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Volunteering
at Kitezh Children's Community
It is a great opportunity as Kitezh is a most unusual place, and you will
feel well rewarded by the experience. Kitezh is growing fast, and there is
plenty to be done - with the children, on the farm, gardening, cooking, and
building. Whatever your talents or expertise, you will be able to contribute to
this innovative approach to family-based, rural community care and education for
orphan children.
Kitezh can appeal to Volunteers of all ages. It is
particularly good for young people on a "GAP" year who are seeking to
improve their Russian language, who are looking for an interesting travel
experience and an opportunity to be of service to others at the same time. It is
not essential to speak Russian, but it is important to learn some phrases
beforehand in order to begin to communicate. It is also a safe way to visit
Russia for the first time as the community is very supportive and will give you
the confidence (and the language ability) to travel on your own afterwards if
you wish to do so.
Kitezh is an exciting place, in
contrast to many gloomy messages about Russia sent to the west via the media. It
is a place of happiness and joyful refuge for Russian children who have been
abandoned or orphaned. The Kitezh way of fostering and educating children in
Kitezh has already proved to be a real alternative to the Dickensian State
system of orphanages and childcare institutions. Education is the main focus at
Kitezh.
The
people at Kitezh are happy to welcome visitors and volunteers all year round.
Each season has its advantages and disadvantages. Summer is warm, but mosquitoes
abound. Spring and Autumn weather is lovely, and these are busy times in the
gardens, planting and harvesting. Winter is snowy, cold, and fresh, warm inside,
wrap up well outside. Less outdoor work, more time with children and creativity.
You can stay for as long as you wish - from a few weeks to several months. Most
volunteers have found that one to two months is the optimum time to settle in at
Kitezh and become part of the family and the working life there, and many come
away speaking fluent Russian. To plan to stay a full year requires a bigger
commitment, and we recommend that volunteers who intend to do this buy an air
ticket that allows for flexibility. Once you are there, you can discuss staying
for longer than 2 months with the Kitezh Council.
Background:
Kitezh is
situated 300km south of Moscow, in the direction of Kaluga. The nearest town is
Baryatino. Kitezh is a non-commercial partnership of foster families living as a
community on common land, that was started in 1992 by Dmitry Morozov, a Moscow
radio journalist. Kitezh owns 100 hectares of land, some forested and some
agricultural, with a pond for summer swimming and winter skating. They have
built 14 houses, a schoolhouse and a church, and have a farm with livestock and
poultry, and grow much of their own food. They also cultivate 100 hectares of
land to produce potatoes for sale to subsidise the community. They aim to live
as ecologically as possible, gradually incorporating as many alternative forms
of energy production as finances allow. Each family has their own home, built by
the members of the community, with 3 or 4 adopted orphan children in addition to
their own. The community as a whole is responsible for all the children, and
they run their own school where most of the adults are teachers as well as
workers in the community. It is a unique place, a real alternative to the
institutionalised state care of homeless children. Kitezh aims to grow to
accommodate 30 families and 200 children. The
long-term goal is, one day, that villages modeled on Kitezh will replace the
entire state system of orphanages in Russia.
In the meantime, there are 10 families
living together at Kitezh, with approximately 34 children of all ages (at last
count!). About 10 Kitezh ‘graduates’ now live and work elsewhere, or are at
university or college. Many of them intend to return to Kitezh later, and still
regard it as their home. Some single people and Russian volunteers also live in
Kitezh.
Children and therapeutic education is
the main focus at Kitezh, and the entire community revolves around the children.
‘Kids Priority’ is the catchword. Because many of the children have come
from orphanages, some off the streets, most of the adults’ attention goes into
their rehabilitation. Volunteers need to understand at the outset that working
with psychologically damaged children is demanding. You also need to understand
that in such an environment, some people are confronted with their own childhood
issues, which they must be prepared to deal with in a way that does not distract
the attention of the other adults in Kitezh, who are primarily concentrated on
the problems of the children. If
you have a personal history of abuse or neglect, please do consider carefully
whether Kitezh is the right place for you.
Kitezh is also a training ground for
Social Workers in which specialists from the United Kingdom have participated,
teaching a practical approach to all the psychological and social issues
presenting in children who come from severely disadvantaged backgrounds.
Your Experience:
You will live with one of the families in a traditional wooden log house, and
you will most likely share a room with other volunteers or with older children.
Sometimes students live in tents in summer. The houses have running cold water
and indoor toilets. There are only three showers with hot water in the whole of
Kitezh. Washing is done twice a week in the communal Bath house (Banya), with a
fantastic sauna and hot water. Women and men go at separate times. You may wear
a bathing suit if you wish, although the Russian way is to go without. Food is
simple, mostly homegrown and not at all like what you are used to. There will be
a lot of new things you will need to adapt to – living conditions, food,
culture, language. However, at Kitezh you will find good company, great
pioneering spirit, wonderful kids, a lot of fun as well as work. By the end of
your stay at Kitezh you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have made
a personal contribution to a very worthwhile community. You will also have
learned some Russian, and have an inside view of what makes Russians tick, not
just what the media tells us. Remember,
Kitezh has a simple, healthy, rural life style, with few luxuries that
westerners are used to! The Russian
culture is different from our western one in many ways, and we encourage you to
go there with an open mind, to learn about the culture of Kitezh and Russia
rather than to change it. There is a Chinese saying that he who goes with an
empty cup, may have it filled. He who goes with a full cup (of expectations or
opinions) leaves no room for new experience.
Work:
As an English speaker, your greatest contribution will be to teach spoken
English to the children and to some of the adults who are keen to learn. This
will be challenging, especially if you have not taught children before. For this
you need to be resourceful and creative, thinking up games, songs and topics for
conversation, to keep interest alive. Many of the children have learning
difficulties because of their hard start in life, so English lessons need to be
fun. Teaching the finer points of English grammar is not necessary! In addition,
because Kitezh is a working community you will be assigned to help in the
kitchen, the garden, on the farm or with whatever building work is going on. It
is not at all glamorous. Are you willing to wash floors, peal potatoes, wash
pots and pans (even without rubber gloves)? Are you willing to dig in the
garden? Chop wood? Lift heavy bags of potatoes? If you go to Kitezh with an
attitude of willingness to pitch in and do whatever is most needed at any
moment, then you will easily become part of community life.
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