! Children have a unique opportunity in our time to drink natural milk and eat fresh meat. But this also contradicts the instructions of Rospotrebnadzor! According to sanitary standards, children should drink milk from packages, that is, pasteurized. Of course, they don't drink it, but there is always a carton of milk in the refrigerator - in case of checking. The children also eat meat from the farm illegally, since children are forbidden to eat pork, even purchased, and their own beef is only allowed if there is a certified slaughterhouse. The farm has a veterinarian, the quality of meat is checked by experts. But there is no slaughterhouse of its own, so formally Father Andrei has no right to feed his pupils with this meat.

At the highest point in Siberia, the top of Mount Belukha. Altitude 4500 m

Pupils also grow potatoes, cabbage, beets, onions themselves. The farm helps to kill two birds with one stone: teach children to work and feed them with environmentally friendly products. And it's all illegal.

Whoever survives in a modern school will not be lost in life

Kovalev pupils study in general education school in Nerekhta. Father Andrey is categorically against creating a closed school on the territory of an orphanage: “After such an incubator, going out into the world will be a severe shock for children, which not everyone can withstand. It is clear that the modern school is an anti-pedagogue. We must be patient and methodically develop immunity to everything negative in them, develop taste, comment on certain school situations. Children should be able to resolve conflicts themselves. Im swimming in this world. Let them study."

Crimea, Chatyr-Dag plateau. These children will not disappear underground

An orphanage bus takes children to and from school. High school students who have many extracurricular activities are allowed to stay and return to the orphanage on their own. Kovalevites also visit classmates. It is only necessary to agree in advance with the teacher, and if this coincides with the duty on the farm, exchange with one of the comrades. In winter, the elders are allowed to go to the city skating rink, although the orphanage also has its own. But the city is more fun - music, a lot of people.

Children are not isolated from the world. And most importantly, they are loved here. It is not surprising that many call educators mothers. They live in families of eight people in two-story apartments. Three or four teachers are assigned to each family, who change every other day. Breakfast and dinner are prepared in families, children help the teachers. Previously, they also dined in the family, but since, according to the requirements of Rospotrebnadzor, food must be prepared in a centralized catering unit, such a catering unit was built with the help of philanthropists. Now families cook dinner only on Saturdays and Sundays, when the cooks have days off, on other days the educators take a ready-made dinner in the dining room and bring it home.

Tax suffocation

Today, 24 boys from 6 to 17 years old live in the Kovalevsky orphanage. A few years ago there were more than 50 of them. Three new buildings were built with charitable funds and are almost ready for operation, in which six more families with seven children each can be accommodated. In total, 80 children can be accommodated in the orphanage. This will require an increase in the staff of educators. Philanthropists are ready to allocate funds for salaries, but under the current tax legislation, Father Andrei is not going to increase the number of children and teachers.

Maksim is new, he entered Kovalevo this winter from the regional orphanage. Here for him everything is different, not the way he used to. But the most surprising thing is that children do not live in groups, but in families headed by mothers-educators. Now, when meeting a new person, Maxim will certainly say: “And I have a mother!”

The orphanage pays taxes not only on property and land (140,000 rubles a year for 2.5 hectares of land), but even on charitable assistance, through which it exists. “I am ashamed to look people in the eye,” the director of the orphanage is indignant. “They donate to us, to our projects, and a large part of their money flows into the state treasury. Last year they demanded thirty percent! True, the tax authorities themselves suggested that tax is not taken from the donation. That is, charitable assistance and donation are different things in the understanding of our bureaucrats. And in Dahl's dictionary, these are synonyms.

State social institutions also pay taxes, but since their owner is the state itself, it lays the tax amount into the total annual budget of each institution. That is, this money comes from the state treasury to an orphanage or boarding school, and then returned. It is difficult to understand why an orphanage, to which the state hardly helps, should replenish the state treasury. The state finances the Kovalevsky orphanage according to the compensatory principle: first, the management of the orphanage sends a detailed report on the costs to the financial service, and only then does the state compensate part of these costs (for food, salaries to employees). And that is not completely. However, the state is in no hurry to fulfill these modest obligations. It already owes the orphanage two million rubles, but the financial department answers briefly: there is no money.

