Thursday September 26^th

Once again we left the hotel and found ourselves sitting in the Moscow traffic.  Our host was so terrific ... we really didn’t mind. We learned so much about Russian history, progress and culture sitting and talking.  It becomes clearer with each conversation how similar our communities and our people are.  Our child welfare systems are also very similar in practice, innovation, intention for improvements, struggles and our common goals of helping families to care for their children safely and helping children when that is not possible.  We recognize that the perceptions that Americans have of the Russian child welfare system is based upon the experiences of parents who visited Russia and adopted children over the past couple of decades and that much progress has been made (in many but not all) regions of the country. 

We were very fortunate to visit the offices of our hosts, the National Foundation for the Prevention of the Cruelty of Children (NFPCC).  We had a tour of the office and met all of their trainers and regional support specialists.  We were engaged in an exciting conversation about possible collaborations, comparative research opportunities, and sharing of our resources.  They have published wonderful standards, resources and practice guides for use in their regional child welfare jurisdictions.  Additionally they have also disseminated the Child Welfare Field Guide, published by CWLA and written by our traveling colleagues Judy Rycus and Ronald Hughes.  We ended our time together with a delicious lunch at a Belarus-Russian restaurant.

This was the most delicious dessert.  Little donuts

 

We spent the afternoon doing some souvenir shopping around Red Square - we got a little out of control. IT was very fun to see the hats, the nesting dolls, flasks, shot glasses, beautiful traditional scarves etc. So much to buy … so little luggage space JWe also looked at the shops within the area Cathedrals and we were able to see an Orthodox service in progress. It was beautiful. I am continually amazed at the full and extensive artwork/internal paintings that completely cover the walls and ceilings of EVERY Cathedral. We ended our afternoon with a tour (yes a tour) of the Moscow subway system. It is nothing short of a museum of amazing stonework, mosaic art, statutes, stained glass etc. It was so amazing, we will devote an entire entry to it in this blog. 

These are styling port-a-potties in Red Square

JaeRan, Tracy and Marina at the Train Station

Headed back to the hotel ...

 

We said good-bye to our host, guide and interpreter Marina. We really grew very fond of her and it was sad to say our good-byes.  We are looking forward to seeing her again.  She put us safely on a train to our hotel by the airport and away we went!

Wednesday September 25^th

We were up early today to catch a flight from Khanty-Mansiysk back to Moscow. There is a two hour time difference so we lost two hours in the change. The travel was without incident … and then we became all too familiar with Moscow traffic!  OY … that is traffic like I have NEVER seen.  It took us so long to get to the hotel.  We arrived and then immediately jumped back into the traffic jam to head downtown and visit the Tretyakov Museum.  We say the most BEAUTIFUL works of Russian art. I think that one of the most striking was of Ivan the Terrible holding his son (Ivan) after having hit and killed him in a fit of rage.  Ivan was ‘no joke’.  Our host and guide Marina referred to that as an ‘anger stroke’.  Marina also told us the story of how Ivan the Terrible blinded the architects of St. Basil’s Cathedral (colorful and beautiful like no other cathedral in the world) so that they could not build anything as beautiful anywhere else in the world.  See the photo below of a portrait of Ivan as well as the outside of this wonderful museum.  Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow 

 

 

 

After the museum we walked through the streets of Moscow and saw some more famous sites.  We walked along the river bank where we saw an enormous statute of a ship and a sailor.  We were told that this was originally designed as St. Columbus and offered as a gift to the United Nations in NYC.  They politely declined the gift. It was then repurposed and now stands to pay homage to Peter the Great … who apparently, although living in a different century, sailed on a similar ship (???? How can this be???). Well that was what we were told anyway. 

We got to our final destination of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This breathtaking Cathedral was once destroyed-an order of Stalin.  It was going to be the site of a grand building called the Palace of Russia.  There were detailed plans created and preconstruction work completed, however when Stalin died the project apparently died with him.  In its place, the government built a swimming pool.  Yep … a swimming pool.  That remained until the early 1990s when the community decided to rebuild the original Cathedral in exact replication.  You can clearly see why Moscow wanted to have this amazing Cathedral back in their city. 

After returning to the hotel we said goodbye to our colleagues from IHS in Ohio and APSAC.  They flew out on Thursday morning.  After making plans for continued collaboration and future projects (this is the stuff Traci L. is FAMOUS for J ) we fell into bed!

Today was another terrific day in Western Siberia!  We have really grown to love the town of Khanty-Manisysk.  This oil boom town has wonderful cultural resources, plenty of sports (especially winter sports), the world championships of chess etc.

At the conference today the Americans offered Master Classes which the Russian attendees participated in. Traci L. was fortunate to be able to present along with a colleague, Betsy Smalley, from Ohio's Institute for Human Services.  We presented on adoption assessment, preparation, and support.  My contributions were primarily geared toward adoption of children with disabilities.  The building that we presented in was The Vladimir Igoshev House Museum . The exterior was amazing and Mr. Igoshev's paintings were beautiful renderings of the local indigenous people and landscapes.

We couldn't resist the photo board at the Conference ... it was like being at the Emmys :)

Again, our hosts fed us a wonderful lunch. We had closing sessions, a beautiful Organ concert on a new instrument handcrafted in Germany especially for the concert hall in Khanty-Mansiysk. It was beautiful. We ended our day by taking a night tour of the city. We saw the riverfront, the historical portion of the city, the main Orthodox Cathedral, sports pavilions, the Olympic biathlon training center etc. Although the the indigenous people of this area have been here for hundreds of years, the development of what is known today as Khanty-Mansiysk began in 1993. The oil from this area provides over 60% of the nation's oil and 7.5% of the world's oil. Precious minerals have also recently been found within this region.

