Background Background In 1999, AAI began a Humanitarian Aid program to improve living conditions for orphaned children. The aid is given to both children waiting to be adopted and those that may never find homes in America. The mission of our aid program is simple: to provide a sustained flow of direct aid to the orphanages in which we work. We focus on providing clothing, vitamins, toys, and equipment as well as sponsoring celebrations for the children. In the future we would like to expand to include important enrichment and educational programs. We are very aware that aid money often does not reach its destination and is used poorly. As a result, we are keeping the program small and Diana is overseeing it personally. We work only with our regional coordinators and buy all supplies locally in Russia in order to eliminate as many unnecessary expenses as possible. Results Thanks to the generosity of our adoptive parents Diana began to distribute aid during her trip to Russia in August 2000. Most of this money was used in two orphanages in Yaroslavl, a baby house and a home for older children. We were able to buy new dresses, sweatsuits, jeans, blouses etc. and most importantly, warm winter jackets for every older child. We also provided them with new volley balls and other sports equipment and a television. The baby house was given space heaters to warm every room, baby shoes, freezers for food, double baby carriages for fresh air walks and a large commercial autoclave for sterilizing bottles. At Christmas time the remainder of the donations was used to bring holiday celebrations to children in several Yaroslavl orphanages. As you may know, everything is shared in the orphanages. Because of this, we wanted to give each child something they could hold in their own hands that was just for them. We made big beautiful packets full of cookies, candy and toys which were all nicely wrapped. The children were crazy with excitement when they were distributed! Here are some videos of the children Christmas celebration. Just click on an image to the right. Videos A particularly touching moment unfolded in one small and very poor orphanage on the outskirts of the Yaroslavl region. We bought beautiful princess-like dresses for the girls and white shirts, bowties and black pants for boys. We called them in advance to tell them we were coming with clothes, food etc. The orphanage was in such shock that they put together a whole performance for my coordinator. She made a video and sent it to us. It was a truly heartwarming and heartbreaking moment. The children immediately started pretending they were princes and princesses. This is the first time in their lives that these children had such wonderful new clothes and presents of their own. There was a lot of singing and dancing and crying, including my coordinator and the orphanage director. The sad truth is that the majority of these children will never be adopted. This day definitely made a memorable difference in their lives. We hope that with your help, we will be able to bring more happiness to them in the years to come. If you are interested in helping us with your ideas or donations, or if you know of organizations who might be of assistance, please contact us.

Here are some videos of the children receiving aid. Just click on an image below. You must have one of the following players to view the video clips: Media Player (For Windows) QuickTime (For Mac) click to view (890k) click to view (890k) click to view (890k)