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News of Friends House Moscow, September 2009 Dear Supporters of Friends House Moscow, We are glad to be able to write to you with several pieces of good news about FHM. Yearly Meeting Gathering At YMG in July we were able to put on a talk about FHM, given by Sergei Grushko of FHM and a former FHM staff member, Sergei Nikitin, now Director of the Amnesty International office in Russia. The talk brought in supporters old and new, which was excellent – welcome to those of you who joined us there. Sergei Grushko talked about current FHM projects. Amongst other things, Sergei Nikitin talked about a book of sketches made in 1923 by Richard Kilbey of Wells-next-the Sea Meeting when he and his brother Ernest were relief workers in Russia, in the town of Buzuluk. Here is Kilbey’s sketch of the Quaker team arriving back on a sledge at the house which was HQ of the Quaker unit. Across the road was a malaria clinic in a building showing the marks of recent fighting between Red and White units in the Civil War. Sergei Nikitin also talked about the present state of things in Russia and showed two striking slides (below) which highlight the great need for work such as training in alternatives to violence. One was the presence of tanks on the streets of Moscow for a recent military parade, and the other was of ruined buildings in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, the location of fierce fighting in the 2008 war between Russian and Georgian forces.
Hope for starting AVP in South Ossetia It is therefore very heartening to be able to tell you that the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) International Council, which is supported by FHM, has visited South Ossetia and made useful contacts. FHM hopes to be in a position to fund AVP training there from this autumn. AVP is already running in Russia, where it has become possible to work with conscript soldiers, and in Ukraine, where workshops are given in schools, young offenders’ institutions and women’s prisons.
Raising awareness of alternatives to violence A group of social activists supported by FHM set up the Video Activist project some time ago in Kazan, Tatarstan. They screen free films such as American History X and V for Vendetta for local young people. Debate and discussion of the films are encouraged. We hear now that the landlord of the building where the meetings were held was instructed by Department E of the Kazan Militia (Extremism) not to allow the group to meet there. The group sees this as a positive sign that they are being noticed, and it is good to report that they have found a new meeting place.
Funding secured for projects in 2010 FHM has obtained grants from the Molly Bown fund for work to benefit young people. These grants will finance work in 2010 by our partners on the spot: · My New Family (Dzerzhinsk), which supports foster children and foster parents with counselling, and the occasional trip for fun and relaxation. In its first year the programme helped 1055 foster parents, who reported that their relationships with the children have grown in mutual understanding, calmness and consistency. The Department of Fostering in the city administration has also given positive feedback.
· Help for Children with Cancer (Children’s Hospital, Moscow): children diagnosed with brain tumours need an MRI scan in order to determine the best treatment for them. The state makes no contribution towards the 14,000 rouble cost of the scans, and many parents, particularly from the provinces, are forced to take out a loan against their home. Many people struggle to repay the loan and some have even become homeless. Help for Children with Cancer works to remove the financial burden from poor families and give all children diagnosed with brain tumours the opportunity to receive effective treatment.
· Schools’ Reconciliation Project (Moscow), which trains children and teachers in mediation skills. The programme is working in five schools, and workshops have been held for teachers. An Association of Mediators and Supervisors of School Reconciliation Services started up this year.
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· Big Change (Moscow), which helps young people leaving orphanages complete their education and learn the skills of independent living. FHM funded over 100 of the 250 lessons given in the first half of this year. FHM currently funds three girls, who have passed school exams and are now working towards applying to further education colleges.
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· The Circle (Moscow), which runs theatre and art programmes for children, teenagers and young people with special needs. This year The Circle organised an event called ‘Cultural Activities and the Integration of People with Disabilities’, which attracted an audience of arts workers, psychologists, teachers, lawyers and journalists.
· The School for Migrants, which recently celebrated its 13th birthday. Over this time the school has helped children from Chechnya, the Caucasus and Central Asia get up to speed in maths, Russian and English. They also provide infant schooling, help with registration in local schools, and psychological help where required. Currently there are 40 students and over 70 volunteer teachers.
