History

The Krasny Perekop Region Orphanage was founded in 1943 for children who had lost their parents during the siege of Leningrad (1941-44). In 1947 it became an orphanage for preschool children. The building that the orphanage now occupies was built in 1961 to house a nursery and a kindergarten. In 1994 part of that building was turned into an orphanage for children up to the age of seven, at which time they were moved to other city orphanages or outside of the city. Recently, the Krasny Perekop Orphanage has occupied the entire building.

Krasny Perekop's Director, Lyubov Bolotova, has a degree in psychology and ably runs an orphanage located in a difficult neighborhood on the outskirts of Yaroslavl.

The children at Krasny Perekop

There are 53 children (22 girls, 31 boys) of different abilities from ages 3 to 17 at the orphanage. The older children at Krasny Perekop attend various public schools in the area. Thirty of the children are "delayed" in their psychological development, seven have some kind of dependence on narcotics, six sniff glue intermittently, all have some sort of chronic health issues, 25% have appeared on the police blotter, and two are presently under police investigation.