New Perspectives - новые перспективы Venue: St. Petersburg Activity Duration: 12 months; 01/02/2015 – 31/01/2016 Hosting Organisation: Perpektivy (Russia), Sending/ Coordinating Organisation: Grenzenlos (Austria) Involved Volunteer: Marija Rastoka (Austria) Within this EVS the main themes are Disability and Inclusion. Perspektivy is working with handicapped children, orphans and mentally disabled children. The volunteer involved will of course be strongly committed to the work in the institutions but also have time to get to know the people and culture of the hosting country. A special attention will be directed to the learning outcomes of the participant. Tools, methodologies and resources will be provided during the whole project period, especially concerning the following points: learning to learn, social and civic competences, entrepreneurship and initiative-taking, and cultural self-awareness. Charity PERSPEKTIVY works with multiply disabled children and youths, trying to make their lives ones that a human being deserves. The majority of severely disabled children in Russia live in state Orphanages under the guardianship of the State Social System (and not the Educational System). This means that being educated is considered an ancillary service for many of them – and those who are classified as “unable to study” are provided no education, and later no occupation at all. Children that are born with severe disabilities and abandoned by their mothers land in Orphanages and live there until their 18th birthday. At the age of 18 the children are moved to the state run Psychoneurological Residential Home. Our Charity PERSPEKTIVY also helps the families of disabled children, encouraging them to keep them at home rather than putting them into the state system in the first place. This project aimed to strenghten the exchange with Eastern European Countries, in the actual case with the Russian Federation. The EVS volunteer involved in the activities gave on one hand recognition to people with disabilities and gave an extra helping hand. She had time to get to know the people and the culture of the hosting country.A special attention was directed to the learning outcomes of Marija Rastoka. Tools, methodologies and resources were provided during the whole project period, especially concerning the following points: learning to learn, social and civic competences, entrepreneurship and initiative-taking, and cultural self-awareness. The project was part of the MELANGE program, the EVS programme in Vienna strongly supported by the city of Vienna/wienXtra where Grenzenlos set up networks for volunteers and international partners and host partners and volunteers receive special support before during and after their EVS.