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News. September 2008.

CDSP 4th Round Projects are Launched in Baikal Region

Photo 1 - the pipes of the heating unit in Kindergarten # 2 are being repaired and insulated at the cost of municipal funding

Photo 2 – E.Milanova (FSD) and A. Suvorova, consortium coordinator, are interviewed by Shelekhov Television

Photo 3 - This old ultrasound examination apparatus will be modernized during the project

Photo 4 - The sports ground of School #7 with its outdated athletic equipment

Photo 5 - The old uneconomic boilers in Komsomolskaya School

Photo 6 - Project participants observe and sample the water of Pogromninsky Mineral Spring

Photo 7 - A polluted bank of Lake Sosnovskoye

Eight CDSP projects (3 project complexes) have been planned for implementation in Baikal Region in the cities of Shelekhov and Zima in Irkutsk Oblast and in Yeravinsky Raion, Republic of Buryatia.

These projects are targeted toward achieving concrete economic and social results in respective communities, ensuring project and multi-sector interaction and producing a synergetic effect from the project complexes. In the process of preparing these projects, a benchmark study of project fulfillment conditions was carried out and pre-award trainings were conducted.

Two projects based in Shelekhov are devoted to improving conditions for children in pre-school institutions. Project 1 carried out by the City Education Department involves a modernization of heat points and installation of heat meters in 3 local kindergartens (Kindergarten # 19 (Malyshok), Kindergarten # 15 (Raduga) and Kindergarten # 2 (Kolosok), which are attended by a total of 800 children). This will allow to save funds and to channel them to addressing social issues in these institutions. The preparation of heating units has begun (Photo 1).

Project 2 includes 3 kindergartens, winners in the contest held in April and May of this year to determine pre-school institutions that are most active in improving the areas around them. The project will install health equipment: a physical therapy room in Kindergarten # 17 (Zolotoi Kluchik) for 250 children (the room will be renovated at the cost of municipal funding); an athletic and game complex will be installed in Kindergarten # 14 (Alyonka) for 165 children (the equipment is in the process of being selected, a design has been prepared and vendor negotiations are being carried out); and a relaxation room in Kindergarten # 19 (Malyshok) for 300 children (the room is being renovated and equipment is being selected on the basis of price lists from vendors).

Discussions with project participants included such questions as the planned social activities in kindergartens to improve the areas around their buildings; forming initiative groups of preschoolers’ parents for undergoing training in fundraising (jointly with  Shelekhov Community Development Fund); and organizing advanced training for 250 local teachers at Kindergarten # 14 Alyonka, which is the pilot site of Irkutsk Advanced Teachers’ Education Institute. The training will be conducted by instructors from the cities of Baikalsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye and Irkutsk.

A correspondent of Shelekhov Television included an interview with E. Milanova (FSD) and A.Suvorova (project consortium coordinator) in her news item about the consortium (Photo 2).

A project complex consisting of 3 projects is under way in the city of Zima.

Project 1 is devoted to modernizing the heating system and installing heat and hot water meters in Kindergarten # 11, Kindergarten # 16 and the Children and Youth Sports School. The heating units in these institutions have already been renovated at the cost of the municipal budget and are ready for the installation of meters.

Project 2 is being carried out in the outpatient clinic for women at Zima City Hospital where a family planning center will be established. Project activities will include supplementing the existing ultrasonic examination apparatus with color Doppler sounding features (Photo 3) to ensure more thorough health surveying and early diagnosis; introduce regular monitoring of family reproductive health; provide social assistance to low-income families in the form of free contraceptives; and conduct an extensive healthy lifestyle and disease prevention promotion effort, which is especially important in year 2008 that was declared Family Day and also for future health improvement in the community.

Project 3 involves improving the sites and building health and athletic complexes in 4 schools (Elementary School # 11, and Middle Schools ## 18, 1 and 7) that are attended by a total of 1,222 pupils. Schools ## 1 and 7 practically lack adequate sports equipment except for a few deteriorated handmade ones (Photo 4). During the project a host of sports pageants and contests will take place.

An article was written for the newspaper Prioksky Weekly and a press release devoted to the consortium is in the process of being prepared.

Three projects are being fulfilled in Yeravinsky Raion in the Republic of Buryatia.

Project 1 includes the installation in Sosnovo-Ozerskaya and Komsomolskaya schools of energy-efficient combined gas-producers and boilers and shifting to the use of wood waste instead of firewood and high-ash coal from the nearby (30 km) coal strip mine. The old boilers have been in operation since 1974 and have become overaged (Photo 5).

The resulting energy savings will be reinvested to meet the needs of the school, with the reinvestment mechanism being based on a directive issued by the representative body of Yeravinsky Raion Local Self-Government. The project will make it possible to not only save energy resources, but to reduce environmental pollution and also create optimal temperature conditions in the school for over 800 children, thus ensuring a general health improvement.

Project 2 is devoted to replacing old windows in Sosnovo-Ozerskaya School to create comfortable conditions for the children and to improve their health; preparing an Integrated Health Promotion Program; and organizing child health monitoring by doctors from the Central Yeravinsky Raion Hospital.

Project 3 will help schoolchildren master such skills as local lore research work, studying the recreation potential of local sites, and mapping out tourist routes. The project team will also improve the Pogromninsky Mineral Spring (Photo 6), which has been mentioned as far back as in the 18th century. There are over 20 such springs with good quality water in the vicinity that are used by the community. Pogromninskoye Settlement was founded by navigator Vitus Bering during his Kamchatka Expedition when the road to Moscow was being planned and a post-office was opened in the settlement. The raion boasts a multitude of historical monuments, which will be documented during the project and in the processes of planning the tourist routes. Project activities will also include cleaning the banks of lakes (Photo 7) during conservation activities that will be joined by local schoolchildren.
Yeravinsky lakes, along with Arakhleiskiye lakes located at the boundary with Chita Oblast, are Eurasia’s largest water divide that also feeds rivers of the Arctic Ocean: Vitim-Lena and Shilka-Argun.

The recipients of technical assistance from all CDSP 4 project consortiums in Baikal Region (Shelekhov, Yeravna and Zima) have displayed much interest in the projects and have taken an active part in benchmark monitoring and training. It is expected that a considerable amount of project co-funding from various sources will be provided to all the consortiums.