Principles of Mission Possible's street project

Children living on the streets have to face almost all imaginable abuse. It is not a simple thing to help them. In addition to financial commitment, a lot of patience and wisdom is needed.

The rescuing of even one street child and restoring his or her physical and mental balance is a long process that goes sometimes uphill, sometimes dowhill.

Our workers continuosly encounter people with most difficult experiences - deep suffering, lack of love and affection, abuse, etc. But in the middle of all impossible things, a possible mission is to help one child at a time towards a permanent change.

Holistic aid: Physical, mental and spiritual help

The children, youth and adults within the reach of our work receive spiritual help and a possibility to hear the Gospel. Our workers are believers from local Churches.

Apart from sharing out physical aid, our workers spend a lot of time in solving the children's and youth's mental problems. Through the shelter home the children receive professional psychiatric help if needed.

Regular, long-term work brings lasting results

Our working stratety is based on the principle of lasting change. We engage ourselves into a long-term work with those who have ended up to live on streets.

The goal of our work always is to rescue the child from the street in one way or another. In some cases the street patrol can direct the child quickly off the street and it is sufficient to give him or her one-time help. In other cases the rescuing of the child requires many years of work on the street and then in shelter home or rehabilitation center.

Long-term work in practice

Regularity

Our street patrols have been operating for several years, five times a week around the year. Also the baths have continued once a week since 1996. When the patrol launches work in a new place, the work will continue on a daily basis. Through regular contact the children within the range of our work receive help that really can affect their life and health.

The long-term approach also enables the development of a mutual trust between the children and workers. It takes a long time to gain street children's trust. Our street workers spend a lot of time in talking with the children.

We also arrange for the children camps through which we can draw them out of the normal street environment and and this way influence them more.

Shelter homes help the child up to majority when needed. To change the entire future of a 12-year-old child it is often needed that he or she is taken care of for five years - which is quite a short time.

Work with the child's family

It is essential in our project that we try to reach and help the whole family of the street child. The street patrol tries to clarify his or her background, to find and reunite the familyh.

The parents usually need help in their alcohol or drug addiction. We most often send the parents to the rehabilitation center on our Yaroslavl farm.

Our project also includes teaching and counseling for the parents in managing difficult family situations and upringing of the children.

Local leaders and ownership

The leaders and workers are local people dedicated to helping children. Local ownership of the project creates a more solid foundation for the work. In this way we also can avoid culture and language problems and cut the costs. Foreign helpers with special skills have been used for the development of functions in certain phases (such as construction projects and establishment of the farm).

Local registration: All Mission Possible's activity centers have a local registration as a non-governmental charity or social rehabilitation organization. Mission Possible Finland is one of their establishing members.

Partial financial self-sufficiency

A change with lasting results is our goal also in the area of finances. We develop local means of funding and try to reach a good co-operation with authorities, in order to have the Government be involved in our work through at least some contribution. We produce basic food on our Yaroslavl farm which furnishes the rehabilitation center and partly the Moscow home, run a small printing shop and ceramic workshop in St. Petersburg, and a Christian book store in Odessa.

In this way we can reduce the dependency of our continuing functions on outside funding. As the local self-sufficiency develops, funds are released for us to launch activities in new cities and to reach more children.

Regular donor-base in the West is important

Although our operations are based on activating local resources, outside support - both financial and professional - is necessary.

A necessary link in the chain of help is the regular financial support that Mission Possible receives from individuals, organizations and companies.

Regular supporters contribute to the change with lasting results, needed for the rescuing of children off the street.

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