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The first time I saw this I was so saddened that it was all I thought about all day. The images flooded my mind when I lay my head down to sleep.

Some,

It makes me think that AJ was one of the lucky ones to be placed in the orphanage. When you watch you will see that so many of the children are actually abandoned on the streets by their biological parents and know their parents don’t want them. What that does to their emotional state I can’t imagine. like Slava, run away because of the home-life; alcoholism, violence, neglect.Some are left without papers, which I can only assume means they can’t travel anywhere or ask for help from an orphanage (without proof of identity how can you prove who you are?). One child stated that at age five his parents left him on the street with this papers and he was able to make his way to an orphanage. Lucky kid.Most of these children endure harsh temperatures in the winter, little food, and most turn to prostitution and drugs early to make money.

In the 1990’s Russia noticed a vast increase in these street children and has done a tremendous amount to reduce the number of children on the streets. However, in 2007 there were 10,000 children living in Moscow. he official number right now is about 700,000 but most feel the real figure is between 2 and 4 million.It really makes me feel that AJ was lucky to be placed in an orphanage. I still don’t feel like we “saved” him from a street life. Most importantly, Russian Social Services did that when they intervened on the day of his birth.And you know what? I am beginning to think that that is there was someone very important looking after him that day.