What happens next? FHM wants to raise funds for AVP work in South Ossetia. It is also crucial to raise funds for projects in 2011, when the Molly Bown funding comes to an end. FHM is working hard on finding new funding, but the future is not yet clear. Can you or your Meeting perhaps help in any way? · Donations, large or small, are vital and gift-aided donations and standing orders are especially welcome. Please contact the FHM Treasurer: James Eddington, Brynmawr, Westbourne Drive, Lancaster LA1 5EE, tel 01524 848661, semaj@jeddington2.wanadoo.co.uk. If you can Gift-Aid your contribution, click here. · Please ask us for a speaker to talk about FHM at a meeting. We can bring a lively and interesting presentation to most parts of England, southern Scotland, and Wales. · Could you organise a collection to support FHM’s work? We can supply you with informative leaflets about FHM to hand out. · Buy your Christmas/New Year cards, blank for your own message, from FHM. You can see them here. Prices including postage: 10 for £4.50, 100 for £30. To order please contact us: roger.bartlett1@googlemail.com, 01584 875206.
All these things will help to keep FHM’s projects in action in and after 2010.
In Friendship Roger and Wendy Bartlett Co-Clerks of the FHM Interest Group
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Dom Druzei (Friends House Moscow) Staff Report January 2009 – June 2009 from Sergei Grushko, Natasha Zhuravenkova, Clare Hatfield, and Peter Dyson Dom Druzei (FHM) Projects News 1. Alternatives to Violence Project [AVP] - Russia AVP is an international movement which promotes communication skills. Moscow: AVP continues to use the FHM office for its workshops. During the reporting period, four one-day workshops took place. The themes of the workshops have included “Loneliness”, “The Tree of Life”, “Life and Destiny” and “To Speak and to Have Spoken, to Listen and to Hear”. AVP has continued their activity in the army in spite of some difficulties with access to the military base. The themes of the workshops there have included “Co-operation” and “Instructions”. Facilitators have been trying to find a way to make contact with the administration of a Moscow prison, via other social initiatives. This work will be continued in autumn. In April AVP took part in the Moscow Fair of Volunteers' Projects. Lipetsk: In this city two basic workshops (one of them with difficult teenagers) and five presentation workshop took place. In Dzerzhinsk (Nizhegorodskaya area) four basic workshops were held. One presentation workshop was held in St Petersburg, and two were held in Makhachkala, Dagestan. In May two facilitators visited South Ossetia to find out whether it would be possible to set up AVP projects in this hot spot in the Caucasus. The facilitators met with religious leaders, school teachers, local media reporters, and NGO activists. The majority of the people they met were enthusiastic about the possibility of AVP workshops in the area. Some useful contacts have been established and further attempts to develop contacts in South Ossetia will be made so that work in this region can be undertaken. 2. Help for Children in Foster Care My New Family (Dzerzhinsk) has completed a one year programme for foster families. Nina Kamina (project coordinator) reports: “1055 foster parents have participated in the various aspects of the project: 42 people have taken part in seminars and other training; 39 people have had individual consultations with a psychologist; 27 people took part in the "Theatre Forum"; 25 people took part in organising a celebration for the children; 11 people accompanied the children to the circus and more than 911 people attended lectures on various themes. 375 people sponsored children so that they could attend the following events: 82 children attended training classes; 31 children had individual consultations with a psychologist; 27 children took part in the "Theatre Forum"; 30 children attended the celebration organised by the foster parents; 20 children went to the circus and 185 teenagers attended lectures. 45 volunteers and 8 inspectors from the Department of Fostering helped to carry out the project. Social workers visited 11 foster families. "The project has received positive feedback both from the head of the Department of Fostering at the city administration and foster parents themselves. The relationship between the foster parents and the children has improved. This can be traced from the foster parents' desire to bring up the children as their own. "Their relationship with their support network (e.g. the Department of Fostering, school etc.) has likewise changed. The foster parents have become less demanding. This has meant that the parent-child relationship has also improved: mutual understanding; calmness and consistency; confidence and self-respect have all increased. "One example of the changed relationship between foster parent and child is the story of a girl in the 10th class who was previously on the verge of failure. Having attended training, seminars and individual mentoring, her foster parents were able to change their relationship to the child, and better understand what their duties were, which enabled them in turn to help the girl, who herself started attending courses etc. run by "My New Family". As a result the girl passed the 10th class as well as getting herself a summer job. She also got on better with her foster parents and her teachers. All the work was carried out in the strictest confidentiality”. 