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News, June 2007

Community Development Support Program in Russia: First Results

News, June 2007

The CDSP initiative helped raise four times more matching funds in the form of donations than the grant amount of one of its projects

A complex consisting of four projects  and entitled “The Future of Our Children” is presently being fulfilled under CDSP in the city of Shchyokino, a raion capital in Tula Oblast where  the world famous Leo Tolstoy Estate Museum Yasnaya Polyana is located.
Of the 111,000 residents of Shchyokino, 68,000 have benefited from the activities of these projects.

The project complex addresses the following problems of the municipality:

• Reducing heat losses and saving funds by introducing energy-efficient techniques at social institutions
• Decreasing the illness rate among children in Shchyokinsky Raion
• Involving children and youth in the promotion of healthy life styles and conservation programs

“Everyone should have the right and possibility to help others!” – this decision was made by the team of the project complex “The Future of Our Children” carried out in Shchyokino. To implement this decision, the team announced a fundraising event “Let’s Help Our Children!” that helped raise over three million rubles in the course of six months. This initiative was initially motivated by CDSP project activities at Shchyokino Children’s Hospital. The additionally donated funds, as well as the 650,000 rubles awarded to the project by the donor, USAID, will be spent for new energy-efficiency techniques, renovation and re-equipment at the hospital.

The consortium of organizations working on the project complex includes, apart from Shchyokino Children’s Hospital, Lev Tolstoy Gymnasium # 2 in Yasnaya Polyana, Lev Tolstoy State Pedagogical University in Tula, and Tula Regional Public Movement in Support of the Yasnaya Polyana Agreement Society.

At the end of June 2007, practically all old window units at Shchyokino Children’s Hospital were replaced by new plastic ones.
A replacement of the old heat supply system at the Gymnasium with a new one will begin in July and will end by the beginning of the school year.

Two projects of the project complex are devoted to youth: during summer vacation, students will monitor the environment and take part in practical activities such as cleaning water bodies, cleaning city areas and planting trees and shrubs, and participating in recreative sports activities and in a contest of creative works. A gym will be equipped at the Gymnasium in Yasnaya Polyana, whose students include 60 orphans from the neighboring children’s home.

	Such posters with social advertisements of the fundraising event “Let’s Help Our Children!” were installed in Shchyokino free of charge by one of the city’s advertising agencies
A patient at Shchyokino Children’s Hospital presented one of her paintings to USAID and FSD representatives as a token of gratitude	Natalia Pilus, Head of Shchyokinsky Raion, Coordinator of “The Future of Our Children” Project Complex and Chair of the Public Movement in Support of the Yasnaya Polyana Agreement Society, speaks about the progress of the Program. Other participants in the discussion include Ruslan Butovsky (representative of the Fund for Sustainable Development), Sean Huff and Yuri Kazakov (ORD/USAID)
At the end of June 2007, practically all old window units at Shchyokino Children’s Hospital were replaced by new plastic ones