Kitezh News: January-February 2010

Aquestion put to the 4th Class:
“Children, why do you study?”
Alina (aged 10): “For my mum…”
Maxim (aged 10): “I want to study at the Geography Faculty at Moscow State University.”

Hello, dear friends! Several significant changes have been made in ´Kitezh` over the past few months – we feel that it’s important to share these with you:

• The new Head of Kitezh for 2010 is Alexander Varaksin
• What is the new Kitezh Council?
• Meeting with the Governor of the Kaluga region.
• New children in Kitezh – the Titovy family.
• Training for parents in Orion.
• Elections to the Small Council.
• Girls’ Guitar group in Kitezh

 … all this and much more in this newsletter.

Alexander Varaksin has been chosen as the new Head of the Kitezh Therapeutic Community. The members of the community unanimously supported his candidacy. Alexander is a highly resolute, energetic and creative leader, and we are sure that under his guidance Kitezh will enter a new stage of development. The former Head, Sergei Khlopenov, is glad that he has found the time (at last!) for further development. Sergei will consult the Head on all questions of administration, and will look for new opportunities for himself. It is possible that this will be training work.
“One head is good, but two is better’ – according to folklore. Kitezh has decided to take this on board and has created a Council, consisting of five Kitezhans. The Council will support and direct the work of the new Head. The fundamental principle of the Council is that every person is involved and takes part in all spheres of life – whether it be the school, the building work, the farm or the psychological work. It will allow the organization to be more effective and to broaden the horizons of each participant of the group. The Council will immediately inform all Kitezhans of its decisions, and once a month will allow the colleagues the opportunity to give their feedback – have the decisions worked well, how quickly did the information reach them, what is it possible to improve? This is a new and unique experience for us, and we are sure that it will be successful.   

On 6 March in Kaluga,

the Governor of the Kaluga region, Anatolii Dmitrievich Artamonov, invited parent-teachers who have many children from throughout the region. The representative from the Baryatino region was Kitezhan, Maria Shurova, teacher of primary classes and mum of four children. The meeting was a wonderful and pleasant experience: there was live music, the women were given flowers, and over lunch the Governor asked about the complexities of such a lifestyle and asked for advice about how to convince women not to be afraid of being mothers to at least one child. The teachers shared their experiences of motherhood, and told of why they have created a “big” family. The meeting gave Kitezh the opportunity to thank Anatolii Dmitrievich for his many years of support and attention to our difficulties and successes.  

New children have arrived at Kitezh: Nastya (aged 3), Vanya (aged 4) and Nina (aged 8) Titovy. The children are wonderful – bright, sociable and friendly. We are glad to have more children! Little Nastya is living in Tamara Pichugina’s family. Tamara is the most experienced of our mothers. Vanya and Nina are living in Sasha and Irina Varaksin’s family. It is very important for Kitezh to help as big a number of children as possible. At the present moment, two more families are planning to take children from children’s homes.

In February, the first training programme for parents took place in Orion (“Kitezh 2”), 60km from Moscow. It was prepared by Kitezh’s teachers and psychologists. Maxim Anikeev (Director of the Kitezh School, Doctor of pedagogical science) lead the training. We are helping the parents to work out for themselves the correct attitude to what is happening around them, and this automatically starts to transform their behaviour towards those around them. Three families took part in the first training session. The children and parents found out many new things about each other. It will, of course, enable the strengthening of family ties. Some of the children showed an interest in taking part in our summer role play games and team building work. We are planning to conduct further one and two-day training courses. For further information, please call: 8 960 523 86 90 (Maxim Anikeev).

Events from the children’s world:

Following the elections to the Small Council, the final line-up now consists of Sasha Eromin, Sasha Argunov, Andrei Artsibashev, Nelly Pichugina and Alina Arsenteva. The team, in all honesty, are friendly, cheerful and enterprising. They need to gain a small amount of experience and a little more courage, but everything else is great! The main thing is that the children are aware of their responsibility for the younger generation and that they strive to be active. Furthermore, two of our younger, yet initiative boys – Svetoslav Morozov and Maxim Nabiulin – were chosen as the people’s voice. Through them the ‘voice of the people’ will reach the members of the SC. They even have the right to veto the decisions of the SC! Although the voices of the people will not overuse their power, after the elections, Max Nabiulin told his mum: ‘We have changed the path of history!’ He may turn out to be right… 

Girls’ Ensemble in Kitezh – in the past it was only possible to dream about it! But Milan, a volunteer from Serbia, made the dream a reality it in just over a month! He taught the girls how to play rock-n-roll on the guitar, and taught them not to be afraid of their voices and to get pleasure from music. This was sufficient for the girls to put on their own concert and begin to perform at all the important events of Kitezh and Orion. In April, a creative meeting will be held in Kaluga with children from the ‘Constellation’ centre – soon there will be plans for a world tour!? We are very proud of them!

Volunteers

My name is Jonathan Fisher and I have been living in Kitezh as a volunteer for two months. I am from England and I study Russian literature and language at Oxford University. My main role in Kitezh is to teach English to the children. I teach about half of the children here, and the lessons are great fun. The children are wonderful, and I enjoy playing with them and talking to them. They are all keen to speak English to me! I have taught some of the younger children to play some simple songs on the piano, and I also helped to organize the guitar workshop in February. I really enjoy being involved in many aspects of the Kitezh community - heating up the dinners, carrying firewood, helping in the workshop, or doing yoga! This has been a very rewarding experience, and it has been a great pleasure to meet such charming children.
I am Lea Kloeppel, I came to Kitezh two weeks ago and I will stay another 2 months. I am from Germany and am currently taking a gap year.

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