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Moscow, 4/16 Glazovsky Pereulok: This address is known to many in Moscow and beyond. Here, in a comfortable two-storey house, is the UN Information Centre (UNIC). From here, information on the work of the United Nations, its initiatives, and its important events is disseminated daily across Russia. We talked with the UNIC Director Alexandre Gorelik on the eve of one such event.
What place does the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children, scheduled for 19–21 September, have in your plans?
I have to say that the UNIC’s work plan for this year is extremely crowded. Alongside the three special sessions of the General Assembly, there are also such hot topics as the Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, the Year of Mobilizing Efforts to Combat Racism, and the International Year of Volunteers. Meanwhile, the topic of "what and how the UN is doing for children" is always present in our plans. That is, programs replace one another, but the "children’s" component always remains part of everything. It’s a whole other matter that we’re arranging our events so that their peak coincides with September, right when the Special Session on children is going to be held.
What has the UNIC already done to make known the idea behind the UN’s September forum?
Right from the beginning of the year, we’ve been distributing a whole range of materials on the event. Among these were the General Assembly’s Resolution, documents from the Special Session’s planning committee, reports and speeches by the heads of the UN, UNICEF, and other UN agencies for the problems of children and families. Incidentally, anyone who wants to can get acquainted with these on our website, www.unic.ru. We attach special importance to the distribution of materials intended for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the "Say "Yes!" to Children" campaign.
We’re
constantly helping Russian NGOs and those who support the children’s movement
in their intiatives. Thus, we’ve cooperated with the Teen International project,
which is aimed at creating an international newspaper for teenagers. This initiative
came from several former journalists from Izvestiya. They hope to launch
the pilot edition of the newspaper in New York this September.
On June 2, at our centre’s initiative, and with the support of the UN Resident Coordinator in Russia and the local UNICEF Office, a holiday show was held at the Moscow Young People’s Theatre to mark the International Day of Protection for Children. At the show, our colleagues from UNICEF told several hundred young Muscovites about the idea behind the "Say "Yes!" to Children" campaign.
On June 15, we invited an NGO, the Local Initiative Foundation, which arranged for us to present the "Parallel National Report" project to the General Assembly’s Special Session on children, to visit the centre. This report is essentially a collection of children’s artwork – drawings, paintings, snapshots, and written compositions. All the works were chosen by a jury that also consisted of children. The report, which should be ready in September, will be a message of its own kind from Russia’s children to the Special Session.
What sort of plans do you have for the Special Session itself?
First of all, to fulfil its main assignment, the Centre will do its best to organize an information "Blitz" on the eve of, and during, the session. We’ll issue as much material, including press releases, as we possibly can.
Second, we’ll time the first day of our art exhibit here with the opening of the Special Session. The exhibit is being organized by the Solntse Studio, which is helping us develop the children’s creative abilities.
Third, in accordance with the results of the Special Session – and most likely with the participation of our colleagues from UNICEF and other UN organizations, as well as the members of the Russian Federation’s official delegation to the Special Session – we’re planning to hold a round table discussion for the Russian mass media and NGOs. It’s aim will be to acquaint them with the results of the worldwide forum, and the long-range prospects for the Global movement for children.
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Havad’s father (the boy’s name has been changed at the request of his parents. – Ed.) graduated from a Russian aviation institute, and was a highly-paid specialist in his native land. When they fled Afghanistan, his wife was nine months pregnant, and Havad’s brother was born during an artillery barrage. At that time, Havad was just two years old, but he has never forgotten the terrors of those days.
Havad is just one of the 10 million child refugees under the age of 18 who now roam the world. Most of these were compelled, along with their parents, to leave their homelands because of war. According to estimates, more than 2 million children have been killed in armed conflicts over just the past decade. Another 6 million were wounded, and 1 million more were orphaned.
Havad managed to stay alive, and was neither wounded nor orphaned. For several years now, Havad’s family has been living in Russia. But can we really consider them lucky? "Now", laments Havad’s father, "I’m forced to work in a market, even though with my higher education I could find work in my field, and be of much better use to my family and society". He hasn’t been able to find decent work, so the family of six has settled into a one-room apartment. His mother speaks practically no Russian, and therefore rarely goes out of the building; instead, she stays home and takes care of children and elderly parents.
It is difficult for anyone to live in a strange country, but twice as hard for someone whose way back home has been cut off for many years, if not for life. One cannot say, though, that Havad’s family has been entirely deprived of any assistance. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Office is actively concerned with their fate, just as it is concerned with the fate of the other 21 million refugees around the world.
