Final Analytical Report on the Grant “Organizing a Network of Social Advocacy Services in the Remote Districts of Buryatia”

This final report is being sent to you with a great delay. It was delayed, first of all, because of a sudden sickness of the author and the leader of the project due to a car accident, which happened in December 2002. Secondly, we needed enough time to rethink the results and failure of the project.

It is not a secret that during the period of working on the project the author had many expectations and assurance of an easy achievement of the stated goal for the project. It was also supported by a 3-year experience of work in the area of helping the victims of home abuse and having connections and a business reputation of the organization.

The reality worked out a new perspective to the social state of things and to the problem of home abuse in the Republic of Buryatia, which I would like to disclose more fully in this report.

This report is submitted not only to fulfill the contract obligations but also for those who want to move to action.

The report will be useful for those who do not want their own life to be dwelt in fear.

The presented report expresses the opinion of the author of the project, which may not coincide with the opinion of UNIFEM, UN and its branches.

Irina Matveicheva

The director of the board

RPSOWC “Artemida”

Narrative report

1. Short description of the project
2. Description of the situation in the region
3. Special achievements and losses on the project
4. Recommendations and conclusions

Organization - beneficiary: RPSOWC “Artemida”

Code: TFVAW/CIS/RUS/ARTEMIDA/01

Project period: 20^th August 2001-20^th February 2003

Main actions on the project “Organizing a network of social advocacy services in the remote districts of Buryatia” were fulfilled in the following:

• Organizing initiative groups in the district of the Buryat Republic (further referred as “BR”), which are willing and are able to create social advocacy services (further referred as SAS) locally.

More than 15 groups were organized in 20 districts of the Republic. However, strict requirements, which are presented to the beneficiaries, excluded 3 initiative groups. So, only 12 groups submitted their applications for organizing SAS in the district. These are local governmental bodies; social care bodies and women's non-profit organizations (NPO). It is necessary to mention that state and municipal organizations made up the majority (75 %).

• Development of informational and analytic materials regarding the SAS working issues.

A handbook “Organization and methods of SAS work” was created, booklets were distributed, and leaflets and memos regarding security work of the established SAS were handed out to governmental, law enforcement and public organizations and to those who are interested. We received some first positive responses regarding the content. Experience of working with volunteers and social technologies on attracting volunteers to work with SAS were adopted and spread among SAS.

A library was formed on the base of RPSOWC “Artemida”, which consists of more than 200 items, which concern the topics of home abuse prevention regarding women. All SAS, which are in the same network, have access to the library, also the students of social psychology and law faculties of universities have access to the library.

During the project period 4 thesis papers and 5 term papers regarding the problems of home abuse were done on the basis of the library, which was organized by RPSOWC “Artemida”. These papers were also put into the library.

Moreover, there were suggestions from Universities to publish materials worked out by the staff of our organization with a goal of spreading them among the students in order to increase the education level of future social workers.

• Organizing educational activities (seminars, trainings) for SAS specialists, law-enforcement agencies and governmental bodies.

Five educational seminars were organized with the following topics: “Organization and methods of SAS work”, “Teaching the SAS staff skills of working with victims of abuse. Exchange of experience” and also there were away training seminars.

The total number of the participants in the educational activities was 212 people. Among them: 68,0% of women, 32,0% of men and 134 people (63,2%) - representatives of Buryatia districts. Anonymous questionnaires of the seminar participants showed t what degree they were satisfied with the event. The analysis showed that the classes were given an excellent mark (81,2% of the interviewed).

• Opening SAS in the districts of RB, having a contest for competition of partial SAS financing. Providing free consultative juridical and psychological help to the victims of family abuse.

As it was denoted above 12 groups presented their applications for sub grants to establish SAS locally. In the accordance with the approved contest guidelines in the grant format, worked out by the board of managers of RPSOWC “Artemida”, the contest was divided into two stages. Ten applications were presented for the first stage from the districts of BR, for the second stage only two applications from one district of Buryatia.