 

Harriet was tired of being in the room (my purse really) and wanted to join the fun of the night tour

 Statue  on the Ob River

 

 

Orthodox Temple Complex
of Christ's Resurrectio

 

 

 This is the rectory for the Cathedral.  A Beautiful complex with multiple buildings at the Center of the town.

 

 

Saints Cyril and Methodius; two brothers who created the Cyrillic alphabet

 

I'll admit-I"m tired and the blog is going to suffer for it tonight.  I will get on my game and write a more informative blog for you tomorrow!  In the meantime, enjoy the photos of Khanty Mansiysk-a beautiful beautiful town.

Oh ... how could we go to sleep (yes, it is 1am) without sharing with you the amazing lunch and dinner banquets that were held for us at the Forum!  We've included photos of the traditional Russian foods. We tried it all and it was truly delicious.  The beverages were also flowing a plenty and we included photos of those as well.  The final picture is a real treat ... don't miss it!

Appetizers. From top clockwise: liver with olive and some kind of soft cheese (cream cheese?), a soft white fish, pork, cow tongue, ?? terrine of some sort, mushrooms, pastry, and cold smoked fish in the center.

 

 

 

 

 A variety of toasting beverages!

 

 

The Lovely table ...

 

When in Russia ...

                                                                   AND ... Wait for it .....

                               YES! Pavel Astakhov, Russia's child rights commissioner and GOLDY GOPHER
Despite the seriousness of the day and the issues at hand, Commissioner Astakhov took a moment of diplomacy for a photo op. with, as he called it, the chipmunk.  We can't fault him for not knowing Goldy by name ... but he is clearly a gopher :)

 

 

Today has been a long, busy, exciting and productive day!  We attended the first day of the Third Russian-American Child Welfare Forum "Protecting Children from Abuse and Violence: Potential of Family, Society, and State".  The day began with welcomes from many dignitaries followed by 'reports' (Presentations) by key government officials and practitioners (both Russian and American).  The notable Russian dignitaries included Pavel Astakhov, Children's Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation (Similar in position to Acting Assistant Secretary, George Sheldon, of the US Dept of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families).  Also present at the conference was the Governor of Khanty-Mansiysk, Autonomous Region of Yugra (located in Western Siberia). 

 

 

 

Our host, Alexander Spivak, President of the National Foundation for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NFPCC) also spoke at the beginning of the conference.  He and his staff at the NFPCC have worked tirelessly to make us feel welcome, comfortable and help us to learn about the culture and child welfare practices in Russia. 

 

 

Being a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to conferences, event planning etc. I must share with you all that this conference is AMAZING!  The registration materials are in both Russian and English.  We were all given (all participants, not just visiting Americans) small briefcases with conference materials and regional gifts (a small indigenous statue, a commemorative plate, and a photo book of the region). The event venue is a beautiful conference center.

We were all anticipating a great day with valuable information and new relationship building.  We relied heavily on our Russian [to English] interpreters.  The conference center also provided headsets for simultaneous interpretation during the plenary session.

It would be too difficult to detail [here] all of what we learned at the Forum today.  JaeRan, Tracy and I have agreed that we will be reflecting on the presentations for days and weeks to come.  That said, here are some brief thoughts about what we learned:

• We (Russians and American child welfare communities) are more alike than we are different
• Russians are trying to implement similar solutions to those we are implementing in the US, including inter-agency collaboration and workforce training (inclusive of broad stakeholder groups-lawyers, medical professionals, educators etc.)
• The Russians struggle with similar issues as we do, including burnout and secondary traumatic stress on the workforce, securing sufficient funding & resources, and finding competent staff in rural communities,
• In practice, they struggle (as we do) with hard to place kids (sibling groups, older kids, kids with disabilities)
• Russians have a strong value of having kids placed in family settings
• Their child welfare services are delivered by each region of the Federation (there are 83 regions within Russia; 143 million people/9th largest country in the world). Like states in America, Russian Regions have autonomy in local legislation, policy and practice
• Russian Orthodoxy is the dominant religion.  During the conference, discussion took place as to the role of religion, churches, and faith in the child welfare system. 
• Related to foster and adoptive placement-they, like the US, find youth who have difficulty adjusting from congregate care (residential treatment centers and group homes in the US) to family care
• They have identified the need for professionals within the community to be better trained about child maltreatment issues and issues associated with living out-of-home. This might include teachers in the schools receiving training to work with these kids as they transition
• Teenagers that are placed away from their homes, particularly when they are placed in rural communities where foster homes can be found, have difficulty finding jobs/employment as they age which can jeopardize stability and permanency.
• The workforce is comprised of people with 'general degrees' (not specific to child welfare). Many professionals in the field are psychologists.
• Service providers, specifically those offering clinical intervention, need specific training/content in trauma. It was said in a presentation, "Sometimes bad advice from a psychologist can be detrimental to a family - We know this to be true in US too. 
• In Russia there are over 152 ethnicities. The regional child welfare systems are serving very diverse ethnic communities and they struggle with meeting the unique needs of individual children-in much the same way that we do in the US.

While we know presenters at the Forum are talking about programs that are working really well, new pilots, and new and pending legislation,  some conference participants did appear to challenge and question the current state of practice and were pushing their colleagues for continued improvement.

At the conclusion of the Forum, a local school for gifted children performed for us before our evening dinner with other conference attendees.  These are children training to be performers and therefore pictures were allowed. These are NOT children receiving child welfare services-that was not their association with the conference.  As you can see that they are extremely talented kids.  There were performances in dance, music and even fashion.  We've included some photos below and will post short videos tomorrow. Take a look-you won't be disappointed!