Action for Russia’s Children

About us

ARC is entirely staffed by volunteers, so we have zero admin and overhead costs. All of the funds we raise go directly to our projects. Our expenditure is minimal consisting only of fundraising costs such as the production of our fundraising ball and the printing of our Christmas cards.

History

ARC emerged as an organisation in the mid 1990's. Since then we have worked with a number of leading Russian charities who have introduced and implemented breakthrough solutions in childcare and rehabilitation. The projects we fund have transformed the lives of thousands of Russian children and their families by providing therapies, rehabilitation, legal advice, psychological support, life skills and professional training to child care providers.

The initial mission of ARC was to provide volunteers, donations and assistance to State orphanages. In time the focus shifted, as it became clear that the prevention of children entering institutional care was what was really needed. Instead ARC volunteers started to work with Russian charities who were providing child-centered care in a community and family orientated environment. ARC began to provide material donations, advice with fundraising and assistance with grant applications, often establishing the first link between these NGOs and potential sponsors. ARC also raised its own funds and began a system of awarding annual financial grants.

ARC was officially registered as a UK charity in 1997 and the projects that we support today are dynamic and effective examples of the best available care for children with special needs. Many projects supported by ARC have grown considerably in scope offering leading therapies, rehabilitation and advice for disadvantaged children and their families. Some have been recognised as models of best practice and are being replicated in other parts of Russia.

Aims and Objectives

Despite the occasional turnover of ARC personnel, we maintain consistent aims and working principles. ARC seeks to adjust its working methods in order to reflect the current and long-term needs of the disadvantaged children in Russia. We focus on what we believe are centres of excellence and support their endeavours. We also encourage these Russian NGO’s to share their experiences and replicate their successful activities nationally and where possible, internationally.

Grant awarding process

ARC has a five-step assessment process, when considering the support of a new project:

A visit to the project by ARC Management Committee representatives.
Consideration by the ARC Management Committee as to if and how ARC can help this project to develop.
Appointment of an ARC project coordinator, and commencement of a monitoring period.
Review by the ARC Management Committee at the end of the initial monitoring period. If satisfactory, the project is eligible to apply for funding from ARC. There is no guarantee that funding will be available or granted.
ARC maintains the right to review or in the case of misuse, withdraw the funding of a project at any time.

Structure and Management

ARC is run by a Management Committee in Moscow and has a UK based Company Secretary

Shona McGrahan MBE — Director
Preslava Fentham-Fletcher — Director
Laurien Schroeder — Auctioneer
Dianna Goodwin — Committee member
Elena Dranichnikova — Committee member
Elizabeth Hunt — Treasurer
Sarah Philps MBE— Honorary Trustee
Rachel Smith — UK Secretary

Each ARC supported project has a coordinator, whose role is to liaise with the Management Committee, keep in close and regular contact with the project and build a relationship with them. Other volunteers offer specialist knowledge, time, and energy to projects. Management committee meetings are held regularly.

ARC coordinators