When it comes to everyone’s worst nightmare, Russian orphanages make bringing them to life easy. An orphanage is a place a biological parent or any parent trusts to care for their child’s needs; it is a place of comfort and joy-or should be. This is not what Russia holds. If one would imagine themselves walking in and expecting it to be all of this, yet finding a horrible reality instead, a person might understand the twisted nature of these “shelters.” Filtered beds replace soft white sheets, a crammed space offers no privacy, hundreds of faces create lonely bonds, and either a loud din-or dead silence corrupts the faces of laughter. A grim picture reflects the cries of such needy hearts, yet they cannot be heard through the closed-in walls of the building. No Russian, orphanages are not a place for innocents: they are a prison.



Certainly, not all orphanages are this way. This is unheard of. This is an exaggeration. Or is it? No words could even begin to formulate how frightening the conditions really are. Unfortunately, most of these orphanages reside in such circumstances and even the best Russian orphanage has its failings. The children are typically educated, although their underdevelopments strike mentally, personally and physically. Not only do they have a family, they do not have the essentials that are needed in order to sustain their lives.



The statistics are disgusting, the reality, a horror. Each life of a child is undervalued. With over 650,000 children in some form of state care, 90% actually have living parents; these are known as social orphans. Concerning that there are 143,406,042 people in Russian (14 per square mile), that is quite a bit of condensed concentration. Feelings of unbelonging, abandonment, and misery swarm through overcrowded spaces. As if they didn’t have enough struggles already. What is going on with the rest of Russia? These shelters are underfunded and understaffed, leaving the orphans with no privacy and lack or nurturing. Babies are ignored and left in hospital beds for months at a time. They receive food a few times a day, but no attention, no love. Others are starved, beaten, and tied to benches. There’s much more-diseases are very frequent. In Central Russia, one orphanage had 29 out of 30 children with the disease of Syphilis. These effects of the orphanages should go away once they reach the age of 18, yet several go to asylums afterward. Growth does not come as it should for the little ones, only a scarred future that leaves them longing for something more, if they even have the capability to understand what that is.



Each small life holds a heart and mind that should be held as if it were the only one in the world. How can that truth ever be for the next generation if they do not know what it is like to be cared for? Russia’s foundation is quickly falling apart. That foundation is the young, who’s only hope is that they might find love in the life of another-before it is too late.