For many people in Russia, social, political and economic changes have led to instability and disorientation. With poverty and/or alcohol and drug addiction affecting more than half of the population, daily life is often an undignified struggle for survival. Many families coexist in confined quarters, meaning three generations in a small one or two-room apartment. Unsurprisingly, such conditions are often the cause of extreme tension and even violence.

Mortality among the “parental generation” and their children is particularly high. Children are often orphaned at a very young age, and although the official child mortality rate at present is “only” three times higher than in other developed countries, the estimated number of unrecorded cases is several times higher. The majority of the children are social orphans.

Typically, these children flee domestic violence and end up as street kids, since no one in their family is willing or able to take responsibility for them. Unfortunately, in most cases this escape is not a way out but rather the starting point on the slope to further social decline.

Helping children defenceless in the face of physical and psychological brutality in the family and their descent into a life on the street without any prospect of improvement: it’s a challenge the LIGHT foundation has taken upon itself.