During the summer of 2007, Jo Wooster, a physiotherapist from the West Middlesex Hospital in London volunteered to work for ThePromise for four months. We are incredibly grateful to her for donating her time in this way, and she has made a huge impact on the lives of the children we work with. They were in desperate need of physiotherapy and Jo shared her knowledge by working directly with the children and also with our Portage workers and the other care staff.

At the start of her stay she said "Having worked in Yelatma for a little over a week, I can't believe my own eyes seeing the progress some of them have made already! I have been working with 28 of the 30 bedbound children in the orphanage and in that time the change in their interaction, interest in toys and attempts to move are fantastic. Walking into the dormitory and seeing Alyosha, for example, on his tummy for the first time, having rolled there himself, made me grateful I had the stand-by tissues I have learnt to carry with me! Imagine what her may be doing in 2 months time!

Hello. My name is Olga, and I am the Senior Portage Worker in Ryazan Baby Home. We now have 10 part time Portage workers working with all the children with disabilities in the baby home. These children have many different disabilities including foetal alcohol syndrome, cerebral palsy and Downs Syndrome.

Katya, has really benefited from her Portage sessions. She is 1 year 7 months old and she has foetal alcohol syndrome. Before receiving Portage she had difficulty picking up and playing with toys, but after only two months Katya now reaches out for me, feeds herself with her fingers and laughs, chuckles and squeals aloud in play. She is a very clever little girl.

I also work with Sergei, who is 1 year old and has Downs Syndrome. He started Portage sessions at 7 months old, when he would just watch me and smile. Now he can reach and hold his bottle, roll over, and remove toys from a container. He is now learning how to say his first words and sit up. The younger we can start working with these children the better - and Sergei is a good example of this.

Hi. My name is Nina, and I am the Senior Portage Worker for the community project in Ryazan. We work with mothers who have decided to keep their disabled children at home with them rather than send them to an orphanage, despite the lack of support that they receive. There are 7 part time community Portage workers now, and we look after 15 families, helping them to help their children.

Lera is a very active girl aged 5 and very sociable. She needs to go to school soon, but the principal of the local school, hearing "invalid" (this is the official title for disabled children in Russia), is wary of taking her on board, saying that Lera would not be able to learn her letters and numbers. What he didn't understand is that with Portage you never know until you try! The result is that now she can do all these things, and many more, having had help from me and her mother and her grandfather. What I would dearly like in future is to go with her to "preparation" group classes and work together with teachers there, so that Lera can continue to feel my support.

My name is Maria, and I am the Senior Portage Worker in the orphanage at Yelatma. We look after children from the age of 4 to 18, all of whom are disabled. There are 3 Portage workers here, and at the moment we are only working with nine children. Since we have started Portage with the children, we have noticed many changes, and not just to the lucky few who we work with.

Now it is the summer here, children who are able to do so walk outside, and are beginning to live as children usually do. This photo shows me and Ksenya, who is 6 years old. She has been learning to drink from a cup, to feed and to dress herself. She can even pull her shoes off with help, and open her arms to say she is 'this big'! She can also now walk with minimum aid. It is wonderful to see her learning these independence skills. We look forward to being able to offer Portage to all the children in Yelatma one day.