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UN World Food Programme |
In the course of 3 years of its operation in the North Caucasus,
WFP distributed about 100,500 tons of basic food 
commodities
such as wheat flour, sugar, edible oil, rice, corn-soya blend and iodised salt
worth over US$ 44 mln both in Chechnya and Ingushetia. In 2002 alone WFP’s budget
amounted to over US$19.2 million, which outsets WFP among other UN agencies
working within the framework of UN Consolidated Appeal for Northern Caucasus.
Within the framework of the current emergency operation which started in January 2003, WFP assists about 180,000 registered beneficiaries in Chechnya, including about 130,000 relief beneficiaries, over 42,000 primary and pre-school children, and over 5,000 food-for-work beneficiaries. In Ingushetia WFP assists about 110,000 relief beneficiaries.
Following the results of household surveys jointly conducted by WFP and Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in Chechnya, WFP shifted targeting of relief food assistance to very poor and poor households rather than vulnerable groups, as these two categories do not always coincide in the poverty status. Food assistance is also provided to targeted beneficiaries through primary school feeding (including children in pre-school institutions) and expanding food-for-work activities in Chechnya.
In the end of January 2003, a joint WFP/ECHO monitoring mission was carried out in Achkoi-Martan, one of the most affected districts of Chechnya. The findings of the mission, based on observation of implementation of WFP relief distribution and school-feeding programme revealed that the vulnerable population largely depend on food assistance provided by WFP.
WFP’s food assistance programme in the North Caucasus is implemented
through seven NGO partners, with whom 
separate
partnership agreements have been signed. In addition, WFP is using the services
of a local NGO – Vesta – for monitoring its operations in Chechnya. Whenever
security allows and following UNSECOORD’s regulations, WFP staff directly monitor
implementation of the operation and assess the programme’s impact.
WFP requirements for 2003 total to US$ 15.7 million, which in terms of tonnage amounts to 34,011 tonnes. As of January 2003, the resourced funds under the current emergency operation, including the recently confirmed ECHO contribution of Euro 3 million, constitute US$ 4 million which is 26% of the total requirements. In terms of tonnage WFP resourced so far 12,119 tons of food commodities which makes 36% of the required amount.
For more information on WFP
and its activities,
visit out web site at
www.wfp.org,
or contact WFP, Russia,
Tel: (7-095) 956-49-68,
Fax: (7-095) 956-49-89
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UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund |
The above heading contains one of the key resolutions of the UN General Assembly’s Special Session on Children, which took place in May 2002. It is to be implemented in accordance with the document, signed by all the Session’s participants, "A World Fit for Children".
They sang songs together, had lunch together, and played games together, but at the end of the day, part of the boys and girls got on a bus and left for Volgograd, while the remaining children were left behind high walls to serve the rest of their sentences. This visit from members of Volgograd’s Children’s Parliament organization was held at the October Special Education School for Children with Deviant Behavior. Such meetings have become a regular part of the programme "Children’s Eyes Behind Bars". It is run by the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights in Volgograd Region, Tatiana Alekseeva.
"Today, the legal status of children, both in our region and across Russia, is extremely alarming", said Ms. Alekseeva. "They suffer from "unique" family conditions, where they become orphans whose parents are still alive, but are alcoholics or drug addicts. Children’s rights are being violated not just in families where parents don’t fulfil their responsibilities as they ought to, but in state agencies and institutions as well". Ms. Alekseeva considered it her greatest priority to monitor the legal status of children in the region, and to help them directly – including those who have today lost their liberty.
At
the October Special School, there are boys aged 11 to 15 who have been convicted
of crimes. Their number varies from 50 to as many as 82. Their crimes include
theft, rape, and taking part in gang murders. Volodya Tislenko was sent to the
School for theft, after he had left home and become a vagrant. When he turned
14 and was supposed to go free, Volodya filed an official petition asking that
he be allowed to remain behind bars for another year. "I want to finish ninth
grade here, and pass my high school equivalency test", he says. "It’s impossible
to skip class here, and not do your homework. I’ve become a straight–’A’ student!"