3. Alternatives to Violence Project [AVP] - Ukraine In Odessa (Ukraine) AVP facilitators continued to work with teenagers in schools, at prison colonies for young offenders and at the Odessa Women's Detention Centre. As well as traditional basic workshops, several thematic workshops were also held. Themes of the workshops included ‘Increasing Self-Esteem’ and ‘Leadership’ amongst others. All in all eight one-day, three basic, and three advanced workshops were held. The project is now being promoted in Kharkov (East Ukraine). 4. Rehabilitation for Children with Special Needs (KRUG) KRUG continues to run various theatre and art programmes for children, teenagers and young people with special needs. The Russian language web-site (www.roo-kroog.ru) has recently been re-designed and updated. In May a Round Table on “Cultural Activities and the Integration of People with Disabilities – Problems and Perspectives” was organised by KRUG in the United Nations Information Center in Moscow. The event attracted representatives from the Moscow authorities, scientific circles, theatre and museum workers, psychologists, teachers, lawyers, journalists and so on. The resolution will be forwarded to the Legislative and Executive authorities of Russian Federation in due course. In June an annual rehabilitation summer gathering took place in the Ruzski district of the Moscow Area. It has become a tradition for the children and young people with special needs to be accompanied by their healthy brothers and sisters, as well as their parents and other carers. There were around seventy participants all together. These summer gatherings are the final event of each academic year of the 3 year rehabilitation course. 5. Big Change Three girls are currently participating in the project with FHM funding. 249 lessons have taken place in the last 6 months. 104 of these lessons were funded by FHM. Each school subject is covered as well as a programme designed to promote self-study skills and independent living. The girls have recently passed exams in Chemistry and Geography and one of them also passed a Biology exam. The girls are starting to work towards preparing for applying to further education colleges. 6. Educational Support for Migrant Children The centre celebrated its 13th birthday in March. The school now has 40 students taking lessons at the school including some pre-school children who are taught the basics of reading, writing and counting. 1505 lessons have taken place over the last 6 months. Some of the teaching is designed to increase the children's self-confidence and this teaching is led by psychologists. In addition the centre has organised trips for the children to a butterfly exhibition, the Pushkin Museum, the Museum of Eastern Peoples and 10 students have been on a 6 day trip to St. Petersburg. There are now over 70 volunteers. Volunteers are supported by educational seminars, meetings and training. As the end of the school year approaches they will all complete evaluation questionnaires. As well as teaching the children, volunteers also help organise the necessary documentation for registering in Moscow schools. 7. Supporting Reconciliation Procedures in Schools Workshops for teachers were held in addition to basic workshops for teenagers in order to create School Reconciliation Services in schools No. 7, No.1221 and No.117. A mediation course was held for children in school No.1605. Mediation sessions conducted by pupils were supervised in schools No. 45, No. 7 and No.1221. In February a workshop on School Reconciliation Services was held for senior teachers from the Central District of Moscow. It was supported by the local Education Department and 200 people participated in it. In January the Association of Mediators and Supervisors of School Reconciliation Services was established in Moscow. The Association has published a booklet. The second meeting of the Association took place in March. It outlined the main agenda for future activities. In Moscow Reconciliation Services are ongoing in schools No. 45, No.1605 and No.1089. New Reconciliation Services have been started in schools No. 7 and No.1221. The Centre for Reconciliation and Justice have made two new video films entitled “Restorative Justice in Russia” and “School Mediation Service”. The former has subtitles in English. The Centre held a Round Table on June 5th in the Federal Institute for the Development of Education on “The Practice of Distribution of Restorative Technologies in the Perm Region”. 