Internats 2

In October 2003 I decided I should visit all the Internats, as it seemed to me that some received many visitors while some received few. I talked at length to the directors, or their assistants, and gained a reasonably accurate picture of the current situation. I asked about all aspects of the children’s life at the school including their living conditions, the pastoral care, their education and their recreation.

Of these, the pastoral care is remarkable with youngsters happily telling me that it was “much better than being at home”. Certainly looking at the children’s relationships with the staff you can easily see that there is mutual love and respect. This impression is backed up by their open and often affectionate response to visitors. Most of the schools are able to get regular health checks for the children and the food budget is perfectly adequate. In fact children in Internats get far more spent on food per day than even those children outside that have a full-time working parent.

Sadly, that is where the adequacy of the funding stops. Clothing and shoes are desperately needed for their day-to-day existence. Resources for teaching are meagre and for sport and recreation are almost non-existent. The buildings are, for the most part, kept clean and attractive but only because of the efforts of the teachers, who spend a large part of the summer holiday repainting floors, walls, tables and chairs. However washing, showering and toilet facilities are less than adequate. Hot water is rare, and so are modern flush toilets, with the children and the adults alike sharing the outdoor facilities, even in mid-winter and at night.

These “facilities” usually consist of a concrete slab through which several holes lead to a cesspit. There are no partitions between the holes. The fact that the staff class their toilets according to the condition of the shed that houses them, rather than the stench that emanates from them, just shows that when you have no option you can get used to anything. The odd thing about this situation is that many of the places have indoor flush toilets that are not operational and we are making it a priority to try to refurbish these and get them working properly again. The education is broad based with carpentry, metalwork, art and craftwork, sewing, cooking and gardening all playing an important part even though the resources for these activities are pitiful. I am currently trying to obtain supplies of tools, art materials and seeds for them. I am also equipping redundant computers (P133 or later) with a Russian O/S and trying to install computer rooms for the schools that feel they would use them.

We would be most grateful for any assistance that you can give us towards our efforts to support the staff and children of these Internats.