In 1998, future Firefly founders Jonathan and Julie Baker traveled to an orphanage in Russia to adopt a daughter. What they saw at that orphanage shook them to the core: vacant stares, monotonous rocking, and the thin outstretched arms of children yearning to be held. Upon their return to the United States, Jonathan and Julie were compelled to act. As a result, Firefly Children’s Network was formed as a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization in 2000 with a focus on aiding orphans and children with disabilities.

Today, Firefly has an office in Bethesda, Maryland, and projects in the Russian cities of Kazan, Tatarstan and Vladivostok, Primorskiy Krai. Firefly’s mission has evolved to include:

• Education and Training: disseminating international best practices and supporting well-trained Russians as they lead reform in their own country
• Prevention and Reunification: keeping children in birth families and out of orphanages by supporting families via social services and medical care

Firefly also promotes the establishment of foster homes, small group homes, and domestic adoption when living with birth families is not an option.  By offering technical assistance, best practices, and targeted capacity building to local leaders, Firefly assists local champions who are eager to create a nation without orphanages.