I. The Achilles Track Club of St. Petersburg
II.A Seminar on AIDS for School Children in Nizhnii Novgorod
III. Conference of Human Rights Advocates in Ekaterinburg
IV. Novosibirisk--The "Sib-Novo-Center" Conducts Seminars on Social Security
V. On December 19 Moscow Kazakhs Mark the Fifth Anniversary of the Independence of Kazakhstan
VI. An Invitation to the Seminars of the Center "Gera"
I. The Achilles Track Club of St. Petersburg
In 1983 Richard Traum, a supporter of people with disabilities and a member of the board of directors of the New York Marathon, founded the Achilles Track Club for athletes with disabilities. The club subsequently became an international movement. Branches of the Achilles Track Club were opened in Poland, Mongolia and France. In 1989 a similar club was founded in Russia. It has affiliates in Ekaterinburg, Tiumen, Irkutsk, Samara, Yoshkar-Ola, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. Thanks to the club's sponsors Telenor, Czech Airlines, Coca-Cola Bottlers of St. Petersburg, and Reebok, a combined Russian team participated in a ski competition in Norway in 1995 and 1996, in the New York Marathon, and the Boston Marathon.
The St. Petersburg chapter of the Achilles Track Club, or simply Club Achilles, brings together people with visual disabilities and their supporters, who participate in track and field, skiing, and biathlon. The club's motto is: "To a healthy way of life through sport." The club's activities include work with children and both beginning and professional athletes.
Sighted trainers and guides assist the visually impaired athletes with their training and accompany them on the track, guiding them through turns and up and down steps. When people are skiing, these guides use special ropes or guide by touching. The rest of the time the visually impaired athletes move on their own. In shooting competitions the target is identified by a sound that comes through headphones that fix on an infrared light coming from the target. The sound gets louder as the shooter's aim becomes more accurate.
The club invites all who desire to give a new activity a try.
Contact telephone: (812) 230-5409 (Mikhail Viktorovich Gorbunov, Director)
II. A Seminar on AIDS for School Children in Nizhnii Novgorod
The seminar, organized by the Nizhnii Novgorod women's charitable organization "A Future Without AIDS," with the cooperation of the social organization for youth "Falcon," was timed to coincide with World AIDS Day. Students from the senior classes of the general education schools in the Moskovskii and Sormovskii regions of Nizhnii Novgorod and their teachers were invited to participate.
According to specialists from A Future Without AIDS and the Nizhnii Novgorod AIDS Prevention Center, we cannot avoid taking action such as distributing disinfectants. After all, at the present time there are 167 registered cases of HIV infection, but, the specialists believe, there are around 2,000 undeclared cases. Most of those infected are young people, and the main cause of infection is contaminated needles use for illegal drugs.
The teachers at the meeting complained of the lack of information, particularly the lack of television programs on the risk of AIDS. "We are doing what we can" was the usual answer of Elena Kopnina of A Future Without AIDS and of Igor Lapshink, the director of the organization, Sokol. At the same time, together they can do a good deal. In addition to distributing leaflets and publicizing the confidential phone line of the oblast AIDS center, these social agencies, as a result of their first meetings with the city schools, made a videotape and have assembled materials for the creation of a video lecture on AIDS. "We want to distribute copies of the video to the schools," says Igor Lapshin. He has successfully drawn attention to the video lecture not only of those who teach the principles of a safe life�and school directors but of the children themselves, many of whom attend instruction on survival and first aid organized by Falcon.
"Children like it when people speak to them in language they can understand," says the director of Nizhnii Novgorod School No. 117, Irina Tarasova. "Recently the number of deserted children has steadily increased. Organizations like Falcon offer us qualified specialists, organize useful lessons, and help, if only in part, to solve the problems of educating our children."
Contact telephones: (8312) 29-31-55 (Igor Aleksandrovich Lapshin); 33-37-46, 38-88-40 (Elena Olegovna Kopnina)
III. Conference of Human Rights Advocates in Ekaterinburg
On November 30 representatives of 24 human rights organizations from several cities of Sverdlovsk oblast met at a conference to discuss the contemporary status of human rights activity and to decide a series of organizational questions. The conference was put on by the Inter-Regional Human Rights Center with support from the Center for Democracy and Human Rights, the rights advocacy and information center "Infokom," and "Open Society." One of the most important issues the participants discussed concerned the pending formation of a Governor's commission on human rights in Sverdlovsk oblast.
The conference adopted a position statement "On the Oblast Human Rights Commission" and nominated 12 candidates for membership on it. Vladimir Andreevich Shaklein was chosen as chairman of the oblast Coordinating Council of Human Rights Organizations.
Contact telephones: (3432) 65-1147; 59-8864 (Fridays)
IV. Novosibirisk--The "Sib-Novo-Center" Conducts Seminars on Social Security
As part of its program "Cooperation with State Institutions and the Administration" the Sib-Novo-Center conducts a series of seminars with the participation of staff from the regional administration of the City of Novosibirsk who deal with the social security of the population. At one of these meetings the idea arose of creating a social organization (association) of social workers. There is reason for social workers to unite. Such organizations have already been created in many Russian cities, and in other countries they have existed and worked successfully for many years. In Tomsk, for example there is the Association of City Social Organizations for common work and the coordination of the activities of noncommercial organizations.
Contact telephone: (3832) 20-7100
V. On December 19 Moscow Kazakhs Mark the
Fifth Anniversary of the Independence of Kazakhstan
The Committee on Social and Inter-regional Relations of the City of Moscow and the foundation "Kazakh Diaspora" will put on a scientific and practical conference on the topic "Kazakhstan: Independence and Eurasian Unity as the Spiritual and Moral Foundation for Eurasian Peoples."
The conference proposes to discuss a series of issues, including: historical and cultural ties between Russia and Kazakhstan, the history of the Kazakh national state, Kazakhstan and the deportation of peoples, etc.
Representatives of the government of Moscow, of Russian and Kazakh national social organizations, people from the worlds of science and culture, and representatives of the Kazakh diaspora in the US and Europe have been invited to the conference.
The conference begins at 10:00 a.m.
It will take place in the Small Hall of the city hall at: Novyi Arbat, d. 36.
Contact telephones: 235-6311, 235-6312
VI. An Invitation to the Seminars of the Center "Gera"
The center "Gera," a regional noncommercial organization that works in the area of sexual and reproductive health invites youth, students, physicians, teachers, psychologists, social workers, representatives of crisis and rehabilitation centers, the staff of other social organizations, and volunteers to its educational seminars.
The topics include:
Contact telephone for Gera: (095) 246-4719; fax: 246-5469
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