Excellent web site. Excellent source. I am originally from the former Soviet Union and have recently graduated from Boston University's graduate school. I have always been very interested in and have done a project on the role of civil society in building democracy in developing countries. For me this is a great discovery. I wonder if you're involved in Caucasus at all. Thank you.

CCSI responds:
Currently our largest section on the website is the NIS Organizations section. It profiles and gives contact information for hundreds of organizations in the former Soviet Union, and is currently our strongest section for countries in the Caucasus. We have also begun to add a number of links for the Caucasus in the "Region Specific" section of Electronic Resources section. Check the Links under "Caucasus."

Seeking work in Russia with an American firm to become involved in health related issues. I am a Medical Researcher from Albuquerque, New Mexico with fourteen years of diverse experience. I speak, read, and write Russian fairly well, I am single with no children and ready for immediate departure. I am in great need of contacts and how to go about this entire proceedure.

CCSI responds:
Visitors to the website who are looking for jobs or internships would be best served by regularly visiting the following pages on our website: The Annoucements page contains posts of time-sensitive information such as jobs, conferences, and grant opportunities. Also check the Electronic Resources for listservs in your area of interest. Sign up for appropriate listservs for the fields and regions you wish to work in and sign up for the EE-Jobs Listservs which includes job opportunities in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Finally, make your own contacts by going through the organizations in the Health and Medicine sections of "NIS Organization" and "US-NIS Organizations" and send out letters of interest. Find out about their projects and programs, where they work and who runs them, and begin to contact program directors for the projects that interest you.

I'm a grad student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and am working on local congregations as "associational spaces" in the work of renewing civil society in the United States. I'm not sure that the role of religion is a part of the conversation but clearly religion has major impacts and I'd like to learn what types of communities and beliefs lead to the strengthening of democracy for all. I know of only one recent work which deals significantly with this topic by the sociologist Jose Casanova, entitled Public Religions in the Modern World. Are there other resourses or scholarly works out there? Thanks for a great web site!

In my Government class we are doing a project on Choosing and Influencing Government leaders. My project was the death penalty. Not wanting to bias about the topic, as I am for the death penalty, I wanted to get both sides of the issue. If you would like to contribute to my project please e-mail me. Your information would help greatly.

In working on "privatization" of a college in Mongolia, we need drafts of legislation for non-profit corporations that might be appropriate for the post-Soviet environment of Mongolia. Where can I find such resources?

As a middle school teacher in the U.S., I am interested in establishing pen pal contacts in Russia for my students.

CCSI responds:
We have a section dedicated specifically to penpals. Our Pen Pal page is located under the "Special Resources" section on the home page and has links to different organizations which have programs in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union and beyond.

I am an assistant at university. My aunt`s sister is learning English. I am looking for a pen friend for her.