I. Youth Charity Nursing Service a project of the Moscow Committee of the Red Cross
An awards ceremony was held on June 25 by the Moscow Committee of the Red Cross (MKKK) for the best nurses in MKKK's youth charity nursing service. 20 out of 75 young women--students at medical institutes who have been working in the youth charity nursing service--received prizes.
The youth charity nursing service was established in October 1996 by MKKK and the Moscow Center for Labor and Full Employment of Youth "Perspective." The Moscow Red Cross needs 700 people to serve the needs of sick people who live alone, the elderly and the handicapped, but there are only 278 people currently employed. According to official statistics, the governmental social medical service covers only about 86 percent of those citizens who need such help.
Nowadays there are 236 needy Muscovites under the patronage of a group of young nurses. The nurses work both in the home and in the offices of medical-social assistance within the local committees of the Red Cross, providing pre-doctor's visit assistance.
The youth charity nursing service is expanding its sphere of activities to include work in clinics and hospitals. An agreement has already been concluded with Moscow clinical hospital No. 31.
Contact telephone numbers: (095) 201-4009 (Aleksei Dimitrievich Tyulyandin, chairman of the MKKK), (095) 310-7222 (Elena Vladimirovna Lokhvitskaya, center "Perspective")
II. Women's Projects Find Support
An international conference, "Woman in a Changing World," was organized on June 16 -17 by the international institute "Woman and Government," the Confederation of Working Women of Russia, and the St. Petersburg city government. Participants of the meeting discussed the position of women under the conditions of socio- economic reform, including such problems as: competitiveness and the full employment of women; adapting to new economic conditions; the economic, political, and social aspects of women's position within the government; female (family) entrepreneurship; and resources to support small enterprise.
The fourth exhibition of business projects "Women's Project ^�97" was held June 18-20 in the Anichkovii palace (St. Petersburg). The purpose was to show the achievements and possibilities of female and family entrepreneurship in Russia and to aid the expansion and establishment of business ties and the creation of partnerships with female entrepreneurs in Russia and foreign countries, to share experiences in creating new jobs, and to attract investors to finance business projects.
Over 100 projects of female-run businesses were presented, many of which have social value. One of the projects--the Center for Problems of Youth and Education "Planet"--offers judicial, psychological, and informational services for teenagers 14 - 18 years old. As a result of the exhibition, 22 female-run business projects received financial support.
Contact telephone: (812) 277-7564; 277-1145 (the international institute "Woman and Government")
III. Residents of Novorossissk Unite Against the Caspian Pipeline Consortium
On June 22 in Novorossiisk residents of the city and representatives from local villages and settlements held a city- wide conference to organize a people's association for the ecological protection of the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar region.
The reason for establishing the association was to unite efforts to solve the ecological problems of the Black Sea coast. The association's first project will be to unite people against the project of the Caspian pipeline consortium, which is planning to lay an oil pipeline through the territory of a local game reserve and the village of Yuzhnaya Ozereika.
The initiative for forming the association came from the committee for self-government of the village of Yuzhnaya Ozereika, which had received support of all the "green" groups in Novorossiisk and surrounding areas. The non-governmental organization "Greens," the film studio "Akvatoriya," the Yuzhnaya Ozereika committee for self-government, the residents of local villages and settlements, as well as prominent scholars and representatives of the Novorossiisk public joined the association.
At the conference members of the association's council were elected. Also a decision was made to conduct a wide-reaching campaign in the local mass media to spread accurate information about the Caspian pipeline consortium project and the feelings of the community on this issue.
Telephone number: (8612) 50-8461 (Svetlana Rubashkina).
IV. The Commercial Firm "Light of Fortune" Finds Work For Graduates of Children's Homes
The founder of the commercial firm "Light of Fortune," Sergei Yakovlev, worked for over 20 years as a teacher of history and an educator in boarding school No. 3 for orphans and those without parental care. Quite often the wards of children's homes cannot find well-paying jobs. But at "Light of Fortune," which sells goods to passengers at Kazan station, the children earn one hundred thousand (rubles) a day. The firm has found jobs for 20 graduates of the school in the past three years.
The supervisor of the station Sultan Yakubov helps the firm anyway he can. At the station, repairs have been underway for three years and many places of business have been closed. But for the firm "Light of Fortune" a pavilion and a store were built on the platform. Soon they will be able to organize several more positions for kids from children's homes. ""Light of Fortune" is one of several commercial firms which think not only about their pocketbook, but also fulfill their social duty," says S. Yakubov.
Contact telephone: (095) 266-0095 (Sergei Aleksandrovich Yakovlev).
V. Fifth Annual Conference of Committee of Soldiers' Mothers Held in Moscow
Representatives of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers from 45 regions of Russia took part in the fifth annual conference of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia in Moscow on June 21-22. The conference was dedicated to developing a strategy of action to protect rights through the year 2000. Among the topics discussed were: military legislation; methods of protecting the rights of people of pre-draft and draft age; how to address individual complaints; and issues arising from the Chechen war.
Of special interest was the fact that representatives of the President's Commission on the Investigation of Prisoners of War and MIAs spoke at the conference. M. Feulova, a member of the coordinating council of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia and a member of the President's Commission, noted, that "the members of the commission work conscientiously, they do all that is possible for the return of prisoners and to aid the investigation and exhumation of those Russians killed in Chechnya." Thanks to the assistance of the commission, the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia has obtained observance of legal norms regarding the treatment of former prisoners of war. Not one soldier who has turned to the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers has been sent back to their (army) unit or condemned.
The representative in Russia of the Chechen Republic State committee, V. Tekilov, asked the mothers to present information on the location of Russian prisoners of war. He said that the Chechen side at the present time is working on the problem of resuming the repatriation of Russian prisoners of war not with the government of the Russian Federation, but directly with the mothers, as it was during the war.
VI. A New Organization is Established in Nizhny Novgorod to Fight AIDS
On June 24 the Nizhny Novgorod city administrative offices hosted a presentation by the non-governmental charitable foundation "anti-AIDS" and the journal "Man and Health." The founder of the Foundation and one of the sponsors of the journal--the commercial firm "Nizhpharm"--has been involved with philanthropy for a number of years. The chairman of the board of directors, Andrei Mladentsev, has more than once supported various medical programs as well as countless measures and activities of non-governmental organizations. The goal of the foundation is to establish an extra-budgetary source of financing for the prevention of AIDS on this region, which has the fourth largest number of cases of HIV infection in Russia.
The foundation already has its own page on the Internet: http://www.bis-nn.ru/.
Telephone number for information: (8312) 36-41-35.
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