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A brief introduction to Friends House Moscow |
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Friends House opened in Moscow on January 1 1996. For several years, Pacific Yearly Meeting (US) and Quaker Peace and Service (UK) had shared a vision of a Quaker centre in Russia. To make it a reality, a small group of Friends from various countries met in London, Philadelphia, and most often in Moscow, to establish Quaker roots and durable procedures. This international group worked out a management structure, recruited and trained staff, found premises, and initiated projects. In the last 12 years money donated to FHM has been used to help more than a hundred projects which support the growth of civil society in different parts of Russia. Most are run by groups of individuals who want to address the problems they see in their communities. They often have little experience of grant writing, reporting, monitoring or evaluation and the sums they seek are too small for the major charities. Conscientious Objection Since its inception FHM has worked with various peace activists on the issues of conscientious objection and alternative service. Projects have been funded in Moscow, Dzerzhinsk, Pskov and in Kazan where German Alyotkin, has prepared and distributed several issues of the Alternativshchik – a newsletter which offers support and advice to Russian conscientious objectors. Peter Dyson (Board member) and Sergei Grushko recently visited German in Kazan to discuss the possibility of further collaboration on social projects.Alternatives to Violence Project
It works with army conscripts and in the community. Workshops have recently been held in Moscow, Lipetsk and Dzerzhinsk. They are now being held with army conscripts and negotiations continue to bring the project into prisons. AVP Russia also organises other activities including gatherings of facilitators, negotiations with army commanders and New Year celebrations. AVP Russia is working towards closer contact with colleagues in Odessa (Ukraine) to support them in their work. Domestic Violence FHM helped to establish a crisis centre in Gatchina and a shelter in Dzerzhinsk which also offers a confidential phone line plus psychological and legal support. FHM projects funded by the Molly Bown legacyThe Big Change Educational Fund and Nash Dom (Our House) offer educational opportunities and the development of social skills to disadvantaged children from foster families and orphanages; psychological help is offered to foster parents. Krug (Circle) a day centre for children with special needs runs several theatre studios for the children. The Centre for Adaptation and Education for Children of Refugees and Forced Migrants teaches mathematics, English and Russian; it also runs various cultural activities for young people aged 7-17 from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and other CIS countries. The Centre for Judicial and Legal Reform, which runs new restorative justice programmes in schools, seeks to keep young offenders out of prison by offering alternative strategies. Discussions are currently being held which seek to encourage city authorities to adopt the practices of this project. Children
FHM has supported several projects
concerned with children with special needs and also with street children
and orphans.
Quaker OutreachOne of the main priorities of FHM is to support Friends and seekers interested in Quaker faith and practice in and around Russia. Meetings, gatherings and workshops are held and material translated into Russian is made available in the library or on the websites www.quakers.ru and www.domd.ru (under development). Translating BYM Quaker Faith and Practice into Russian Fourteen chapters have been completed so far by the team of translators. We are currently seeking funding to continue this work. The Russian texts are discussed online at the Russian Quaker forum www.quakers.ru/forum and at the meetings for spiritual reflection which are held twice a week at the home of a former FHM staff member.If you would like to receive a quarterly report from FHM please send an email with the heading 'Quarterly Reports - subscribe' to dd.moskva@gmail.com |
Nash
Dom seeks to build confidence and improve communication and other
skills in children brought up in an orphanage; Big Change
offers educational opportunities to about 60 young people – current and
former residents of orphanages; Raduga is a self-help group
run by parents of disabled children; Proteatr offers
cultural activities to special needs children and promotes social
integration. These groups get no state support: parents are left to cope
alone.