To Russia With Love: Changing the Lives of Abandoned Children

This is the incredible story of one woman's quest to improve the lives of abandoned Russian children and people who helped her do it.

In the summer of 1996, Debbie Deegan and her family took in two small Russian orphan girls for a month, as part of a programme to give underprivileged children a holiday. What started out as a charitable gesture, soon turned into a vocation. Not only did the family adopt one of the orphans, Zina, but when Debbie travelled to Russia to see where her new daughter had come from, the conditions there moved her to set up the To Russia with Love charity in 1998. Fourteen years later, Debbie and her team of dedicated helpers have transformed the lives of over 5,000 Russian orphans. In To Russia with Love Debbie, with Emily Hourican, tells her incredible story.