j_claire

Не могли бы помочь мне Сергей?!!

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:55:46 GMT

Я нашла очень интересную работу в посольстве США в Лондоне, состоящая в анализе СМИ России. Дело в том, что первый этап заявления на эту должность состоится в мини-сочинении о чем-то о политике России.

Я быстро стараюсь читать все, что я должна была читала в последние два года. Я хочу написать о выбора, или Думы или президента. Довольно легко разобраться в мнениях о Медведева но мне не ясно процедура выборов.

Что касается выбора президента:

Каковы правила выдвижения кандидата на пост президента? Только из партии, опирающей на парламентское большинство или из любой партии? Каждая партия выдвигает всего одного кандидата (я думаю, что да но я хочу себя заверить).

А что насчет избирателей? Проголосуют ли они за индивидуального лица на пост президента или за партии ( и потом партия выбирают своего кандидата?)   Я полагаю, что в избирательном списке появляются только имен индивидуальных лиц, но опять я хочу быть увереной.  В таком случае, колличество имен кандидатов в избирательном списке в конечном счете должно было очень мало, если там было только один кандидат за одну партию?

Кроме этого, начнала несправедливость выбора президента только когда подсчитывали голоса или раньше? И в том эта справедливость? Число кандидатов, число партий, которые они представлали?

Извините, что я задаю такие простые вопросы, но такие ответы трудные всего найти в газетах.

И что касается выбора Госдумы:

Насколько мне известно, в болшинстве избирательных оккругов, избиратели голосуют только за партии, а в нескольких округах голосуют за индивидуального лица. Но я читала статьи Би-Би-Си о том, как члены Эдиной России обращались к Путину с просьбой возгявить избирательный список. Может быть они имели в виду появиться в избиратеьном списке в тех округах, где избираются индивидуальных кандилатов, но в таком случае почему глаголь "возглавить" избирательный список? Я думаю, что смысл там совсем другой, но я не могу представить себе, что это значит.

Кстати, колличество избирателных округов такой же, как субъектов РФ? Они одни и те же?

Кроме этого, жизнь идет нормально, сдаю экзамены через месяц и закончу в сентябре.

Пока, Клэр и спасибо заранее

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:11:53 GMT

I visited Raduga from November to April and found that it aroused many different feelings from inspiration to despondency at the struggle for fundraising.

Read the full report

The Raduga (Rainbow) Centre for Children with Disabilities: Information and Reflections.

Raduga – an activities centre for children with disabilities and limited opportunities – was established on a voluntary basis twenty years ago to bring children with disabilities and their families together and create an environment of learning, stimulation and support to children with various developmental delays. Valentina Giorgievna Dmitrieva, the centre's director, established the centre with parents in her neighbourhood, who pooled their children's disability allowance to create an activities programme. The centre is situated in a residential apartment block and occupies an eight room apartment on the second floor. The plaque on the door into the centre reads The Raduga Centre – Charitable Social Organisation for Children with Disabilities. The entrance is brightly painted with a picture of a rainbow and flowers, which lights up the dingy corridor. Raduga became a registered charity in 1996 and the local authority pays the rent and utility bills for the premises, mainly thanks to Valentina’s efforts to promote awareness of the centre and find sponsors to support its work.

The term ‘disability’ does not have a direct equivalent in the Russian language. The word that appears in the centre’s official title - ‘invalid’ - is closest in meaning but is a more inclusive term, used to describe not only permanent physical disabilities, developmental delays and learning disabilities but also mental illness, terminal illness and permanent medical conditions like diabetes, thus it is frequently replaced with the term ‘people with limited opportunities.’ The centre is open to all children and young adults who fall within this category.

A range of lessons and activities directed towards developing the skills and potential of children between the ages of one and seven takes place throughout the week, including music lessons, drawing classes, small group and individual lessons in reading, arithmetic and computer literacy. Raduga has a play room full of soft toys, inflatable balls and small toys where the children play with parents and teachers. While some children are playing, a small group lesson of three children takes place in the library, a room that doubles as an art room and has two computers to help the children study. After an hour has elapsed they are led out to play in the playroom and a new group takes their place. In the evenings the sound of singing and tambourines emanates through the apartment. These activities are led mainly by volunteers from pedagogical and psychological universities training to work in child psychology and early development. Raduga also holds classes for children and teenagers with arrested development and more severe developmental delays to help develop speech and movement. Valentina organizes time away for these children on summer camps and offers help and emotional support to their parents.