Women and children are a priority of UNHCR policy. Children’s needs are being met by a variety of programs, now being implemented in this country.
Last year, 25 children from families of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers from Asia and Africa who are currently living in Moscow and Moscow region – began attending preparatory classes at a school in southern Moscow for the first time, under an agreement concluded by UNHCR and the Moscow Committee for Education.
Havad started first grade last winter. The psychological trauma he has endured effected the boy and he was afraid to stay at school by himself. His grandfather had to accompany him to school, and sit on a bench near the cloakroom until his grandson had finished his classes. At every break, the tearful boy would run to check that his grandfather was still waiting for him. UNHCR staff did not leave the boy on his own: he received the psychological help he needed. He is no longer so guarded and afraid, and now wants to attend school himself. Beginning September 1rd, Havad will go back to school and try once again to start classes. The majority, who together with Havad attended preparatory classes, will be officially enrolled into regular classes of the school num. 729 in September of this year. Meanwhile, a second group of 25 children will also start preparatory classes.
UNHCR
has also allocated funds for educational activities for asylum seekers through
its implementing partner, the local NGO Solidarity. A total of 540 children
have attended UNHCR-supported classes in different community centers last year
only. In St. Petersburg, individual tutoring was given to 30 asylum seeker children
who had missed several years of education. Similar programs have been implemented
in Moscow by the local NGO Civic Assistance, for children of IDPs and forced
migrants.
In Checnya and Ingushetia, UNHCR and UNICEF are implementing a joint land-mine awareness program for children. At present, some 15,000 teenagers and children have had comprehensive land-mine awareness training. This year, UNHCR will assist local authorities in providing Chechen IDP children and children from the most vulnerable local families with the opportunity to attend summer camp in Ingushetia. Some 12,000 children will benefit from this project. Last year, some 11,000 children got such an opportunity.
Afghan asylum-seekers, IDPs, forced migrants and local children attended the summer camps organised in the Altai krai by the local NGO Lingva with UNHCR financial support.
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Children were and continue to be the most vulnerable group among the civilian population of Chechnya – from the time of the first armed conflict there in the mid-1990s to the present day, as military operations continue in and around the republic. For almost ten years, the children of Chechnya have been deprived of normal family life and the opportunity to attend school every day; it is difficult for them to find safe places to play, and they do not even have the most basic conditions for recreation.
Military operations and the multitude of mines and unexploded artillery shells buried throughout the republic have become and continue to remain one reason for the massive psychological instability among children; and, in many cases, their physical incapacitation as well. Not much better off are the children from the displaced families who were forced to migrate to neighboring Ingushetia, as they live in conditions which are in many respects hazardous to their health and intellectual development.
To help these children, in spite of their migration and the restrictions imposed by security demands, is one of the main goals of international humanitarian aid. The World Health Organization, together with other UN agencies and non-governmental organizations, is helping to ease their suffering, and to endure a monotonous existence of idleness and inadequate parental care.
In its operations, WHO traditionally emphasizes the building up of local medical services; since this concerns the well-being of children, such work is being done as part of the Project to Safeguard Reproductive Health. In addition, since October 1999, when the program of urgent health care measures was restarted, WHO, in close cooperation with UNICEF, has actively been implementing projects for the physical and pyschological rehabilitation of the victims of military operations in both republics. These projects do not provide help for children only, but it is the children who are the focus of attention.
Considering the lack of expert research required from within
the state health care system, one can hardly expect to have reliable data on
the
psychological health problems of the Chechen population. However, worldwide
experience from similar emergency situations shows that most of the civilian
population is truly in need of psychological support, or professional counselling
of one sort or another. Such factors as the loss of individuality and cultural
values, as well as diminishing hopes for a better future, prolong the state
of psychological instability that can be observed among the entire Chechen population.
This is especially true in relation to the most vulnerable groups of the population:
the children, both large and small, who have lived through the horrors of war,
and who witnessed violence and other harsh episodes that have traumatized their
psyches. The data from Chechen health care agencies are truly alarming: up to
75% of the children in the city of Grozny suffer from psychological instability
or so-called post-traumatic disorders. These disorders are sometimes manifested
in their mildest forms – nightmares, speech impediments, anxiety – and sometimes
in more serious ways, such as depression and other psychological symptoms. Most
of the local and international NGOs involved in the mental health problems of
the Northern Caucasus consider setting up centers for the psychological rehabilitation
of children and adolescents to be of the highest priority in their work with
the underaged. WHO has specially developed a training course on psychological
rehabilitation for these centers, based on the local communities caught up in
the state of emergency. Performing its role of bringing people together, WHO
has held negotiations with NGOs and established a coordinating committee to
facilitate the dissemination of information, and to promote the use of this
course in the training of new personnel.
