[CivilSoc] Help Sought for Chechen Educ./Cult. Center in Moscow

Mon, 16 Jul 2001 00:44:16 -0700 (PDT)

From: Raffi Aftandelian <[email protected]>
Subject: seeking volunteers for Chechen cultural and social programs
"A Warm Home," a Moscow-based organization for refugee women, seeks
volunteers for:
a. assistance in establishing a Chechen educational and cultural
center. We need help in translating letters, writing grants,
correspondence with foundations, and also clerical assitance. The
project manager is Anderbek Yandarov, Ph.D. and Asya Yandarova,
candidate of history and ethnographer. Contact: 920-4144 (mobile)
b. creative people are needed--with a musical and drama bent--to
lead holiday celebrations for hospitalized children from Chechnya.
They are at at the Russian Pediatric Clinical Hospital near
Yugo-Zapad metro.
Contact 120-5448 Natasha Nelidova
595-3170 Nina Yakhyaveva
c. For the new academic year we will need volunteers to work with
kids: English teachers, to lead games and urban excursions, and to
visit hospitalized children.
We would appreciate offers of joint use of office space in various
parts of Moscow for this work.
We would be happy to offer those interested in working with us
workshops on cross-cultural issues, lessons in Chechen language (and
cuisine) .
We would be also be happy to meet trainers experienced in conducting
workshops in schools on tolerance. We would much appreciate your
experience.
DESCRIPTION OF A WARM HOME
A WARM HOME
A Nonprofit organization assisting in the social adaptation of women and
children refugees
In August 1999, the founding meeting of A Warm Home took place in
Moscow. Currently, the organization consists of about 60 women from
Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, and the Baltic states.
The core members of A Warm Home feel it is critical to develop an
effective system of self-help, create family clubs and handicraft
workshops for women and children, and art clubs. All these activities
support the social adaptation and integration of women and children.
All of these projects are currently being implemented. Today, women
are also taking computer courses and studying English.
The precursor to A Warm Home was the Center for Psychological Support
for Refugee Children and Their Parents. This center began operating
in November 1996 with the support of Friends House Moscow.
Psychologists and teachers have helped people who have lost
absolutely everything in regional conflicts on the territory of the
Former Soviet Union. The Center's weekly activities were directed at
decreasing stress and depression and the release of negative emotions
of the children and parents who came. The Center also introduced
refugees to the cultural life of Moscow. For attendees the capital
became more familiar and intimate. Over the last two years, children
from the Center have spent their holidays in Southern Russia: in 1998
in the Adygea Republic, and in 1999 near Gelendzhik, bordering the
Black Sea.
A Warm Home continues to establish contacts with other nonprofit
organizations. We are very thankful for the support of �����������
���������� (Civil Assistance), an organization that has been helping
refugees for 10 years. We are especially appreciative of the support
of Civil Assistance's co-directors, Svetlana Ganushkina and Elena
Burtina.
State Duma Deputy Vyacheslav Igrunov of the Yabloko Party and his
assistant Marina Larichkina have also been key supporters of our
work.
We are also supported by and thankful to Friends House Moscow (a
nonprofit organization started by English and American Quakers),
several international women's organizations, refugee committees in
other regions, and volunteers.  We expect that we will be able to
make a contribution to the development of women initiatives in Russia
and facilitate the development of democracy in our society.
Tel/fax: (095)426-3532
Email: [email protected]
Natalya Nelidova
Executive Director
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