Volodya’s request, like that of many other boys, was granted. Even if they were
to go free, they would have to go back to the same families from whom they ran
away, while their parents would simply continue to drink and refuse to work.
The strictest discipline is practised at the school: along with the teacher,
a guard is always present in class; the children go to lunch in threes; and
they leave the grounds of the school only when they go to do farm work – harvesting
tomatoes or watermelons. The children are afraid to find themselves back in
the same conditions of permissiveness and lack of support from their families.
They’re not the same as they were when they committed their crimes. This is,
incidentally, thanks as much to the teachers and social workers as it is to
the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights and the child activists from Volgograd’s
youth organizations, who are always visiting the Special School.
"We sat down with the boys and discussed the Convention on Children’s Rights", said Ms. Alekseeva. "A lawyer came who helped explain the questions that interested them. Our kids and teenagers have an extremely low level of legal culture, and it’s very important that we raise it. We have to develop both their legal literacy and their self-consciousness. If something should happen to be overlooked, we should do our best to make up for it immediately, and to correct the situation".
Experience shows that defending the rights of children is especially effective where there is a system of collaboration between government, NGOs, and the active participation of younger children, teenagers, and young adults. Yekaterina Zhdanova, a student at Volgograd Pedagogical Institute, heads NGO The Children’s Parliament, which brings together fifty schoolchildren from grades 5 through 11:
"We usually get together twice a week", Yekaterina explained.
"We learn how to hold creative collective events, and 
then
go ahead and do it. We discuss the most varied of topics, from the Convention
on Children’s Rights to, for example, how best to organize a trip to the kids
at the October Special School – what we’re going to talk with them about, how
we’re going to do it. You have to be very delicate with these boys. It’s no
easy thing to sing songs and play developmental games with boys who are already
guilty of crimes. There are so many of them there, though, who stole, for example,
because they were hungry, and there was nothing to eat at home...."
"I’m interested in social work", says 16-year-old Ira Leshina, now in the 11th grade. "I’ve been involved in the Children’s Parliament’s work for almost two years now, and am firmly convinced that we’re doing something that’s both correct and needed. I want to make people happy, and to give these children just a little bit of the warmth they lack in their own families. I want to help the boys from the October School go back to a normal life, as normal people...My mom very much supports me in what we’re doing, too".
"For me, taking part in the Children’s Parliament’s work is both a way of realizing myself, and an opportunity to help other kids realize themselves", believes 11th-grader Zhenya Shpakov. "I want there to be no "forgotten" children, but there are more and more all the time. If these guys come to us at the Children’s Parliament, rather than knocking around the streets, it means we’re already helping them a little. There aren’t any kids who can’t be taught anything".
In Volgograd, a successful formula has been found for interaction between the children who are called "active", or sociable, and those who, for a variety of reasons, have been on the fringes of life from an early age It is much more effective when information is exchanged from peer to peer, rather than having even the most respected adults give interminable lectures and admonitions to youngsters – especially teenagers.
Galina Bartashuk, the October School’s Deputy Director for Academic Work, had this to say:
"The school was created in 1973; that is, it’ll turn 20 this
year. Unfortunately, it’s never empty. But you forget that 
these
kids have committed crimes – that this one is a rapist, this one is a murderer.
You work with all of them, you try to connect with them somehow, to draw out
and help reveal the good that has to be inside each one. We’re always glad when
the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights comes to visit, and the lawyers, and the
kids from the Children’s Parliament. It’s a breath of fresh air for all of us!
It’s very important that our boys know they haven’t been written off, and that
there are adults and other kids of their age who think about them and worry
about their future. It might be paradoxical, though, that once they find themselves
in a correctional institution, a lot of the boys feel that someone cares about
them for the first time in their lives".
As can be seen from the example of Volgograd Region, the principle of "not leaving a single child out" can only be implemented by combining the efforts of government, international, and non-governmental organization, and being guided by the Convention on Children’s Rights. UNICEF, together with the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, is continuing its close cooperation with the programme to support and develop the institution of Ombudsmen for Children’s Rights in the Russian Federation, and is counting on the expansion and strengthening of this programme.
