How do we learn how to be good parents? Definitely by remembering how our parents took care of us when we were little. Subconsciously we compare and contrast our personal experience, and, hopefully, sift through it in order to pick the most effective parenting tricks.
If this is true, then how can orphans learn to be good parents? Many countries in the world have orphanages where adult presence is scarce. The orphanages I personally know of have the ratio of about 10 children to 1 adult. Still, it makes sense that children refer to all adults as “Mother,” even though adults hold various positions there (a teacher, director, nurse) – as it is the case in one orphanage in Belarus.
In other words, adults who happen to spend enough time at an orphanage to create memories for the children will contribute to the children’s definition of a family.
This is one of the many reasons why we are organizing a visit to an orphanage where 57 children live under the care of 6 adults. The youngest child is 2 and the oldest is in college. We wanted to bring little gifts for the Lunar New Year celebration (the equivalent of Christmas), but having talked to the director, we realized that the children are in need of daily necessities: toothbrushes, tooth paste, soap, etc.
In short, we are looking for some additional money contributions to make this happen.
On my blog I created a separate page for the cause “Charity work”/”Activity Log”. You will be able to see the monetary goal we need to buy the supplies. There is a link to Donate Paypal account. Also you can see the list of the supplies we have already bought, our still must-buy list, a wish list as well as all the logistical details. As the contributions appear we will be disclosing the amounts in order to keep everything transparent and to account for everything we receive.
Please, visit and donate into the Paypal account provided. No sum is too small. Even $5 can buy 2 tubes of toothpaste. Everything that we receive will go towards the cause. We will photo document the trip so that you will be able to see what your money brought to the children.
olgapeters 
where is the orphanage and when are you.going?
The details are on the page “Activity Log”, including the address and the date. It is in Iksan, we are going on the 17th of Feb.
I would like more info on who runs the orphanage and I would also like to use my network to help the kids.
Brad
Thank you for your interest.
This is going to be a first scouting mission to this particular orphanage. The address is on this blog on page “Charity/Activity Log.” We are in contact with the director of the place. It is our understanding that he, along with the other 5 adults, is in charge of the kids. The director gave us the permission to come there. For more information about the details of the trip you may go to our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Village/333458550097717
Olga