MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. The three-floor building of a rehab center, like many other public buildings in Chukotka, is located in a scenic area of the Anadyr Creek. Inside the house the air is filled with mouth-watering cooking smells. From somewhere upstairs we can hear Chukchi famous song, Nunligran.

Nastya has not seen her mother since November, Dima - for four years, and Oleg cannot even remember her voice. Masha is taller than her mom, but cannot say anything about her due to autism. At the age of 13 she learns how to express emotions. These kids are patients at the local rehab center. The main task for the personnel is to make sure they find families.

To give a hug and to return to mom

Olga Mikotkina is a tall woman with big smiling eyes and a cute dimple in her right cheek. She has been running the center for 16 years. Her voice is soft, balanced; for her the children are "my kids."

The rehab center presently cares for 60 kids above three years of age.

"Before 2006, the center was an orphanage, but then the region launched a program, dubbed Chukotka without Orphans," so that children could remain in families, even if the families are in poor social conditions, where both mom and dad are heavy drinkers. In Chukotka, alcoholism among indigenous peoples is a huge problem. Our task is to help these families. We help the parents to stop drinking, find jobs, apply for subsidies, improve the housing conditions, during which the kids remain at our rehab center, but as soon as the things get better, they return to the parents," Olga said.

The rotation of kids is very high: usually, about 100 of them come to the center, and within the first six-twelve months about 90% return home or go to foster families.

Most problems are common. The region does not have many jobs to offer, the wages are not high, and thus many families face big problems. They may be short of money to pay for housing, <...> to afford clothes, and without support many parents in despair turn for a drink.

"Shortly before the New Year, a boy of six, Sasha, was brought here. His mom was a heavy drinker and did not care much about the boy. Our number one priority is to keep the family. Many specialists got involved immediately. We found a job for the woman, treated her, the flat was renovated, she got a stock of food; then she brought papers from her work proving the income. Over that time, while Sasha stayed with us, she came to see him quite often. Clearly the woman feared she would not get the kid back. The boy wanted to be with her, and she wanted to be with him. Right, it took us six months, but the time was worth it. I wish you could see how happy they were when they left the center together," she said.

Alcoholism is not the only problem. Sometimes, the center takes care of children from quite well-off families.

"One child, one story. Not so long ago, a boy left us. He had attempted a suicide. A demonstrative attempt it was. When he was about to leave, I asked him: what do you feel? He said, I want to return home, but on the other hand I’ve got used to you. This is exactly what we fear. We do not want children to get used to us. Unfortunately, any time a kid stays separated from parents it ruins the family."

Picasso, Kandinsky and Chukotka ball

The principal takes us around the center. The walls are decorated with ethnic drawings - wide and bright strokes, which remind of Picasso’s works. On some posters I can see Kandinsky’s lyrical abstraction.

Olga sees my surprise, and explains - children study those paintings with great interest. They even argue about what they can see there. One boy says he can see a sea battle on the background of red sunset, and another boy says the picture shows a soft red cat.

"We have not planned them. One day, a deputy governor comes here and exclaims - look at those walls! It looks like an intensive care unit. And a month later artists from Moscow, very smart guys, came here. We discussed everything, they presented a concept and began working. Our kids helped them with drawings," the principal said.

The center’s programs include many classes in theatrical skills, dancing, and crafts. The children make national souvenirs, bags and dolls.

"We try to teach them the skills, which they, back at their villages, would use to make money. Moreover, the classes calm down the kids, they grow to be more concentrated and focused," a teacher, Natalia Filonova, told us.

Erica, a girl of 11, sews together fragments of a Chukotka ball very carefully. This souvenir is very popular with tourists. The girl explains to us that such balls are symbols of the Sun. Usually the locals make them of seal and deer skin.

"When you throw the ball to another person, you send your warmth and kindness, and the tiny stones rolling inside drive off the evil," the girl told us.

"Our task is to provide for children's all-around development, including physical aspect. Thus all our kids ski and skate, boys go in for boxing, football and tennis and girls love dancing classes," the principal says. "For the summer months, we plan participation in all local competitions, and we win them often. A child must see strong people around. You can sit by them day and night, drying up their tears, or you may prefer to get up and be working. <...> Children come here for a limited time, and we use this time to schedule the adaptation process, to begin the rehabilitation, to assist. All timetables are tight. When a teacher asks my permission to delay a lesson by 15 minutes, I never agree. The children live according to the schedule. The discipline is top priority for them."

