I. The Humanitarian Charity Center "Sympathy" Provides Assistance to Children Suffering from Armed Conflicts

The humanitarian charity center "Sympathy" was established in 1992 as a nongovernmental social organization to provide medical, social, and psychological assistance to victims of political repression, to the lonely, elderly people who survived the horrors of the Stalinist camps.

This work actually began much earlier with cooperation between physicians and psychologists and Moscow Memorial. In 1992 under the leadership of the physician Eduard Kariukhin the program "Help at Home" was created. In 1993, after a trip to Nagornyi Karabakh [an area in the Caucasus that had been the scene of fierce fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Trans.] the physician and rehabilitationist Marina Berkovskaia of Sympathy decided to create a program of psychological assistance to children from areas of armed conflict. Marina together with a small group of psychotherapists went to Nagornyi Karabakh, Georgia, Abkhazia, Dagestan, and Ingushetia [all areas of the former Soviet Union that had experienced civil war. Trans.] and worked with the local populations. Thus the program "Children of War and the 21st Century" was born.

From the beginning of widespread military activity in Chechnya a group of psychotherapists from Sympathy has worked in [various towns in Chechnya]. Around 800 children and adults who had survived bombings and shootings were examined. Many of them had experienced the death of loved ones, had seen the destruction of their own homes, and had witnessed scenes of violence and killing. The work of the doctors showed that nearly the entire civilian population in the Chechen war zone suffers from stress disorders from the war. Such symptoms as insomnia, nightmares, apathy, depression, irritability, and aggressiveness were observed in children and adults. Children's cognitive abilities were diminished.

"In Chechnya an entire generation of children crippled by the war is growing up," says Marina Berkovskaia. "The less time that has passed since the beginning of the conflict, the easier it is to treat the psychological trauma. Without prompt psychological and social rehabilitation these children will grow up unhealthy both physically and psychologically. They will be unable to adapt to life under peacetime conditions. They will constantly look for enemies in order to take revenge. The seeds of future conflicts are already ripening in their souls, and it is important to do everything possible to prevent those future conflicts."

Marina Berkovskaia has been traveling to Groznyi [the capital of Chechnya. Trans.] continually since May, 1996. A psychology clinic is being created there at Children's Hospital No. 3 for residents of Chechnya who need psychological help. The task of the staff of the program "Children of War and the 21st Century" is to teach local doctors and teachers, who then will provide medical aid to local residents. At this time in Moscow at the Psychotherapy Institute the pediatrician Zainap Kurbanova is conducting a course. The activity of the Russians is financed by the international social organizations "Peace and Hope" and "Feed the Children." The Chechen Minister of Public Health Unar Khanbiev gives the Russian doctors moral support. Nonetheless, financial difficulties are being felt in the treatment and rehabilitation of sick and wounded Chechens. Thus, at the present time 6 Chechen youth with fully amputated extremities are at Hospital No. 79 in Moscow for treatment, but there isn't enough money for prosthetics for them.

In the four years of their work Marina Berkovskaia and her psychotherapist colleagues have traveled into areas of armed conflict in the territory of the former USSR 15 times. They have been able to provide psychological assistance to almost 2,000 people, including orphans from children's homes and even to military personnel participating directly in the conflicts. The severe psychological condition of the civilian population of Chechnya is aggravated by the extremely unfavorable political and economic situation: devastation, the lack of wage payments, unemployment, the high level of crime, alcoholism, and drug addiction. Yet the Russian physicians have never felt any hostility from the Chechens. Chechen mothers have entrusted their children to them.

"Medicine and motherhood have no borders," Marina says. "But we should leave behind us qualified specialists from among the local physicians, so that those who survived the conflict can have more trust in them.

Telephone: 240-1828 (Marina Berkovskaia)

II. Rostov-On-Don -- Russian and Ukrainian Ecologists Discuss Problems of the Sea of Azov Basin

On May 19-21 aboard the steamer "Don" an international environmental conference titled "Azov information and Ecology Circle" took place on the initiative of the association of social organizations "Ros-Iug" [Rus-South]. The meeting of Ukrainian and Russian environmentalists was organized by the association of social organizations Ros-Iug of Rostov Upon Don with financial support from ISAR/USAID as part of their "Conferences" program. More than 50 ecologists from Donstsk, Mariupol, Kerch, Krasnodar, Rostov, Taganrog, Novocherkassk, Novorossiisk, Tsimliansk, Eisk, and Moscow took part.

The conference developed a plan of concrete measures for overcoming the environmental crisis in the Sea of Azov. In particular, it was decided to introduce an on-going exchange of information between Russian and Ukrainian ecologists and to begin the publication through Ros-Iug of a bulletin on the problems of the Sea of Azov and the Azov Basin.

In order to increase the role of social organizations in resolving the problems of the Sea of Azov it was acknowledged as necessary to include representatives of social organizations in the intergovernmental oversight council that has the right to control the expenditure of public resources, private funds, and ecological credits as well as to attract social organizations of South Russia and the Ukraine to the development of intergovernmental agreements and programs for the Azov Basin.

Telephone: (8632) 668-597. E mail: [email protected].

III. The Russian-American St. Seraphim Orthodox Brotherhood Aids the Homeless

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays beginning at 1:00 p.m. the people of the Brotherhood distribute hot meals, clothing, and shoes for the homeless. The distribution takes place at ul. Novobasmannaia, d. 11, the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (access from the Metro station Krasnyi vorota, then on foot one block or on Trolley No. 24 to the Sad Baumana stop).

The Brotherhood plans soon to begin the publication of newspapers and to organize a summer camp for the children of poor families and orphans. The Brotherhood appeals [for assistance] to all who are able to help the needy.

Telephone: 261-6654

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