Lessons of Kindness and Support were taught in Amur Oblast

6 march 2023

On February 28, Amur Oblast hosted the launch of a new inclusive project of SIBUR and the Russian Committee of the Charitable Organization SOS Children's Villages entitled Lessons of Kindness and Support, implemented as part of the company's social investment program, the Formula for Good Deeds. Throughout the year, experts will be holding a series of workshops and webinars for teachers and school principals that will take place in four regions. They will be discussing the nuances of working with children with health limitation studying alongside healthy children. The first class for educational institutions’ staff was held in the city of Svobodny.

This project is extremely important for developing a consistent approach to presenting information on this topic. Even subject matter experts still disagree on the meaning of such terms as "inclusion", "integration", "segregation", and others. The point that we want to drive across is that inclusion is not only about children with special needs, but also about all others who are involved in the process. Our experience in discussing this topic with teachers and principals has shown that many of them are ready for change. This means that our project can become a driver of social change and help make lives of children with disabilities attending educational institutions better balanced, healthier, and friendlier, Olga Lipnitskaya, head of the Department of Social Orphanhood Prevention and Family Strengthening at the Russian Committee of SOS Children's Villages, commented.

The project’s second component seeks to create a dedicated professional community in the regions where the project is being implemented. For a whole year, this group of professionals will be receiving training in new techniques and methods of treating psychological trauma. After they have upgraded their skills, these specialists will be able to conduct training-and-treatment sessions in an effort to provide support to families affected by traumatic events.

Thanks to attending the workshop, we mastered a range of techniques and diagnostics tools that can be used for treating both traumatized parents and their children. We are constantly on the road visiting substitute families and we find it quite convenient that in order to apply these techniques, one doesn’t have to carry too much stuff. All you need is some pencils, paper and a room to work in. Compared with our trainers, we don’t have that much experience in these matters, and that’s why we studied all the techniques they taught us with diligence and are very keen to put them to good use. This is something that is quite relevant for our region as there are quite a lot of traumatized children here and we know that society’s well-being depends on our ability to fix these problems in a timely manner, Daria Epova, a counseling teacher with Raduga, a Belogorsk-based Center for Family Placement of Children Left Without Parental Care, and for Training and Support of Substitute Families.

The class on how to treat psychological trauma continued for two days. Amur Oblast was chosen to pilot the new project. Throughout this year, the class will be additionally taught in Kazan, followed by Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh. In addition to such on-site classes, further online training will also be organized to discuss inclusion in educational institutions and psychological trauma treatment.

For reference:

The Russian Committee of SOS Children's Villages is an international charitable organization whose goal is to supports orphans, children left without parental care, and children who are at risk of losing their families.

The educational program put on jointly by SOS Children's Villages and SIBUR, implemented as part of the company's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program, is aimed at preventing social orphanhood in the cities where the company conducts its operations.