About “Step Up”

The Step Up Center for equal opportunities for orphans is a Russian charity organization that supports graduates from orphanages.

The children in the orphanages lack many things: an individualized approach to education, answers to their questions, and most importantly, love. Because of this, they will confront unsolvable problems in their adult life—difficulties finding work, organizing their personal lives, and trusting people. Along with this, the majority of graduates have minimal education for various reasons: lack of interest in studies, insufficient knowledge (many children come to the orphanage from disadvantaged families in which they were not worked with from infancy.) Sometimes the children simply require the kind of individualized approach that you can’t count on in an orphanage.

Many children leave orphanages with only beginners’ knowledge of reading and writing, but Step Up helps these children catch up to the curriculum. In Step Up they study for free, both individually and in small groups. Those who have the patience and will power go on to graduate high school and enter college. In 10 years, Step Up has worked with over 400 students, 46 of whom have finished middle school, 28 of whom have finished high school, and 41 of whom have entered college.

Today, “Step Up” is the only organization which helps children in special situations study, gain experiences, and adjust to life outside of an adult care center. 16 of the youth who studied through “Step Up” have overcome the diagnoses which placed them in the institutions and now live normal, independent lives. One of them even graduated college, even though he entered “Step Up” not knowing how to read.

How does it work? We believe that there’s no such thing as an unteachable child. We also believe that you have to start by loving—and only then teach.

Official website: is here