In March 2001, the Malch Rehabilitation Center was opened in the city of Grozny, to provide consultation and treatment for children with various types of psychological disorders. The opening marked the start of a joint project by WHO and the Chechen Association of Psychologists and Narcologists. Psychologists and psychiatrists selected children for treatment after visiting several schools in Grozny and its environs.
More than 100 children have undergone various courses of treatment since March 2001. To help their young patients restore their health and return to their normal patterns of behavior, the center’s staff involves them in games, art classes, dancing, and sports. Work therapy and psychotherapy are also used. An experienced speech therapist holds special classes for children suffering from speech impediments. Parents and guardians who have frequently experienced the same sorts of trauma, and are unable to deal with their children on their own, often come to the center as well. The specialists at the center have organized three seminars to instruct parents on how to recognize psychological trauma in their children, and offer advice on how to deal with them. The seminars were very successful: nine participants expressed interest in further study, and declared their readiness to help treat children in other parts of Chechnya as well – areas where there is still no mental health assistance.
At the rehabilitation center, children often undergo a two-month
course of treatment; in the most difficult cases, they stay another two
months. The need to set such centers up throughout Chechnya is enormous – not
just for children and adolescents, but for women and other vulnerable groups
as well. WHO is therefore continuing to provide support for the Malch Rehabilitation
Center.
To get children involved in the work of the rehabilitation centers in Chechnya and Ingushetia, and to promote this side of UN operations, WHO and UNICEF, in cooperation with UNHCR, decided to hold a children’s festival. The UN Children’s Festival was held on August 18 in Ingushetia’s Camp «A». With the help of many local NGOs and Ingushetia’s Ministry for Emergency Situations, children were brought in from five different rehabilitation centers in Chechnya and Ingushetia.
Around 100 children performed national dances and songs, and presented short skits on such burning questions as peace, the fight against narcotics, and the rules for exercizing caution in areas that might contain land mines. Their audiences were children, teenagers, and adults from their own and neighboring camps. The UN Children’s Festival, while not the largest of those that are traditionally popular in Russia, gave the forced migrants a wonderful opportunity to forget their everyday problems – for a while at least.
The physically handicapped were not forgotten at the Festival;
they were also present among the children assembled. These children are yet
another striking and painful problem in the Northern Caucasus, where many people
have been injured and maimed as a result of 
military
operations. More than 3,000 people are listed as having had at least one limb
amputated; around 700 of these were children. It is be lieved that in reality,
the total number of those maimed is twice as high. In spite of the fact that
major military operations have ceased, this figure continues to grow due to
those who fall victim to minefields, the majority of which remain uncleared.
The prosthetic workshop in Grozny was destroyed during the large-scale military
operations at the end of 1999. WHO was therefore compelled to search for other
ways to help those victims of the war who remained alive. It turned out that
the only possible solution was to increase the capacity of the workshop in Vladikavkaz,
North Ossetia. With WHO’s support, the workshop’s craftsmen began once again
to serve the handicapped among the forced refugees in Ingushetia. They, like
the maimed from Chechnya, were driven to the workshop in Vladikavkaz by local
WHO workers, operating with the permission of the local authorities.
In the first half of 2001, WHO provided the means for 27 Chechen children aged 6 to 15, and another 20 young men and women aged 16 to 20, to receive the Vladikavkaz workshop’s orthopedic services. Because of limitations of the resources WHO was able to devote to this project, the scale of such assistance is clearly insufficient when compared to the need for it.
Recognizing this, WHO and UNICEF have developed and begun implementing a joint program for children who have fallen victim to land mines. UNICEF is financing the purchase of 60 children’s prostheses, while WHO is covering the cost of bringing the maimed children in from Chechnya and providing them with accommodation while their prostheses are being individually fitted. To cover their needs, WHO, together with UNHCR and UNICEF, have provided medical and physiotherapy equipment to the rehabilitation center in Vladikavkaz. Using this equipment, the staff at the center are able to provide the care needed by the handicapped children of Chechnya. After the reconstruction of the center is finished, children will be able to stay there for longer time to receive the modern physiotherapy they need.