Lessons of a similar type held for the small children are in theory held for older children, teenagers and young adults from age ten upwards. However, the difficulty of recruiting volunteers and the small number of older children have significantly reduced the number and range of activities. As children get older, Valentina told me, they begin to feel the social stigma of attending a centre for people with special needs and become reluctant to attend. In its best months over the years Raduga has been able to offer master classes in sewing, weaving, music, ecology and other crafts as well as summer camps for the teenagers but these times have been relatively shortlived and overshadowed by the constant struggle to attract funding. Now only two volunteers regularly offer their services and two (sometimes only one) art classes a week cannot either attract or support a community of young adults and teenagers.

The centre uses art therapy as a form of relaxation and a means of assisting the development of fine motor skills. Older children and adults learn a variety of art disciplines, each being taught over the course of several lessons. One such discipline consists of composing pictures from pressed flowers. The art teacher, Irina Molchanova, chooses a different composition each week and begins the lesson with a description of the ways in which different compositional effects can be achieved, with reference to an illustrated guide to the art of dried flower arranging, which contains a great variety of examples, including landscapes, still-life pictures and abstract compositions. The pupils decide the precise form their composition should take and are left to work independently using the centre’s extensive collection of dried flowers, leaves and berries. At the end of the lesson the pictures are framed with coloured felt. Irina also teaches lessons in modeling with plasticine and papier-mache. All the artwork produced by the children is kept in the display cabinets at the centre and one glance reveals a multitude of creative endeavours: woven boxes and animals, puppets, painted plaster models, collages, pictures from felt and pressed flowers and more besides. The walls and ceilings are also adorned with felt tapestries and origami models as well as drawings by the younger children. The benefits of art therapy are multifold: the creative process has been proved to enhance emotional well-being, develop the personality and reduce stress and anxiety. It is also believed that art therapy has the potential to increase cognitive ability through activating powers of conceptualization of shapes and patterns, aesthetic appreciation, logic and the memory. It could thus be argued that classes such as origami, which practise logic and work intricately with the hands, by helping to maintain regular co-ordination between the central and peripheral nervous systems, have a stabilizing or even curative effect on neurological conditions.

When observing the classes led by Irina, one can catch a glimpse of the kind of inclusive community atmosphere which the centre set out to create and in which it has its roots. Lessons like these, based around independent work with guidance from an instructor, allow pupils of mixed abilities to work at their own pace and produce work according to their individual capabilities and reveal what is perhaps the most important benefit of art therapy – its social dimension. As Irina said, the specific skills that the pupils learn are far less important than the process of learning them: classes like these allow teenagers to feel the dynamics of group interaction and give them the feeling of inclusion that is difficult to find elsewhere, especially for those who do not attend, or have already left, schools of special education and whose families cannot afford to pay for services and activities for their children.

In its less structured activities, as children, teenagers and parents sit together making artwork or gather together to drink tea with Valentina at the end of each day, the sense of a bond between the families is very strong. One of the first things that becomes apparent on entering the centre is its sense of community, as parents assist in lessons and activities with the younger children, specially designed to improve the children’s emotional development and social adaptation. For parents undertaking to bring up a son or daughter with a disability a network of parents working together, where their children are met with smiles and people who put an emotional investment in their lives, must be an inexhaustible source of strength. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that make a difference: at the end of each week Valentina has loaves of white bread delivered in bulk and the children know to go to the kitchen and collect their loaf of bread for their families. There are many lessons (and metaphors) that could be drawn from this one gesture; one of them could be that staff at Raduga possess the attention to detail that allows them to fill in all the gaps that can be filled without extensive funding.

