Russia: project to help teenagers leaving orphanages
An educational project “Your first apartment” has been launched to help teenagers leaving orphanages
26.08.2025
Article published on the ASI website
This project aims to help teenagers lead independent lives.
On 26 August, a public event to discuss the “Your First Apartment: How to Start Living an Independent Life After Leaving Your Parents’ or Children’s Home” initiative was held in the Nekrasov Library in Moscow.
The event was organised by the digital platform Cyan and the mentoring consortium Znachim. Public figures, bloggers, CSOs and the media discussed the life skills fostered and adopted children, as well as those leaving orphanages, will need in the outside world, how these will be taught and how to live in their first flat and make it a home.
According to Alexandra Babkina, Director of Sustainable Development at Cyan, mentors will be helping more than 3,000 teenagers to “avoid mistakes in everyday life”.
“We’ve seen for ourselves that educational programmes offered to children in the orphanage system never include any advice on how to pay for utility services. The accumulation of huge debts for electricity, gas and water, which leads to the imposition of fines, utility disconnections and the risk of losing their home, are common problems experienced by young adults who have left orphanages to start living independently”.
“The aim of the “Your First Apartment” project is to make complex information about everyday issues easier to understand and to this end will provide visual material for mentors to help orphanage graduates feel more confident in their independent lives”, said Maria Rylnikova, co-founder of the Znachim mentoring partnership.
Information note
The Znachim mentoring consortium is an association of seven charities that help teenagers and young adults who have lived in orphanages and had socially significant illnesses to find mentors. It includes the Arithmetic of Kindness, In Our Hands, Volunteers to Help Orphans, Children Plus, Our Children, Sunny City and Older Brothers, Older Sisters.
