The Future of Russia Foundation has worked for the past seven years with the World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Reproductive Health (WHO/CC/RH) of Atlanta and Russia health care professionals on the Balashikha Project, a public-private partnership just outside Moscow that has become a model for delivering modern, sustainable maternal and infant health care. Created in August 2001 by Tom and Ann Murray of Sandusky, Ohio, the foundation addresses Russia’s high maternal and infant mortality rate that, combined with other factors since the Soviet Union’s break-up, had put the country at risk of losing 1/3 of its population by 2050. Tom Murray’s enduring interest in the Russians inspired him to create the not-for-profit and name longtime friend and fellow attorney John Straub as President and CEO.  Here Straub discussed the foundation’s mission and success.  Its birth can be traced to Murray’s asking a Russian friend post-Glasnost how Americans could help Russia achieve a genuinely democratic society. The reply: “Help us help our children survive.  They are the future of Russia.”