There is palpable dedication towards helping the children develop psychologically. The children are divided into age groups to work with the student volunteers, who come to the centre almost every evening. There are many group musical activities to help the children to develop their speech. Speaking with people in their twenties in the art classes I’ve become convinced of how socially isolating speech impediments can be and how vital it is to develop speech when children are young. Raduga no longer employs a speech therapist to work with the children or child psychologists to advise parents about their children’s needs. As an observer at the centre it is therefore hard not to get an impression of only partial cure. But perhaps this is to miss the point that the centre is first and foremost a community centre offering advice, encouragement, support and belonging and cannot be expected to compensate for everything that cannot be found elsewhere. It is not in fact the only resource available to parents: many Russian kindergartens (which Russian children attend up to the age of 6 years) employ child psychologists and doctors can direct parents to kindergartens specialising in speech therapy, though in reality there may be waiting lists to attend such kindergartens, requiring parents to turn to private specialists.

As a community initiated by a neighbourhood group whose members all had similar concerns, the centre has proved to be a source of information gathering and exchange of experience. Valentina has organised talks by doctors and specialists for parents. The centre supports home schooling and Valentina, who has extensive personal experience in this area, offers consultations and advice to people undertaking to teach their children at home. The advice and the community support is perhaps the most tangible way in which the centre makes a difference in the lives of local parents and children. It is not only families who benefit from the activities and inclusive atmosphere the Raduga Centre has to offer but also young people who have grown up in care. Lena, who lives in a care home for people with disabilities, comes to the centre regularly to visit the friends she has made there and to run errands for Valentina such as buying materials for the art classes. For young people in care homes for people with genetic disorders or neurological conditions affecting cognition, many of whom can expect to live in these homes all their lives, such experience of self-reliance and independence from institutional structures is vital for self-confidence and psychological development.

The centre’s activities past and present speak of the striving on the part of both the director and certain volunteers to establish a true professional programme of cultural learning, psychological rehabilitation and cognitive development. To an extent this ideal has been realised: the children benefit from the attention and dedication of student volunteers and, when funding allows, are taken on summer camps where they learn about nature and take part in sport and recreation activities. Valentina also organizes trips and excursions for the children and approaches organizations that may help the children to explore the surrounding world. A talk given by keepers from the Moscow Zoo recently took place at the local children’s library. The keepers brought a selection of animals to the library, which they showed to the children and invited them to ask questions. The event evoked great interest and excitement amongst the children and the afternoon was enjoyed by parents, staff and children.

The professional resources that Raduga has at its disposal are nevertheless limited: the staff comprises the director and an administrator; all other activities are undertaken by students working with the young children and two volunteer art teachers. The Raduga Centre remains to a large extent a neighbourhood organisation run by parents for parents. Parents of older children in particular put in a lot of time at the centre, working with their teenage daughters on producing artwork to be sold at charitable auctions and shown at exhibitions. But in an organisation where parents form the base of volunteers how are professional standards imposed? The interaction between parents and children evokes feelings of compassion and unenvying admiration for parents energy and attentiveness that keeps their children happy and responsive to the world and the quiet dignity with which they strive to overcome as far as possible the limitations of their children's and by extention of their own lives. Nevertheless, there is no escaping the fact that activities led by parents fall far short of a learning environment: there is not a structured set of activities, where young adults can learn a specific set of new skills which are built on from week to week. Instead, the art activities seem to serve mainly as a backdrop for socialisation.

The professional gap is compounded by the practicalities of keeping the centre up and running. In the absence of a steady and reliable source of income, Raduga staff is faced with the unremitting necessity of searching out fundraising opportunities to give the centre its next breath of life. Most of the money is raised through exhibitions of the children’s artwork. These exhibitions are organised by public organisations like libraries and educational centres and by commercial companies. While I was visiting Raduga an exhibition was run by Gas Export and took the form of an auction of the handicrafts of the Raduga Centre and other similar organizations. The quality of the art work at Raduga is very high and great attention is paid to the finished product. At first glance this indicates that volunteers believe in and stretch the children’s abilities. The origami models, felt tapestries and other crafts in the display cabinets seem to serve as an instant reminder of the potential children with disabilities can reach with attentive tutoring and a supportive environment. The reality tells a different story: very few of the display items are produced in art lessons such as those run by Irina Molchanova, the majority are not produced by the children at all. The parents mostly take it upon themselves to keep up a steady supply of art work to be sold to raise money for the centre and their grown up children join in where and when they can. The complexity and quality of the art work, when removed from a pedagogical framework, is usually beyond their ability. Most of the time, the young adults are left to watch and take in their parents’ discussion. Meanwhile, Valentina spends a lot her time out of the centre making contacts and networking. This routine has kept the organisation on its feet for twenty years. Raduga has for the most part succeeded in securing more long term funding from organisations such as Friends House Moscow, but of late its activities have been reduced to this routine, in which the energy and talent of all involved, and there is considerable talent at Raduga, is expended on fundraising activities rather than being directed into the centre.

