I. Social Organizations Suffer from the Arbitrariness of Moscow Customs Officials

On January 3 humanitarian aid arrived in Russia from the German farmers' organization Christian Solidarity Gemering [Khristianskaia solidarnost' Gemering. German name uncertain]. The food products and clothing the farmers had collected were intended for the Moscow charitable organization "Charitable Mission of Russia" [Russkaia blagotvoritel�naia missiia], which was going to distribute them to pensioners, people with disabilities and families with numerous children of the municipal district Khamovniki.

The National Foundation [Narodnyi fond] took responsibility for the registration and acceptance of the humanitarian goods. But a whole month has passed, and the goods that have arrived (several tons of dried potato puree, macaroni products, cheese and other food stuffs as well as clothes and wheelchairs) still remain in the warehouse.

National Foundation staff member Elena Egorova and the director of Charitable Mission of Russia Tat'iana Latysheva have endured a real parade of horrors: the Central Customs Administration of Moscow, relying on internal directive N. 142, demanded from the social organizations a large number of forms and certificates. First of all it was necessary to go to the office for certification of food stuffs and fodder, which is located in Odintsova. Then they had to get forms from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Agriculture Ministry, the Commission on Questions of International and Humanitarian Aid of the government of the Russian Federation, and a series of other organizations. Finally, the Germans demanded an analysis of the materials from which the clothes among the humanitarian goods were made. Previously, nothing had been said about this.

The staff of the National Foundation obtained several dozen documents, paid for their preparation and paid about two million rubles for transportation as had been agreed with the German partners. "I think these new rules about receiving humanitarian supplies is real arbitrariness [proizvol, a word that is difficult to translate but which refers to willful, arbitrary and unjust actions by governmental officials. Trans.]" said Igor' Kokorev, the president of the National Foundation. "The customs office intentionally places obstacles in the way of the movement of humanitarian goods into Russia while at the same time our pensioners and people with disabilities are starving. In addition to us, several other organizations have suffered from the pointless actions of the customs officials. These include the Moscow House of Charity [Moskovskii dom miloserdiia], which has had to decline to accept humanitarian goods just for this reason."

[This story concludes with an announcement of a press conference on January 30 devoted to this issue and calls for participation from social organizations. Because the date of the press conference has already passed, I have not translated this last part of the article. Trans.]

The contact telephone for the National Foundation is 244-0042 (Igor' Evgen'evich Kokorev, Elena Egorova).

II. The Ronald McDonald Center Completes its First Year

On January 24 the Ronald McDonald Center, which is the first and so far only sports and play complex for children with mental and physical disabilities in Russia, marked the first anniversary of its work.

This is the first project of the Ronald McDonald Children's Charity Foundation. Its board of directors includes representatives of Russian McDonald's, of medical institutions and various Russian and foreign companies such as Mezhkombank, Reebok Russia, Coca-Cola Refreshments Moscow, the Olympics training center Krylatskoe, and others.

In its one year more than 1,500 children with various impairments of movement, partial loss of eyesight, with delayed psychological development, and children suffering from cancer and diabetes have visited the center. Most of these children are students at residential and special education schools and those served by various social organizations and specialized medical institutions. The center's building has a lift that facilitates access to the second floor for people in wheelchairs. The center has two buses, one of which is equipped for transporting people in wheelchairs. In addition..., a group of coaches with specialized equipment daily go to the Oncology Center and the Children's Orthopedic Center, where there are in-patient children. All of the Center's activities are provided free of charge.

Director of the Ronald McDonald Center Alexander Morozov says: "The main task is to give our little visitors the possibility of feeling themselves to be full members of society, through games and association with others of their own age to discover their own potential. In the time we have been working many of them, under the direction of our coaches, have acquired skills in volleyball, field hockey, wheelchair basketball, and gymnastics."

