OREANDA-NEWS. January 11, 2013.  Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana are visiting the Zvezdny orphanage in Ivanovo on January 11 to speak with resident children and to tour their new living and study facilities. After his first visit to the orphanage on January 7, 2011, he granted 30 million roubles to renovate the premises from the Presidential Reserve Fund.

* * *

The orphanage underwent capital repairs in 2012 at a cost of 50 million roubles. Thirty million roubles were allocated from the Presidential Reserve Fund, and the remaining amount was allocated from extrabudgetary sources. After the capital repairs, the orphanage dedicated its activity to preparing gifted children who study music, singing, dancing, art and design, dressmaking and sports. There are 45 children presently studying at the orphanage aged 7 to 18.

A centre also operates at Zvezdny that helps children who leave orphanages to adapt to their new, adult life. Twenty students are presently supervised and consulted by the centre.

Zvezdny also hosts a study centre for newly adopted children and their foster parents, which opened in 2007. Last year, 42 potential foster parents underwent training at the centre. Its staff psychologists and educational professionals regularly consult 334 foster families in Ivanovo's Lezhnevsky and Komsomolsky districts.