To be like Lionel Messi

Very few children stay at the center long. Oleg of 13 years of age has remained here for a fifth year. Prior to getting to the center, Oleg and his younger brothers would be taken from the family and then returned. The mother would give up drinking, but then drink again. Consequently, Oleg stayed at the center permanently.

"I am 13," he told us after a class in boxing. "I came here five years ago. I lived in Bilibino. Mom drank, then she gave up, then took to it again. She divorced. Then, my two younger brothers were taken to a foster family, and I remained at the orphanage. Mom never came to see me. Dad and granny sometimes send money, they call me. Mom - never."

We asked the boy whether he wanted to return home. He hesitated. "I really can’t say. I can’t remember her voice now. I’ve got used to living here, I’ve got friends, teachers, the coach."

Kids’ memories are short. Oleg cannot remember how his parents were fighting. His main interest nowadays is sports. For the three recent years, he has been training in boxing and football. Not so long ago, he won regional competitions in boxing, finished a semester with high grades, and was awarded a trip to Moscow.

When speaking about football, Oleg says he wants to become a good player, like Messi. "I dream of meeting him," the boy said.

Only a year earlier coach Anatoly Lyubushkin began giving boxing classes. The children were happy. "They are great, they train with great responsibility. <...> They have grown to be more confident, focused and disciplined, while only recently they feared to utter a word. Many of them nowadays take prizes at the municipal and regional competitions," he said.

Baking and cooking

For kids, living outside families, everyday skills may be problematic: how to refill a cell phone account, where to buy a hat or a T-shirt, what happens if housing expenses are overdue. To say nothing about global tasks: to pick a profession, to make a family and to find a good job and true friends. The center’s teachers help kids to find the answers.

All children live in rooms, which are like flats having a separate bathroom, laundry and kitchenette. The center’s specialists not only make haircuts for the children, but also teach them how to make them. The boys and girls learn how to wash clothes, how to cook and even how to spend money reasonably. Every child receives 350 rubles ($5) of pocket money to their bank account.

Black-eyed Nastya is 11. She is very beautiful. The girl has been at the center for about a year. Her mother is a Chukchi and father is a Russian shift worker, whom she has seen only twice. The granny cared for the girl, as the mother used to get drunk. When the granny passed away, Nastya moved back to her mother, but very soon the authorities sent the girl to the rehab center.

Today, Nastya is cooking for the mates. She cuts bread and lays the table. She has cooked borshch together with the teacher. The second course is smashed potatoes, cutlets and a salad of Arctic cucumbers, which local farmers grow in greenhouses year-round.

"I can cook many dishes: soups, fried potatoes, pastries and meat dumplings. And last week we all together made an apple pie, and Dima was lucky to take the surprise piece with garlic," the girl laughs as she cleans the table.

Nastya wants to be a flight attendant, hoping to meet her dad one day. "My dream is to have mom quit drinking, so that I could return home," she said. "This is my dearest dream."

How to help Masha

Classes with children, suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is another focus of the center. The rehab center’s principal cannot say how many children with autism live in Chukotka, but the center’s groups for such kids are never idle.

Today, the center cares for four children with autism. A psychologist is talking to a girl of about 14. Masha looks like a typical teenager, though she understands mimics and gestures very little. She continues to suck fingers like a baby. She is kind and full of love, though sometimes she may laugh as she sees someone fall and cry, as she cannot understand the pain.

"Masha, like other kids with autism, was brought here by her parents, whom we teach how to speak with their children using the "same language." Parents should realize that autism is not the end, we want to have mom and dad keep families, as very often in such families parents get divorced," the principal said.

The center’s psychologist Zemfira Azamatova tells us about small, though huge achievements. "A girl from our center last year went to study at a regular school, and now she makes progress, though only recently her parents were about to leave the region and send her to a special school," she said, adding that the center's staff would no doubt be able to help Masha too.

Summer is a small life

Presently, the center organizes summer holidays for the children. This year, the pandemic has been a setback. But anyway, trips are 21 days long, and children normally travel with a few teachers and a nurse.

"We are waiting for the regions to re-open - the Moscow Region, Kazan, Kaliningrad - this is where our children normally travel," the principal said. "Meanwhile, we use the time here, as summer has come to Chukotka as well."