About Me
Andrey just arrived back from his THIRD visit with Sylvia and brought back new pictures of course and also relased some old ones he never showed the public. He has a way of captivating so many emotions all at once. Also in his most recent photo's he shows another little girl. Alcellia is 9 years old and she too like Sylvia once was, is an orphan without a family. He didn't have enough time to help find her one but promises to find time this summer to go back. Alcellia was once one of 4 children. Her little sister who was only 2 years old passed away in early November from lack of food intake and complications. Her family didnt have enough money to keep the medicine she needed in supply. After her sister died her parents quite working, the only thing keeping the family together. And then one afternoon they never returned. The 3 older children wen't to live with a relative and were found there in early January. Alcellia and her brothers need help. They need counciling and they need schooling. At the orphanage they are at they are getting very little of that. The tramatic stories she told Andrey were something a child might hear in a scary story or in a terror movie. He took these gripping accounts and with the beauty of Alcellia mixed with the horror she wen't through along with degital remodeling he has once again captured so many emotions from one small child. We need a change for these children!
WE NEED TO BRING JUSTICE TO THE RUSSIAN ORPHANS. THEY NEED FAMILES AND LOVE JUST LIKE ANY CHILD DOES. THEY NEED THEIR CHILDHOODS!
PRAY FOR JUSTICE
www.myspace.com/sylviasilence
DO NOT TAKE THESE PICTURES WITHOUT PERMISSION. THEY ARE COPYRIGHED
Millions of innocent children worldwide are alone. They've been abandoned, orphaned or separated from their parents due to poverty, disaster, war, and disease, including AIDS. More than 100 million of these children struggle to survive on the streets.
These precious boys and girls struggle daily for food and a place to sleep, vulnerable to hunger, cold, and worst of all, adult predators. They're alone, with no adults in their lives who offer them protection.
THE FIRST STEP TO HELPING THEM IS TO READ ONE OF THERE STORIES, HERES ONE AMAZING ONE....
Sylvia, a smart witty little child lived her first 3 years of her life happy, healthy, and educated. Even though her parents did not have as much money as they wanted they still had enough to support there 3 person family. Slyvia (Via for short) was doing great and growing up strong just like her papa.
Being a poor Russian family not able to get to the states was hard and the work was demanding but somehow they got through, up until right ater Via's 4th birthday. Not able to work as much as he wanted, Via's dad got angry. He didn't come home from Via and her mother some nights and often forgot to bring food home. People who lived around the family said there house seemed empty at all times.
Six months wen't by and a lady down the street noted that she hadnt seen activty in the house for a while so on her own she went and rang the doorbell. No one came. She rang again. Nothing. She then opened the door. The sight of the inside of the house was "horrific" the lady discribed. She looked around for anyone living inside of the slum like home but found no one. She made her way to the back bedroom and then saw her. Sylvia was sitting in the corner alone hugging her doll. The lady asked her where her parents were but she did not know. She was skinny, dirty and not looking stable at all. She asked if she had gone to school that day and she looked confused. The good days were over.
After she was found abandoned in her home she was moved to a nearby orfanage that took in almost any child off of the street. Because of the poor area sadly, lots of parents dropped off children or simply got up and left. For 3 years Sylvia stayed there, and for 3 years she would not talk or communicate with anyone.
As the years went by and Sylvia was forced to stay in the place she was forced to call home although her body got older her mind slipped and slipped causing her to get younger mentally. She was dying inside. Besides her morning, afternoon and nightly meal she ate nothing else. Funds for food and clothing were low because of the high demand of children. Younger children got more attention leaving the older kids to rarely get communication with any of the workers and staff.
Then the day came that would change her life forever. An american photographer was in from out of the states to take photos for his new portfolio. He had been traveling around taking pictures of orfans, the poor, and the people of the area. When he saw the little girl sitting in the corner alone, he was moved. He asked her if she would help him out. She didnt talk. But he was determined. He saw something in Sylvia and he was going to get it out.
For a week he came in to talk to this little girl, who wouldnt talk back, then one day she did. Sylvia said she was scared and alone. And thats all it took. He wen't back to the hotel he was staying at and told everyone in his group about this child, this girl who had something that he was moved by but he didn't know what. They contacted the orphanage and told them that they wanted the next family who came in to look at her, she needed a home. No one came in for her. 3 weeks had now passed and the man and Syliva got closer. He got permission from the staff to take her out for a photoshoot at the nearby temporary place they were staying. He took her stories from living in the orphanage and made them come to life.
When the rest of his group went back, Andrey stayed. He stayed with Sylvia and helped her story to come out. This 9 year old girl was reaching out for a family and reaching out for love and this stranger from another world was there to help her..he did not know who she was but he knew her in his heart.
7 months after he tried to get her a new family one came. Amazingly the family that chose her fit just what she had talked about wanting. A mother, father and younger brother.
Andreys photo's of Sylvia have moved thousands and with them he has hoped to reach out to many more about poverty, abuse and the unfair treatment of children who live as orphans in certain parts of Russia and other rural poor countries around the world. If Sylvia had been in the US she would have been taken in and would have found a home very quickly, she would have also gotton the proper ammount of medical care. Where she was living, she got very very little.
Today she is a happy, bright, and motivated 12 year old girl. From what she has become, you would never know the horror she wen't through as a young child. To this day they still don't know everything her parents did to her up to the event of them leaving her..but scars on her back and face help to tell the story of one little lost soul who made it, with the help of a simple stranger. A stranger who helped save a life of a little girl in need. A little girl who refused to talk for 3 years is now talking out about her story..because of one man, one stranger.
((BEHIND HER IS HER OLD HOUSE SHE ONCE LIVED IN, NOW HALF GONE))
UPDATE
Andrey just arrived back from his THIRD visit with Sylvia and brought back new pictures of course. He has a way of captivating so many emotions all at once. Also in his most recent photo's he shows another little girl. Alcellia is 9 years old and she too like Sylvia is an orphan without a family. He didn't have enough time to help find her one but promises to find time this summer to go back.
