If you live or work in New York City and you want to get involved in a new philanthropic effort for Russia's orphans, head to the Times Square area today or Saturday.

St. Malachy's Church/Actors' Chapel Square is hosting a two-day exhibition and sale of art work created by orphans in Saratov. The church is located at 239 W. 49th, which is between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. The exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. There will be a piano concert from... more

As you might have guessed from my previous two posts on the work of Professors Robert McCall and Christina Groark, I find the work being done at St. Petersburg's orphanages by these University of Pittsburgh professors fascinating.

They've quantified the basic environment in many Russian orphanages and then they set out to see what changes were possible... more

Rose Alaimo has only been in Russia a few days, but her experience is already proving an eye-opener.

You might remember that, back in late May, I introduced you to a Cornell University veterinary student who decided to go to Russia for what some people call a "volunteer vacation". Rose is doing a lot of volunteering, but she clearly isn't getting a lot of time for rest. And it doesn't seem to bother her one bit.

Rose arrived in Yaroslavl on July 23... more

The other day, I told you about how two professors from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education came to be involved with Russia's orphanages. Now, I'd like to tell you what they have achieved through their work.

Their goals were two-fold: make care more consistent and more responsive. They had found that the average child in a Russian baby home could expect to encounter as many as 100 caregivers during his or her time there. Most of... more

The English-language news channel Russia Today put up an interesting piece this morning on an orphanage in Moscow devoted to children with HIV and AIDS.

In case you are not familiar with Russia Today, it is an offshoot of the RIA-Novosti news agency. Like its parent organization, it covers breaking news, politics, business and human interest stories in Russia and other Eastern European and Central Asia countries. It also is taking full advantage of the Internet: It recently established its own channel on... more

Fifteen years ago, two professors from the University of Pittsburgh were invited to go to Russia by city government officials in St. Petersburg. The Soviet Union had dissolved, and with it, a lot of government support for child welfare initiatives. What policies, what services should we put in place, the city fathers asked the academics?

But while Robert McCall and Christina Groark, respectively a professor... more

Over the weekend, The New York Times ran a front-page piece on Nashi, a Russian youth movement that supports President Vladimir Putin.

It's not the first Western news organization to take a look at the group. Newsweek had a profile less than a month ago. The BBC had a story last summer, and both the text and an accompanying video are still available on its Web site. Blogs... more

I made an interesting find when I was researching the post on Krasnodar Krai the other day: An adoption blog written by a Russian.

Olga Spachil's "carefororphans" blog is one of those rare insider looks at the world. In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that Spachil does have ties to the adoption communities in Russia and the United States: She's listed among the regional contacts for Adoption... more

Here's the flip side to the camp-to-adopt story I told you about this morning: summer camps for Russian children--sometimes orphans--held in Russia and staffed, at least in part, by American volunteers.

Adoption Ark, based in Buffalo Grove, Ill., just wrapped up its fifth annual summer camp in Russia. It took 120 children, ages 6 to 16, from nine orphanages in the Ivanovo region to a three-week camp in the nearby town of Kleshevka. No, they didn't get to experience life... more

Summertime used to be filled with news of Russian orphans coming to the United States for summer camp programs that brought them into contact with prospective adoptive parents.

Not this year. Thanks to the uncertainty surrounding the re-accreditation of their adoption programs, all the stalwarts of the camp-to-adopt movement have put their programs on hiatus this summer. I've found only one camp-to-adopt program for kids from Russia that is running now, and I'll tell you more about that in a minute.

For some, the break will be permanent:... more