Today, 800,000 children in Russia are wards of the state, and many of them live in large orphanages. Over the past several decades, research has shown the devastating effects of institutionalization.

• Infants and young children suffer when they do not have a warm and consistent primary caregiver with whom they can form an attachment.
• Extensive research in Romania illustrates the profound delays in physical, intellectual, emotional, mental, and social development experienced by children who are raised in orphanages. 
• The results of a childhood spent inside an orphanage are frightening. Unequipped to live independently or form close family bonds, many youth who age out of orphanages at 18 will turn to crime, prostitution, and drug/alcohol addiction, and the children they bear often end up back in the orphanage system to repeat this same cycle.

The following film clips illustrate both the problem and the cure.
This 7.5-minute excerpt from The Road Home* illustrates the damage infants and young children suffer when institutionalized. The film also outlines solutions that can dramatically decrease the numbers of children given over to state care in Russia.
This 3.5-minute film documents Firefly's training of Russian healthcare and education professionals to help families care for their children with disabilities, rather than place them in state institutions.

The Road Home*, jointly produced by the Early Intervention Institute (Russia), HealthProm (UK), and EveryChild (UK), was awarded an Erasmus EuroMedia Award Medal.