In addition to the sponsors, the center receives assistance from volunteers from Boarding School No. 15 and from the Russian State Academy of Physical Culture, where a department of curative physical culture and rehabilitation was recently opened. Coaches, volunteers, and post graduate students of the academy conduct scientific research at the center and develop unique new methods of helping children with disabilities.

The contact telephone/fax number for the Ronald McDonald Center is 149-3191.

III. A New Project of Support for Nongovernmental Organizations has Begun in the North-West Region

The Russo-German Exchange Society has begun work on the project "KANGO," Contact Agency for Nongovernmental Organizations [KANGO is an acronym taken from the first letters of this phrase in Russian. Trans.], as part of the program "TACIS" of the European Union. The project, which was launched in December, 1996, is planned for one year, and it may be continued and broadened at the end of that time.

The aim of KANGO is to provide consultative services to nongovernmental organizations in Northwest Russia and to support these services, prototypes of which already exist in St. Petersburg. The concept "nongovernmental organization" is defined quite broadly, from traditional social organizations to residential condominiums and alternative schools.

Free consultations for nongovernmental organizations and for people who are only planning to start such an organization will be provided in St. Petersburg (including the cities of Leningradskii oblast), Novgorod, Pskov, Petrozavodsk, Arkhangel'sk and Nar'ian-mara in five subject areas: bookkeeping for nongovernmental organizations, legal aspects of the activities of nongovernmental organizations, public relations, fundraising, and social management.

The idea of a "circle of cooperation" has been chosen as an instrument for accomplishing this project. The idea of a circle of cooperation arose in America during the 1930s. During the Great Depression, many Americans did not have cash, but they had the ability and desire to work. Since they could not pay for services they began to exchange them, creating a kind of barter system. One person might repair a radio, another would baby sit, etc. Today in Russia social organizations, which as a rule unite the most active but far from the most wealthy citizens, have fallen into this kind of American [depression era] poverty. The circle of cooperation is designed to allow them to exchange services (perhaps not directly but through three or four exchanges [between different agencies]).

KANGO does not intend to create this system. This is an experimental project that will make it possible to clarify how viable the idea of a circle is in our country.

While in St. Petersburg there are already many professionals who can provide consultation to nongovernmental organizations, it is planned to prepare consultants from the provinces through 15 training sessions on various subjects. These will be led by the best Russian specialists--experienced leaders of social organizations, and scholars and practitioners from the institutions of higher education in St. Petersburg. At the end of 1997, their foreign colleagues will come to an international conference on the results of the project and the activities of European agencies supporting nongovernmental organizations. Specialists from the countries of the former socialist block, where such centers already exist, will come to share their experiences, as will specialists from the West, where the system has been working effectively for a long time.

Contact telephone numbers: (812) 325-8913, 325-8914.

IV. Efforts of Environmentalists in Moscow Create an Earthworm Museum
(From a report of the Volga Ecological Information Agency)

During the first stage it will be a small, mobile exhibit at which the staff will describe the complex behavior of worms and what they mean for life on earth and will describe the raising of worms and organic agriculture. In addition to the mobile exhibit, which consists of a few display cases, another version is planned that will consist of photographs, drawings, and texts.

The exhibit will be shown at conferences, in schools, and at libraries. It is proposed to develop a program of studying and observing earthworms in nature and at home. Keeping them as pets can be quite attractive.

The museum is prepared to present its materials to all who want to learn about living things around us and about the characteristics of these surprising animals and to show the new exhibit to all interested people and organizations. On its part, the museum expects support and assistance in creating the exhibit and with materials for the collection. These may be observations and experiences, photographs, drawings, poems, post cards, cartoons, items of popular folklore, anecdotes, and references to artistic, popularized, scientific and other literature that discuss earthworms.

The museum's address is 123481 Moscow, ul Fomichevoi, d.14, korp 2, kv. 228 (Iuliia Saiapina)
The contact telephone number is (095) 497-5238.
E mail: [email protected]

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