CRY RUSSIA

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This unique project provides a basic need for a number of children and more generally a means of breaking down barriers between the Russian and Chechen peoples. CRY is meeting the running costs of the Chechen part of the school for a guaranteed 3 years - initially for up to 40 Chechen children. Children who would otherwise have no hope of any schooling.

PODGORNAYA
Drug Rehabilitation Centre
There are 35 young people in the Centre now - boys and girls aged from 16 - 36 years old although CRY is specifically supporting the youngsters up to age 25. The Christian support team consists of 15 people, 5 families with 6 children.

Narina Coudaeva, project administrator, says: “People come to the centre through the work of local teams in our family of churches. Every Friday the team from the centre comes to Armavir to meet with the parents and people who want to be set free from drugs. The monthly fee is $40, just to cover the cost of food, but actually more than a half of the rehabilitants either come from poor families or they have stolen everything from their houses and their parents no longer have any means of paying.

Now that the centre has been running for some time, the local authorities really value what we are doing and in fact ask us to help them with other problems in our area. The local mayor has a good relationship with our leader Volodya.

We have a large canteen where we are able to serve meals and have meetings. There are five cottages at the camp, two of them used for rehabilitants, one for the team and two of them stores for wood and food for the animals. Each cottage can accommodate up to 30 people.

Thanks to the CRY grant, we have been able to repair the two rehabilitant cottages. It was very hard for us in the beginning because the cottages were used just for summer camps - they were just not suited to the harsh Russian winters. Now we have a heating system and it’s much better.

We have 4 hectares of land. 1.5 of it is used for planting vegetables and 2.5 for animal feed. We have planted cucumbers, potatoes, garlic, onion, carrot, cabbages, beets and so on. We also have 15 cows, and 4 horses. We have witnessed many miracles here. The rehabilitants just don’t experience any drugs withdrawals after the second or perhaps third day at the centre. They are able to sleep like little children from the very beginning.

They say the atmosphere itself is holiness and they feel God is watching over them with love and care. To any new rehabilitant, we appoint a ‘master’ to take care of them - ex-addicts themselves, but now set free and really devoted to helping others. Because they have beds together and work shoulder to shoulder - masters are often referred to as ‘shadows’. Newcomers are never left alone.”

Some testimonies... 'Helen', 21 years old..."I have been using drugs for 7 years. I wasn’t interested in life at all. Since I came to this centre one year ago, my life has completely changed. My mentality is completely different - my mind has been renewed. It’s all about God. I am really thankful to the Lord for this place because it provides real hope for the lost.”

'Ivan', 19 years old..."I tried drugs in 1997 when I was at school but then I got hooked. I tried to get rid of this terrible addiction, but all in vain. I should have been sentenced by the courts, but praise the Lord, now I know for sure that it was His hand that brought me here. My parents renounced me and I lost all my friends.
Now I have seen the real light and have come to realise that real faith can set you free. I have been here for seven months now - I follow God and like the way I am going now. Sometimes it’s difficult, but God strengthens me. I know that the darkness behind me is fighting for my soul, but He who is in me is greater than the one who is in the world.”

GROZNY, Chechnya
Education for Chechen Refugee Children
CRY is supporting the remarkable work of a Chechen teacher (previously one of the teachers at New Way School in Armavir) who is providing a basic education for around 20 refugee children by opening up her apartment rooms in which she lives. Most of the children are traumatised and have lost their fathers in the war.

A grant awarded to CRY enabled this work to be expanded through the renovation and equipping of a school building in war-torn Grozny for these and other children, most of whom have been refugees in other Russian republics during the recent conflict. Many, if not most, children in present day Grozny do not have access to any education at all. School buildings are largely destroyed.

MAKHACHKALA (Dagestan)
Rainbow School
Makhachkala is the main city of Dagestan province, situated immediately east of Chechnya. It is home for about 40 distinct ethnic people groups, mainly Muslim, often hostile to each other and definitely towards Russia generally. It is a very volatile area with regular terrorist skirmish scale activity sometimes erupting into major confrontation with the Russian military. It is economically deprived, has high unemployment, widespread alcoholism and drug abuse and is a recruiting ground for wider Islamic extremist activity. Many Chechen refugee families live here. General societal disintegration is reflected in an abysmal education system.

The Rainbow School has been operating since 2000, and currently occupies 3 rooms in the Hosanna Centre with some 40 children aged 7-12. A CRY grant in 2006 renovated and equipped 3 further rooms enabling the school, which is in much demand, to more than double in size and extend its age range. Also their rudimentary café and kitchen was upgraded.

The school is a remarkable initiative of the Hosanna Christian Church in conjunction with and supported by the local Muslim community. This expansion has not only provided a quality education to refugees and children from deprived backgrounds, but will most importantly has make a statement of ethnic and religious cooperation, and provides an environment for harmonious and healthy interaction between the school children, parents and community leaders.

The upgraded café has provided friendly interaction possibilities. There will also be skills training evening courses, a computer room for the youth of the local community, and cooking classes for the children.