Abuse in Gothard's Russion Orphanage.

[formergothardite]

http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2011/08/ ... ve-part-1/

 

http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2011/08/ ... ve-part-2/

 

Perhaps someone who knows more about it can clear it up. But from what I understand, Gothard would get ATI familes to come and care for the Russian orphans and they also had a school at this training center that the children went to. So the "mother" in this article who beats the Russian child is actually an American ATI mother who doesn't even speak the language and is supposed to be caring for this child.

[Witsec1]

I don't know anything about it, but it does sound like a woman who didn't understand the child's language was allowed to beat him as long as she liked. Russia needs ATI like it needs a hole in the head. Christian Stalinism is what it is.

On a positive note, an ex-ATI blog! I also recently discovered the Rethinking Vision Forum site. Positive signs!

[formergothardite]

I really wanted to go to work in the Russian Training Center, but my parents couldn't afford to pay to send me there, plus they had heard rumors that not so great things went on there. I knew that they had families that went and lived there to care for the children, but I didn't realize that they could spank them or treat them like that. I thought that they were there to provide stability. I do remember when they brought all the orphans here and I remember seeing them at the Knoxville conference and even then it felt quicky, like Gothard was just showing them off and didn't really view them as children.

[bananacat]

This is why I hate these fundie "mission trips" where they pretend they are helping people but it's really just a holier-than-thou show and some horrible condescension toward people they see as savages. And this is why I especially hate to see fundies adopting orphans from other countries. They are simply not understanding enough to interact with children like this, let alone raise them.

[Witsec1]

The part about bringing the orphans to the US for fundraising reminded me of the Haitian orphan choir that the Ellerslie people were trying to set up. He's a wannabe Gothard with slicker packaging.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

As a parent who adopted to Russian (and Ukrainian) Speaking children I cannot imagine taking them home with NO language. We had BARELY more than that in spite of my two years of College Russian. Happily I had some books and my son could read as well as any normal second grader and we solved a lot of the problems with pointing to words. Today you can translate on the web--what a great thing!

I feel for all involved in this article--first the orphans (enough said just with that word) then the volunteers who tried and the "parents" who were not trained in any real sense. Institutionalized children have very different problems from non-institutiuonalized children and it takes incredible patience and a lot of understanding to work with them. "Good intentions" aren't enough. I am not beside myself with anger at the volunteer adults--they were probably told everything would be wonderful.

[Witsec1]

The Ellerslie choir was called "His Little Feet". The orphans come to the US for one year, study at the Ellerslie Training Center, and go on tour to promote Ellerslie, and then go back to Haiti.