CHARITY REACHES OUT TO HOMELESS
By Tom Washington and Rebeccah Billing
Moscow News, Russia
Aug 30 2007
Are you sick of hostile shop assistants, stifling metros and the taste
of dill? Does the convenience of cheap vodka no longer persuade you
to spend yet another winter in the cold heart of the Motherland?
If you have made the decision to pack up and flee Moscow then help is
at hand to make your packing a little easier, your suitcases a little
lighter and your conscience a little cleaner after the excesses of
the big city.
The international charity Caritas, in cooperation with a medical-social
center at metro Kurskaya, have teamed up to provide a service to
deliver expats’ unwanted clothes, shoes and blankets to the homeless
people of Moscow. The drop off point is at 4a Nizhniy Susal’niy
pereulok, but if your orienteering skills are not up to scratch
then you can email shelter[email protected] to arrange for an expat
volunteer to pick up the clothes and deliver them for you.
Caritas first began in Moscow in response to perestroika. As companies
went bust and salaries were never paid, many found themselves on the
streets. These unfortunates quickly discovered that New Russia had
made scant provision for them. So, from 1992 Moscow’s Caritas Centre
started to provide food and basic clothing.
With each year the organization’s activities in Moscow grew and
branched into new areas: providing money for transport, local-staff
training, medical treatment and help with obtaining documents. The
charity is starting a new educational program to teach people how to
use a computer and increase their opportunities.
There is an office at Timiryazevskaya where various projects, such as
an aid-dispensing bus that runs at night, are organized. There is also
a workshop in Vladykino that caters to men, who incidentally make up
about 85 percent of the homeless population. Marina Perminova, Project
Director at Caritas Moscow explains: "Lots of men lost their jobs after
perestroika and losing their place in society drove many to alcoholism,
which in turn led to family breakdowns and divorce. After divorce it
is women who keep the house and men are turned out. There is also the
problem of the lack of provisions for criminals once they are released
from prison. Presently, many are simply put out onto the streets."
Marina also noted that homeless women are a lot harder to spot than
men: "I have seen homeless women who live in train stations that are
so well presented: clean and well dressed, that you would never know
they are homeless. But I think that generally women approach problems
in more creative ways and so are less likely to get to the stage of
being homeless."
At the workshop participants gather round a long table and take
part in a kind of creative group therapy, the men draw and paint
using different techniques. Above all, they talk. These are not
unsophisticated people. The prevalent image in Western Europe and North
America of homeless is of people born into a disadvantaged situation,
who then descend into still less favorable circumstances.
This is not the case with Moscow’s homeless, many of whom have received
higher education.
One of the men around the table, an Armenian named Samuel, explained
that he had owned his own business until a change in the ruble-dollar
exchange rate turned his bank-loan into a crippling debt. Samuel
went bankrupt and ended up losing his apartment: "My wife is in
Armenia, I want to return to her but I can’t get a passport. The
Armenian embassy says that I am no longer Armenian as I have been in
Russia for 30 years already. But I am a Russian without documents,
therefore I am neither Russian nor Armenian, I am no one. In order
to get a passport money is required for a bribe, but again you need
a passport in order to be able to work on Moscow."
Many homeless people in Moscow find themselves effectively outside
the law as all passports need to be registered to an address. Without
appropriate documents, homeless people are unable to travel, gain
employment or seek hospital treatment.
Samuel attends activity sessions at the center twice a week from
2 until 5 p.m.: "I enjoy these sessions, we get together, chat,
why not? It’s nice. I never really liked drawing, they asked me to
draw Mount Ararat today but it didn’t really work out. I have always
been more technically minded, I studied mechanical engineering at
university."
One of the guests around the table was Peter Litvinenko. Peter has
published four books of poetry and his wife was a successful painter
who held exhibitions around the world: "For seven years my wife and
I lived in Israel, but my wife became ill and we decided to return
to Russia. One year ago my wife died and her parents, who owned the
apartment we were living in, decided to sell it. I had no rights and
found myself on the streets."
When asked if the plight of homeless people, such as Samuel and Peter,
is improving Marina is surprisingly upbeat: "On one hand the number
of homeless people in Moscow is growing, but on the other hand the
government is paying more attention to the issue and looking for
ways to improve the situation. There is currently talk of a bill
passing through the Duma, which will ease registration restrictions
for homeless people; a change in the law will help homeless people
to feel that they are citizens of Russia again."
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