Children at play with Russian military personnel in Kurchaloy, Chechen Republic as part of the Youth Tolerance Project.
"At first children were a little bit afraid of military staff, but they became good friends quickly and did not even want to let them go. They drew, played and danced together. I am no psychologist, but I consider, that the children received some sort of rehabilitation.”
- M. Sh. Okunchayeva, Project Head
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Most observers of Russia today agree that the Kremlin remains challenged by ongoing turbulence in the North Caucasus. Although Moscow has successfully restrained much of the violence within Chechnya itself, through military force and a program of "Chechenization," regional poverty, bureaucratic failure and corruption have fostered the spread of violence to neighboring republics. There are almost daily reports of explosions, assassinations, kidnappings, disappearances, and other atrocities.
Against this backdrop, USAID/Russia, with $5 million in Freedom Support Funds and $1 million in assistance from the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation, launched a series of activities to promote youth tolerance, psychosocial counseling for internally displaced people and victims of Beslan (a small town in North Ossetia-Alania, where terrorists seized a school-resulting in the deaths of over 300 children and adults), as well as economic development through micro-credit lending, community development and infrastructure rehabilitation. The Youth Tolerance Projects are designed to encourage dialogue and cooperation and promote peace-building and respectful community interaction among young activists, NGO leaders, and local authorities. The projects have reached more than 3500 people in their first year. One of the most compelling projects organized a partnership of local community members and Russian soldiers to build a playground designed by school children.
The aim of the project was to form positive images of Russian soldiers among orphans and other children affected by the situation in the region. To reach this goal there was a contest for “Drawing a Garden,” where children submitted playground designs. One of the kindergarten children, left by her mother with her grandmother when she remarried, cried all the time and had no interest in anything prior to the contest; but upon selection of her design and through the activity of building the playground with the soldiers she returned to her original active nature. The program was also supported by state and local authorities that contributed 5000 rubles to the picture contest itself and was well received by the larger community that was told of the project significance through numerous media reports.
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