Moscow`s Orphanage No. 19 is a typical in that it houses very few children. A total of 130 children are under its care, but fewer than 20 live in the smart, welcoming building not far from the Baumanskaya metro station. The rest live with foster parents. The arrangement is unusual in a country that has more than 700,000 children living permanently in orphanages, more than any other country in the world. Orphanage No. 19`s foster family program is the model that adoption officials hope will transform hundreds of thousands of lives. Orphanage No. 19, which has arranged foster placements for more than 300 children over the past 10 years, is a pilot project that will hopefully lead to the creation of a new social welfare system, said Maria Ternovskaya, the head of the orphanage. "The first thing is that a child should be in a family and not in an orphanage," said Ternovskaya, stating a platitude that has yet to become a reality in Russia. "When they leave, they can`t cope with normal life because they have no models for family life." Many orphans end up leaving their own families, repeating the cycle. State statistics about orphans are beyond grim, with one in 10 committing suicide, one in three becoming homeless and one in three committing a crime at some point. Orphanage No. 19, however, offers a change that the Education and Science Ministry hopes to replicate nationwide. Similar pilot programs are in place in 29 regions. At the beginning of next year, the ministry, which oversees orphans, intends to send its latest draft of a bill that aims to replace the current system -- which keeps children in orphanages until their 18th birthday -- with a system that focuses on placing children in foster families, similar to what is practiced in the West. Fewer than 30,000 children are adopted each year at present. The planned change promises to save the government money, free up ill-used buildings, reduce foreign adoptions and, most importantly, help save thousands of children from the brutality and dim futures most face once they get out of orphanages. "I believe there is no other way. All the civilized world works by placement, only temporarily keeping the children [in state-run homes]," said Alla Dzugayeva, head of the Education and Science Ministry`s child legal and social protection department and one of the officials leading the call for reform. "It is in the interest of Russia. Otherwise, we only cripple the children." The new system aims to replicate the work of Orphanage No. 19, where 97 percent of children either return to their birth parents or are placed in foster homes. The remaining 3 percent are children with severe emotional or physical difficulties. The program was started up at Orphanage No. 19 in an effort to cope with the absence of a system to protect at-risk children -- most children are placed in orphanages because their parents are unable to care for them, often because of alcohol, drugs or just a lack of desire. Currently, the local municipal administration is responsible if a child needs to be taken into state care. In Moscow, for example, that responsibility falls to one of the city`s nine administrative districts. Better-off administrations have three staff members overseeing child welfare, while, by comparison, each administration in Britain has up to 500 trained workers, Ternovskaya said. To make up for the deficit, Orphanage No. 19 created its own social-service system involving four separate stages: identifying children in danger, removing them from their homes, accepting them into the orphanage and placing them in permanent homes. Fostering is usually temporary in the West but more likely to be permanent in Russia. "These are mostly children who have very little chance of returning [to their parents]," said Viktoria Mnatsakanyan, deputy director of the fostering service at the home. "Usually, it is forever for the children." The foster program differs from adoption because of the close control and training that the orphanage has over the process. Foster parents go through counseling and training, sign a contract with the orphanage and remain in regular contact afterward. The orphanage has a low breakdown rate of 5 to 10 percent, something that Ternovskaya attributes to the assistance offered to foster parents. She said 25 percent of foster placements eventually become adoptions. Only one in 20 families that contacts the orphanage ends up fostering a child. "Sometimes, they come with illusions about a small child with curls. It is not a toy. It is a child with feelings," Ternovskaya said. "Sometimes, the child has had very bad experiences and at an emotional level understands an awful lot." Ulyana Makalkina, 31, knew that she wanted to adopt from a young age and was even more convinced after a stay at an orphanage when she was 14. "It was a shock to see how they lived," Makalkina said. "You can`t live like that. ... I wanted to take them all home." After she married, she tried to adopt but found the bureaucratic obstacles too daunting. Turning to Orphanage No. 19, she quickly became a foster mother for Anzhelika, 9, and Klimenty, 7, whose homeless mother had given them up at an early age. Makalkina often goes to the orphanage to attend children`s parties and meetings between the children and their biological parents. She also has to turn over receipts and fill out forms showing how she spends the money she receives as a foster parent. The orphanage offers 3,000 rubles (about $105) per child per month. TheMoscowTimes