A trip to Beslan

In early April, Maria’s Children made a traditional trip to Beslan. While traveling in North Ossetia this year we discovered many new places and found new friends

Patch Adams, medical doctor and clown, joined the team of volunteers to visit Beslan himself for the first time. He instantly won the love and devotion of Ossetian children.

The dense program included trips to the orphanages and rehabilitation centers of the Republic. On the first day, the clowns went to the Center for the Correction of Motor Disorders “Ir” where children with infantile cerebral paralysis receive treatment.

Next, we went to Mozdok to visit the children who had come previously to our summer camp at Sorochani. The trip took us more than two hours, but when we finally arrived at our old friends’ place we realized that the long journey was worth it. We had a very cordial reception at Mozdok. We sang and danced with the children. We did not want to leave at all.

On the second day, we visited the Specialized Republican Childcare Center where the youngest children in Ossetiya live.

Then our team went to the local market, 

where Patch Adams and volunteer clowns made a striking impression on local residents.

Right after the market, Maria’s Children went to Nadezhda Orphanage in Dur-Dur village. 

Our hosts waited for us there and staged a short performance for us. After that, we played together in the open air for a while.

Following a very busy day, our team bathed in the thermal spas of North Ossetia – at the bottom of the snow-capped mountains there is fairytale-like place, a hot-water pool accessible at any time of the year.

The next day we went to School 1 in Beslan.

We held plenty of master classes over the next three days including ceramics, origami, mote pad making, portrait painting based on photos, collective painting, clown improvisation and team-building games.

The entire school has lived inside a fairytale for a long three days.

Patch and Justin (the latter visited Beslan for the second year running) discussed the value of true feelings and human relations between people with the school pupils. Patch told the children about his vision of the world where there is no place for smartphones and messengers – an unimaginable situation for modern children. The children were touched by the kind-hearted manner in which the master class was delivered, and decided to write letters on paper for the first time in their lives!

Meanwhile, a team of painters jointly with the children took up their brushes and paints and decided to paint pictures not just on the wall, but on the entire vestibule.

This is how a real jungle and exotic animals appeared in the school.

The tree-day madness in the school ended with a memorable gala performance during which the children demonstrated everything they had studied during the masterclasses.

Every day, after the masterclasses were over, we went to orphanages. During our stay in Beslan we visited six childcare institutions (four of them for the first time).

Laska (Tenderness), the Republican Boarding School for Special Needs Children, was a discovery for us. We found many new friends there.

As part of the tradition, we visited Khury Tyn orphanage at the end of our program. We go there every year after the farewell gala performance in the Beslan school.

We would like to thank Pobeda Air Company for the discounts. We thank all our friends in Ossetia who helped us to organize this trip and arrange our high-level reception.