The village of Sedelnikovo, where a German teenage exile has temporarily settled, stretches along the taiga river Uy, in the forest wilderness 300 kilometers north of Omsk. According to Stefan Becker, an employee of the child and adolescent guardianship office, officials tried to find the most inconspicuous place for the teenager's re-education, one without access to the Internet or satellite television. To keep warm, the 16-year-old has to chop wood himself. The toilet is, of course, outdoors.
How did the Germans come up with the idea of re-educating difficult teenagers in Siberia? It turns out that ten years ago, German scouts together with local schoolchildren traveled on rafts along the Uy and Irtysh rivers. It was then that the leader of the group of young tourists from Germany, Frank Krener, came up with the idea of creating a project 'Pedagogy of Empathy in Siberia' — re-educating teenagers in remote Russian villages.
As reported by Omsk news, he approached the administration of the Sedelnikovo district and the heads of the social service of the Bavarian city of Schweinfurt with this project. Social worker Frank Krener was supported both in Siberia and in Germany. And in March 1998, a joint German-Russian project for the re-education of difficult German teenagers was launched. Of course, such children do not come to distant Siberia for re-education alone, but accompanied by a guardian - a social educator. Otherwise, as Russian teachers say, 'anything can be expected from these guys from Germany.'
Over ten years, dozens of German problem teenagers have undergone the rehabilitation course in Sedelnikovo. But it is not always possible to re-educate German teenagers in the Russian hinterland. For example, a boy was brought to Sedelnikovo who was supposed to be placed in a special institution in Germany for more than a hundred car and motorcycle thefts. For two weeks the teenager behaved modestly, managed to make friends among the village children. But then he quickly found common ground with local hooligans. And one evening, when 'there was nothing to do,' the guys stole the chairman of the village council's Volga.
By the way, German teenagers are sent for re-education not only to Russia, but also to Kyrgyzstan, Greece, Norway, Spain, Italy, and other countries. However, according to German educators, they achieve the best results precisely in Siberia - more than 70% of teenagers who return from the Russian hinterland no longer come to the attention of the police.
In the Siberian wilderness, these guys saw live horses and cows for the first time in their lives, learned to care for chickens and ducks, heat a stove, and cultivate the land.