In cases
where several children of a family are taken they are placed in the
same home. Frequent opportunities for relatives to visit the homes are
provided. The amount of sickness has been surprisingly low considering
the great amount of disease in Petrograd during the last few months.
In one group of 300 children there have been no deaths within the past
nine months, and among all the children there have been very few cases
of contagious diseases.
The difficulties which Madame Lelina faces are numerous. First, Russia
has never had an adequate number of trained workers and many of those
who were trained have refused to cooperate with the present regime,
and, secondly, though the Soviet Government has adopted the policy of
turning over to the children's homes and the schools an adequate
supply of food, regardless of the suffering of the adult population,
still it has been impossible to get certain items of diet, as, for
instance, milk. It is true, however, that among these children one
sees few signs of undernourishment or famine, and in general
throughout the city the children seem much better nourished than the
adult population.
I had planned to visit other institutions but was unable to do so. I
was told of a large palace which has been taken over as a home for
mothers. Here all women who so desire are sent after childbirth with
their children for a period of two months.
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