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:38:25 GMT

Read the story of Alina Zhatkina

The Dzerzhinskman
31 May, 2006

Is She Really Cured?!
Alina Zhatkina might have been a healthy girl. The reasons why she turned out to be otherwise remain unclear. Were her doctors guilty of negligence or was she simply the victim of cruel and unpredictable circumstances? There were complications during her birth and she was born through caesarean section. The fact that Alina was seriously ill only became clear several months later.

No Complications?
Alina recently turned two years old. She was born on 14th May 2004. Several days after her birth the doctors agreed that she and her mother Julia could be discharged from hospital. The order of discharge reads as follows: At birth: condition satisfactory. After 11 hours: medium severities. Muscle density below average. Head thrown back. The diagnosis read: damage to the cervical area.

Alina’s mother Julia thought she understood why her daughter was weak: the birth had not been easy for either of them. ‘In time everything will correct itself,’ she told herself, especially as the doctors had not reported any cause for alarm and the little girl weighed the right amount for a healthy baby – just under four kilograms.

Every month Julia took her daughter to see a neuropathology specialist, who noted on Alina’s patient records: no complications. Julia did not make any objections. After all, the development of small children does not follow any strict pattern. She could not say why her daughter at two months old did not fidget in her cot or hold on to her. But the doctors should have seen that at three months old Alina could not support the weight of her head and that her legs and arms hung limply as though they belonged to a rag doll.

And then one day without pre-warning Alina developed a peculiar twitch: her head would jerk and tremble as though she were having convulsions. Her parents instantly registered that something was very wrong with their daughter and rushed her to the neurologist. Even the neurologist could not say what their daughter was suffering from. But instead of the usual no complications her patient record now read in an uneven trembling hand emergency hospitalisation.

Diagnosis: incurable?
Alina was five months old when these fits first began. For the first time she came to the attention of Nizhny Novgorod doctors, who informed her parents that she had epilepsy. They began giving her treatment. Every day Alina was given tablets and injections. Alina was very ill and continually crying. The doctors did not listen to her. Undoubtedly they were trying to help her but in fact they were only tormenting her as they were treating her for the wrong illness. Only a few months later did the doctors diagnose her with cerebral palsy. The diagnosis was incurable.

Cerebral Palsy: The Facts

Cerebral palsy is caused by an abnormality in the development of the brain or by damage to one or several parts of the brain responsible for controlling muscle development and movement. The primary symptoms of cerebral palsy are problems with movement and balance and abnormal posture. Children with cerebral palsy learn to turn their bodies, sit, crawl and walk much later than healthy children and have difficulty with speech. Cerebral palsy patients have difficulty with co-ordination and even the most straightforward of movements can be difficult for them.
Many cerebral palsy patients possess average and sometimes above average intellect. Irrespective of their intellectual capacity, all children with cerebral palsy are capable of developing their abilities and cognition with appropriate medical treatment, physical rehabilitation and speech therapy.

Is There Hope?
At just over one year of age Alina was diagnosed as a Group 1 invalid. The family attempted to make up for lost time. Alina could not yet crawl or talk any better than a new-born baby.

Alina’s grandmother Lydia Alexeyevna had heard somewhere that the Moscow Paediatric Research Institute could help children like Alina. The family needed no further encouragement. Somehow they managed to gather together enough money for the journey from friends and relatives and left for Moscow.

On arriving in Moscow however they were confronted with a new problem: the treatment was too expensive for the family to afford. They returned home. Again they would have to borrow money from friends and relatives – what other choice did they have?

