Update on our July posting. The Songs of the Motherland String Ensemble will be arriving from Magnitagorsk Russia on October 27, 1997 and will be in the Cherry Hill N.J. area from that date until Sat. November 1,1997. The group will be in the State College Pa. (Central Pa. ) from Nov. 1 until Nov. 10.We are planning performances in both areas and if any of your friends would like details on these performances or would like to discuss the options of having the group perform in their town please give us shout at our new E- Mail address.

Great site! I use the announcements and new files sections often. I also like the archives. There is so much information available in the ASI Bulletins, old Files of the Week and newsletter archives. Keep up the good work!

CCSI responds:
Thanks Val! If you would like to check out these sections, follow the links. The ASI Bulletins are translations of as Russian language bulletin on the activities of the nonprofit sector in Russia. Produced by the Agency for Social Information in Moscow, the bulletins are mailed out weekly and CCSI posts the table of contents and selected stories in Russian KOI-8 Fonts and Windows/1251 Fonts. CCSI also does selected English translations of the ASI Bulletins and sends them to the CCSI listserv and posts them on this Web site. File of the Week is available on the CCSI home page, but old files of the week are archived. The CCSI Newsletter, Civil Society...East and West is also archived on the site, as is the Nettalk insert in the newsletter which covers developments in E-mail, listservs and Web sites related to the nonprofit sector in the former Soviet Union and the development of civil society in the region. All these pages are easily accessible on a regular basis by following the "Archives" link from the CCSI home page.

I am a undergraduate social work student. I am interested in the welfare of children all around the world. I have volunteered in Russia as a conversational English facilitator for 2 summers now and I am now studying russian as well. I am interested in learning more about social welfare in Russia and more about children's needs in Russia. If anyone can offer me any information, please feel free to email me.

CCSI responds:
In order to facilitate such interests, we have broken down the main sections of our Web site into 15 different categories ranging from Agriculture to Youth. If you are interested in Youth organizations in Russia, follow the NIS Organizations link and choose "Youth" under area of activity. You may also want to check the "Youth" link under International Organizations Active in the NIS, Print Resources and Electronic Resources. You can jump between all of the different youth category pages under each of the four sections mentioned above by following the links to "Information on Similar Topics" available at the top of the pages. To see an overview of the four main sections and their 15 different sub-categories visit our "Master Page."

I am interested in finding an email (or snail mail) pen pal in the Krasnodar and/or Afipskiy areas as a contact to obtain information about a child we are interested in adopting. If you're near Afipskiy, please email me!

CCSI responds:
CCSI was just recently contacted regarding a PenPal Program for Russian Orphans. Childlife International, a US based organization, is working with their Russian partner organization in Moscow to start a pen pal exchange between US families which have adopted Russian children, and Russian orphans. The page briefly describes the program, and lists the e-mail for Childlife International. They would be a good place to start to find a penpal in Krasnodar.