Schools have long forgotten what labor lessons are. In Kovalev, they are not going to refuse them - a real man must be able to work with his hands! Sergei (pictured), referred to in the staff list of the orphanage as a "repair worker", fiddles with the boys no less than the educators. How to handle wood - sawing, burning, polishing - pupils will learn in his carpentry workshop. For safety reasons, the guys cannot work on complex machines, but everyone gets basic skills in working with tools

Father Andrei is pessimistic: “All kinds of reports take up a lot of my time to the detriment of my children. There will be more children - the bureaucratic burden will increase several times. Maybe I would have dropped everything and closed the orphanage altogether. But that would be a betrayal of children and benefactors. Therefore, I will work in the hope that someone will have the mind and will to change the system. Only I am not sure that the state is interested in this.”

Leonid VINOGRADOV
photo by Irina SECHINA

In the course of the Keston fieldwork, our team often observed and discussed both Orthodox orphanages and state-run ones (because various religious organizations often help different ways state orphanages). Both media materials and our personal meetings and conversations in different parts of the country speak of trouble in the maintenance, education and upbringing of numerous Russian orphans. Nevertheless, for a long time we did not consider ourselves entitled to speak on this topic, considering ourselves insufficiently competent.

However, the planned occasion is an acquaintance with the work of Archpriest Andrey Voronov, who heads the Orthodox orphanage in Kovalev near Nerekhta ( official name- "Non-state educational institution Kovalevsky orphanage"), prompted me to take the risk to take on this topic. Both the principles of Father Andrei and their practical implementation seem to be a complete and convincing answer to most of the questions related to the orphan problem.

Among people familiar with Orthodox church work with orphans, there is a widespread opinion that the orphanage founded by Father Andrei is the best Orthodox orphanage in Russia. After the murderous and just criticism of working with children in the Bogolyubsky Monastery Vladimir region, to which the "Russian Review" had a hand (Sergey Filatov. Vladimir - Suzdal monastic kingdom. - "Russian Review", No. 42), as well as critical materials about some other church initiatives, there is a desire to tell how to work with street children can be done well.

The success of Father Andrey's business cannot be imagined as the result of the success of a purely technological, managerial decision. His personality, his life path is an important ingredient for success. Andrei Voronin is a native Muscovite. While studying at the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, Andrei Voronin was fond of mystical oriental teachings. I accidentally read the Gospel, and it changed his life. He was secretly baptized in the Church of All Saints on Sokol and joined the circle of followers of the priest Dmitry Dudko. After graduating from the university with a degree in glaciology, he worked by distribution in Magadan. Then he worked in the Caucasus for three years. There he met and communicated with hermits who lived illegally in secret sketes. Gradually, the desire to become a priest grew stronger in him. In 1988, he abandoned his successful career as a glaciologist and entered the Trinity-Sergius Seminary. However, he wanted to serve the liturgy as soon as possible. He was ordained, became a part-time student and left as a priest in the deep forests in the north of the Kostroma region, in the village of Gorelets. There he organized a community, consisting mainly of graduates of the natural science faculties of Moscow State University. After two more priests were ordained in the small and close-knit community, Archbishop Alexander of Kostroma categorically stated that he could not allow three highly educated priests to continue serving for a community of twenty people with an extreme shortage of clergy in the diocese.

Father Andrey was sent to serve in the city of Nerekhta, and was soon appointed Dean of Nerekhta. Until 1992, Nerekhta was a relatively developed industrial center with several factories. In 1992, when Father Andrei arrived in this city, all the factories went bankrupt. The city presented a depressing picture of total social degradation. Hopelessness, lack of any prospects, general drunkenness and poverty, family breakdown. Most of all, the heart of the new priest was touched by the sight of flocks of abandoned children wandering aimlessly around the city. Father Andrei perceived the problem of abandoned children as the most important and decided to create an orphanage. In the first years of work on the project, Father Andrei did not have support from the diocesan authorities, Archbishop Alexander was very afraid that the orphanage would require significant funds from the diocesan budget and would be ruinous for him. Only when the bishop was convinced that Father Andrei would not ask for money did he begin to morally support Kovalevsky's undertaking.

Father Andrey came to the conclusion that without a suitable building and guaranteed material support, one cannot take responsibility for the children. He found sponsors among his friends at Moscow State University, who became successful businessmen, and Western foundations (primarily the Congress of Russian Americans). Over time, the orphanage began to receive partial funding from the Department of Education (which never exceeded 35% of the budget). In 1996, the building was ready, the first pupils settled in it. From the very beginning, the orphanage in Kovalevo met the highest standards. Living conditions, equipment, food standards correspond to European standards. Children are taken to a school in Nerekhta, but in Kovalevo itself, teachers, a psychiatrist, a defectologist, and tutors in basic subjects take care of them. Together with specialists, Father Andrei develops a program for each child to overcome mental and emotional retardation, psychological correction. Father Andrey organizes children's summer camps, kayaking and sailing trips, as well as children's trips to the mountains, including Elbrus climbing to thousands of heights. Such critical conditions, according to Father Andrey, help teenagers to get rid of many psychological complexes and shortcomings in their development, to feel like full-fledged individuals and develop feelings of solidarity and mutual assistance.