8. Video activist A group of social activists in Kazan (Tatarstan) started a project of free screenings of films. This has led to an increase in youth activism and the creation of new initiatives in the region. The audience are young people in Kazan. The screenings close with a discussion and debate of the film’s major themes. The discussions push the audience to make use of the information they have received as well as drawing in their own experiences. The standard audience is about 20 people. * * *
Outreach Translations Natasha Zhuravenkova (FHM staff) and Elena Belajeva (FHM Board member) have translated into Russian the materials for the Woodbrooke 10-week on-line study course "Quakers in Europe". Elena has also translated into Russian the subtitles for the DVD “An Introduction to Quakers at Watford Friends Meeting House”. Quaker materials Quaker booklets and CDs were sent to seekers in Blagoveshchensk (Far East) and Oryol (Central Russia). Information about Quakers in Russian is accessible on the Internet – on the Russian Quaker forum: www.quakers.ru/forum, on Live Journal: community.livejournal.com/quakers.ru , and in the Russian language part of Wikipedia. * * * Line Manager’s Personal Comment
Forum
18 is a Norwegian/Danish charity which monitors the freedom of thought,
conscience and religion guaranteed by Article 18 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and their web site contains regularly updated
country by country analyses. Russia watchers will be aware that 1997 Religion Law imposed a requirement that independent religious groups seeking registration needed to have existed for 15 years. The Extremism Law of June 2002 has been used to crackdown on religious literature. In 2007 the Federal List of Extremist Materials was initiated and this currently lists 367 items. Distributors of these materials can be fined. Islamic, indigenous pagan and Jehovah’s Witness groups are amongst those who have face accusations of extremism. The appointment of Aleksandr Dvorkin, a prominent anti-cult activist, as head of the Justice Ministry’s Expert Religious Studies Council caused further alarm. The powers of the Russian Justice Ministry's Expert Council for Conducting State Religious-Studies Expert Analysis were considerably widened in February 2009, allowing it to investigate the activity, doctrines, leadership decisions, literature and worship of any registered religious organisation and recommend action to the Ministry. A new Council of 24 members was appointed in March and all but one are new appointees. They include figures who are known for their opposition to certain religious groups. The observation is made that the Russian Orthodox Church has expressed support for the Council. The situation is a disquieting one for religious toleration. I mention all this as background for those who have a concern for religious freedom and ponder on the situation of Friends in the Russian Federation. Quakerism is not registered as a religion here. Friends House Moscow is registered as a regional social organisation to assist in developing civil society. The effort involved in fulfilling the obligations of the law in respect of non-governmental organisations is time consuming and cumbersome. Moscow Monthly Meeting registered as local religious organisation on 14th December 2000 so by my calculations there are still a few years to go before the issue of national registration can arise. This member of that Meeting is unlikely to be recommending it as a course of action to pursue, if the climate remains the same. Thus for me as Line Manger of FHM, the promised review of legislation governing NGO’s is of more immediate concern; though given that is to be conducted by the person who introduced current practice, one is not over optimistic of helpful outcomes. Peter Dyson * * * Dom Druzei Contact Details: DD relies on funds from individuals and Meetings in order to continue its task. Please help DD by asking your Meeting to support FHM. In Europe contributions can be donated to Friends House Moscow via: James Eddington, Brynmawr, Westbourne Drive, Lancaster LA15EE semaj@jeddington2.wanadoo.co.uk Tel: 01524 848661 US dollars can be donated via: Friends House Moscow Support Association, 1163 Auburn Drive, Davis CA 95616, USA. Contact Julie Harlow at fhmus@sbcglobal.net or phone 530 753 6826 For more information: see the “Friends House Moscow Support Association” (USA) website: http://fhm.quaker.org DD email address (Moscow Office): dd.moskva@gmail.com |
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