A few days later Julia again set off for Moscow with her daughter. Alina was prescribed a course of injections and again became very ill. They laid her face down and injected her all over her tiny body – in her arms, her legs, her back. Alina did not understand why they were hurting her. She cried and her mother cried with her. This procedure was carried out three times a week.

Julia only learned afterwards that these injections were very dangerous. And the risk had been for nothing as Alina did not get any better. Just as before, she lay in silence like a rag doll. Looking up at her mother she was unable to tell her how she felt as she could not yet even speak in syllables.

As soon as the doctors discharged her daughter from the hospital, Julia again set off in search of a treatment that could help her and found hope in St Petersburg. The doctors at the St Petersburg Institute of Bone Marrow Research promised to help the little girl. She needed an expensive operation - a bone marrow transplant. Where they would find the money her parents did not know.

A Nizhny Novgorod business helped them and shortly afterwards some private individuals in Nizhny Novgorod also responded to their call for help.

The transplants went ahead as planned, the first in St Petersburg, the second at the Moscow Medical Technologies Institute. The doctors told them to return home and wait for the treatment to take effect.

First Steps
Within a week after the operation Alina for the first time in her life raised herself up by her arms. Little by little she learned to support her back and finally managed to sit up! On her own! And only a couple of months earlier she had hardly been able to roll over onto her side…
These changes were recounted to me by Alina’s mother Julia and her grandmother Lydia. Alina is now two years old. As far as she can Alina is learning to crawl, sit, stand and speak…

Usually they spread a quilt over the carpet and sit Alina on the floor with a pillow behind her back so that if she falls it won’t hurt her. It is crucial that Alina does not get knocked or hurt as her bones and muscles are very weak. She still only sits upright with difficulty. Her body is fragile and weak and she constantly rolls onto her side or onto her back. Alina doesn’t understand why and with all her might tries not to fall sideways. When you and I feel ourselves falling we put out a hand to break the fall. Alina is not able to do this. She falls backwards, tries to raise herself up again and starts to cry. She is not yet able to stand up. She cannot call her mother as she is not yet able to say the words ‘mama,’ ‘papa’ or even ‘ba’ (babushka). However she repeats the syllable ‘ka’ with pleasure and kisses the family pet parrot Keshy when her mother brings him over to her. And when he flies away she tries to run after him.

Alina cannot walk by herself but needs someone by her side – her mother or grandmother. Bending over her they hold her hands. The little girl steps forward hesitantly and smiles seeing her legs moving her forwards. This is the sense in which Alina is now able to ‘walk.’ Yet for Alina this is a vast improvement. Every time she tries to walk Alina tries to do better than last time, tries to overcome her illness.

The doctors form the St Petersburg Institute of Bone Marrow Research say that Alina will learn to walk and in time will learn to talk. Her intellect has not been affected. And while she is still young there is much that can yet be corrected. Only one thing must not be allowed to happen: cutting short the treatment. Alina needs a minimum of three bone marrow transplants a year. Each transplant costs 70,000 roubles. Everyday she needs medicine. Without this treatment she will not get better. Alina also needs special shoes, which are very expensive and cannot be obtained in Nizhny Novgorod.

The family cannot find this money. Friends and relatives of the family have no more resources to help.

Help Alina!

Elena Bogomazova

Donations to help Alina Zhatkina can be sent by bamk transfer to Sverbank Rossia at: no. 43342/89 Volga-Vyatskova Sverbank Rossia, Dzerzhinsk, Pushkinskaya Ulitsa, 16. Account no: 42307810442161989374/48 Julia Viktorovna Zhatkina.
On 3rd June there will be a festval in the Park of Culture and Rest, where there will be a collection for Alina. The festival has been organised by The Association of Young dzerzhinsk Musicians, the Dzerzhinsk Youth Organisation Little Prince and the Students' Club Gaudeamus. The best rock bands will be playing. Don't miss it! Make your contribution! Save a child!

Andrei Tumanov of Little Prince, Dzerzhinsk worked with the family last year. The article shows how much community support can help people in crisis and also how much further there is still to go.

Please leave a comment or ask a question on the comments page!