Shelter Homes
The long term goal of Mission Possible's street work is to help children and entire families permanently off the street. This can be accomplished through shelter homes and drug rehabilitation center.
In the shelter home the child has a possibility to live safely and also to go to school. The most of the street children need special tuition, some of the children who come to the home have never attended school.
The home children are included in a regular health program. It may take two years to fix the child's teeth. After coming to the shelter home the most of them begin to grow quickly. Due to malnourishment of several years they often are smaller by size than their agemates.
The
greatest obstacle in the children's adaptation into the normal life is
their drug or glue addiction. The withdrawal symptoms may take several
months. During this time some children may flee from the home in one or
two week's intervals. Children who have spent many years in irregular,
"free" life, often find it difficult to get adjusted to a regular
life style and daily rhythm with early wake-up.
It is a great joy for the children coming from the street to the home to have personal belongings, new clothes and interesting hobbies.
Mission Possible at the moment runs three shelter homes: In Moscow a home for app. 25 children, in Krasnoyarsk 2 homes that hold a total of 16 children. The children's ages vary from 1 to 1-18.