Father Andrei is sure that families should be modeled in orphanages. Currently, in the orphanage, children live in rooms of three with a special teacher who replaces their parents around the clock.

Depending on the financial possibilities, the number of pupils constantly fluctuates from 25 to 60. Housing conditions make it possible to support up to 80 children, but there was never enough money for this. The Kovalevsky orphanage accepts children from the age of 4, only boys. Under pressure from some feminist-minded American sponsors, a few years ago, Father Andrei took in several girls, which he greatly regretted. Orphan sexual promiscuity, acquired by children even before entering the orphanage, created a lot of additional problems. At the cost of great efforts, Father Andrei managed to arrange all these few girls in foster families and since then he has never agreed to accept female pupils.

Fr. Andrei takes a very delicate approach to attracting children into church life. By coercion, it is easy to induce hypocritical, feigned religiosity in children, which only contributes to deceit. In accordance with the ideas of Father Andrei, the attraction of pupils to the Church is of a mild, optional nature. However, “children are collectivists: new arrivals see that the elders pray and participate in worship; sooner or later they begin to imitate the elders. The role of educators in this matter should be minimal.”

The approach to solving father Andrei's orphan problems largely avoids the shortcomings inherent in the majority of both state and church orphanages. Father Andrei is critical of the "petty, senseless, and sometimes harmful regulation of the life of orphanages by the state." The state prohibits a lot, specifies a lot, but the full implementation of these prohibitions and instructions does not at all form a responsible, developed, active and moral person. The requirements are formal, but compliance with this form does not lead to the appearance of content. Father Andrey is especially perplexed by the prohibition to involve pupils in work, which is why "they grow up as lazy people with the psychology of consumers."

The Kovalevsky orphanage has a cattle farm, a pig farm, a poultry house, and a large vegetable garden. Professionals-specialists are involved in the development of this farmstead.

Father Andrei also notes the typical shortcomings of Orthodox shelters and orphanages. Church activists often take up work with homeless children without being financially or professionally prepared for this. Lacking sufficient means, the Orthodox sometimes doom children to a life in unacceptable conditions, even in cases where they love children and are professionally trained. Material insecurity cannot be overcome by enthusiasm.

Orthodox organizers of orphanages sometimes try to turn their institutions into closed ghettos, in which the task of education is deeply Orthodox people crushes all other educational and educational tasks. Nothing good comes of this. Children grow up defective, and good Christians do not turn out of them. From early childhood, children are encouraged to renounce the world, and they do not even know what it is - "peace". And when they see this “world” sooner or later, all exhortations will go to waste. A very debatable issue is the monastic orphanages and shelters. According to the canon, the shelter cannot be located on the territory of the monastery. For the most part, our modern monasticism has vague ideas about how to raise children. The monastery can successfully maintain an orphanage, spiritually take care of it. But the main responsibility and the main work should be carried out by secular specialists. In the 1990s and 2000s, in church institutions, "children in 2/3 cases were not protected in all respects."

According to Father Andrei, the ROC has achieved the greatest success in its work with children in organizing summer camps for children, many of which can serve as a model for secular organizers of children's outdoor recreation.

Father Andrei is not only the director of the orphanage, but also the dean of Nerekhta. And in this work of his, naturally, he also pays a lot of attention to the “children's issue”. The annual St. Pachomievsky readings organized by him in Nerekhta attract the attention of the local community and the district administration to the problems of raising children and Orthodox education. With his participation in Nerekhta, several educational and social projects are being carried out, the most interesting of which is the Otrada center. This center is a church dormitory-commune for graduates of orphanages studying at two vocational schools in Nerekhta. Thus, the Church does not leave orphanage graduates to the mercy of fate and helps them enter adulthood.

Many Orthodox orphanages and shelters have serious shortcomings, but there are also very successful examples of working with homeless children. If the ROC consistently disseminates positive experience and resolutely eradicates such vicious phenomena as the “shelter” in the Bogolyubsky monastery in the Vladimir region, then it will theoretically be able to create a worthy alternative to the state system.