Maria Khadeeva, also known as Masha, was born in 1983 in Moscow, Russia.   

 

She graduated from school in 2000 with her diploma.  Shortly after, in 2002, her sister tragically died in an accident.  At that point, she took in her nephew to live with her.  She then went on to graduate from the State University of Management in 2006 with Distinction and a specialization in Entrepreneurship.  She began working for Citibank in 2005 and was a leader of the Volunteer Division. 

 

In 2008, she decided to leave her job at Citibank and went to work for Non-Governmental Organizations. In 2010, she became the co-founder of Livefund, the first NGO in Russia helping adults over the age of 18.  You can learn more at the website http://www.livefund.ru. In 2011, she partnered with Alexey Svakhin and started their own NGO named Rost, which is a charity working with orphans in foster families and orphanages, as well as orphans once they age out of the orphanage system in Russia.  They specialize in assisting children with online education, making integrative summer camps and supporting adult orphans in furthering their lives.  

 

In 2015, Maria became a foster mother herself and now has four foster children. In 2016, Maria partnered with Kim and Kim's work with Petrova's Promise as a common project supporting foster families who take care of orphans with physical and mental disabilities. 

 

Maria's hobbies include reading books, photography and traveling.  She has a dream of becoming a pilot and flying planes.  Of course, her biggest dream is that there would not be any more orphans in the world, or at least in Russia.