Kitezh: a community approach to raising children in Russia

Author:
MOROZOV Dimitry
Publisher:
Eland
Publication year:
2008
Pagination:
248p.
Place of publication:
London

Kitezh is a network of therapeutic communities designed to get children out of Russia's orphanages and into loving foster families. The aim is to create a developing environment for education, care and rehabilitation. The first Kitezh village, stared in 1994, is in Kaluga Region. This book, by the community’s founder, Dimitry Morozov, tells the story of its development. It documents his own discoveries about what is needed to raise children, especially when they are, in his words, emotionally damaged, often failed by drunken parents and ignored by the state. The community approach aims to foster strong relationships between the children and adults based on the belief that this intensive social focus can help the children develop beyond their previous experiences, and give them the tools to help each other. Central to the philosophy is the idea of a child’s ‘image of the world’ as the lens through which all experience is filtered. The aim is to change a negative image of the world through love, education, support, discipline and honest feedback to enable the child to grow. The challenges and joys of this experiment in living are told in an informal style, and complex ideas are made accessible through anecdotes and reminiscences.

Subject terms:
looked after children, residential child care, therapeutic communities, vulnerable children;
Location(s):
Russia
ISBN print:
978 190601136 9

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