(CNN) -- Russia's policies on foreign adoptions made headlines when the government announced it would no longer allow Americans to adopt Russian children. But hidden away in Russian orphanages are thousands of children with disabilities who aren't orphans, whose harmful treatment has long been hidden from public view -- even from most Russians. When I visited a Russian orphanage last year as part of a human rights investigation, a volunteer led me to a crib where a boy under 3 feet tall, wearing a diaper, smiled at us. "This is Roman," she said. "He's 18 years old. He has Down syndrome." Roman reached for me to pick him up and I felt his protruding ribs. I could hardly believe he was 18. Yet the birthdates labeling the cribs of other equally frail and undersized children revealed that most were also teenagers with conditions including Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and blindness.
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Andrea Mazzarino: Many nonorphan kids with disabilities in Russian orphanages
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State orphanages are typically geographically isolated, she says
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Lack of attention, adequate nutrition make disabilities grow more pronounced, she says
And I met activists who shepherd prospective @placeholder foster and adoptive parents through bureaucratic red tape so they can take children home.