The basic criteria chosen for financing became:

• The existence of adversary criminal situation and offenses in families and households in the district;
• The existing experience of services to the victims of family abuse in any form;
• The existence of trained personnel;
• The existence of a detailed action program and an opportunity for monitoring;
• The existence of an opportunity for continuation of the program after abolishing financing;
• Partnership and /or a desire of cooperation with law enforcement and governmental bodies and representatives of community in places.

The fact should be pointed out that all the measures were undertaken to decrease influence on the Contest Committee and Expert Council opinion from the outside as well as from the inside. Altogether 7 presented projects received support (58,3%). Among them there're representatives of local self-governmental bodies - 2(28,6%); organizations of social defense and municipal bodies -3 (42,8%); women's non-governmental organizations -2 (28,6%).

4268 citizens applied for help to the founded SAS (including community reception room of RPSOWC “Artemida”). The number of phone calls from victims of abuse to the trust phone was1450 people from victims of sexual abuse in the family (not in the family) was 25 people, from victims of transport - 3people. Altogether 768 psychological consultations were provided. The quantity of juridical consultations in person was 1793.

We're proud of the fact that there's an experience of bringing to the criminal and administrative responsibility those who are guilty in women's offense. The number of the fulfilled cases with the help of SAS reached five.

• Conducting community educational campaigns

November 2001 - participation in the work of the 1^st Civil Forum of Russian Federation (Moscow) and topical discussion on the problem of abuse regarding women.

December 2001 - participation in the 11^th International session “Human rights, world's culture, tolerance: content and methods of training (Moscow). The SAS report was presented as one of the forms for defending human rights for life without family abuse.

January 2002 - establishing virtual SAS “Artemida”.

March 2002 - working discussion of SAS members of BR with divisional inspectors of MIA, RB.

March 26, 2002 - A meeting with an authoritative representative of RF President in Siberia federal district - Drachevsky L.V.

April 2002 - joining the organizational committee and participating in the work of International Women's Forum “Women for the surviving of the planet” (Irkutsk).

September 30^th - October 1^st, 2002 - participation in the work of Russian-French conference “Cruelty and abuse in a family” (Ulan-Ude).

November 11^th, 2002 - participation in the sitting of the Consultative Women Council in the presence of BR President with agenda “About preventing abuse in a family regarding women and children in BR”

November 15-16, 2002 - holding a Republican conference “Mentality of society and violence”. There were 83 people who participated in the work of the conference: representatives of society, governmental and law-enforcement organs, of local self-governmental bodies in the districts BR. The main achievement of the conference was collegial discussion and finishing the project of Republican program “Protection from and prevention of family abuse for the years 2003-2005”, which was presented by RPSOWC “Artemida”.

November 25, 2002 - presenting the project of the Program to the official organs of BR

February 11, 2003 - a meeting with an authoritative representative of RF President in Siberia federal district - Drachevsky L.V.

February 13, 2003 - A round table discussion “Mechanisms of cooperation between SAS and state organs in realization of the Republican program “Protection from and prevention of home abuse for the years 2003-2005”.

January 2001 till present time - a mass media campaign in BR “Mentality of society and violence”. Totally 47 publications were issued, among them 10 were issued in mass media on a republican level, 37- in mass media on a district level.

Key achievements on the project:

1. An integrated system of SAS in the districts of BR has been built. 8 SAS were established (taking into consideration a public office of RPSOWC “Artemida”) on general organizational - legal and methodological principles.
2. An access to informational resources regarding defense of women's rights for socially unprotected sections of population has been broadened. 4268 people have received free help through the SAS net in person and externally.
3. Thanks to SAS work and locating information about them in mass media of BR, an informative level of women, women's non-profit organizations/and community has increased concerning the abuse prevention towards women. The range was more than 10 thousand people.
4. A meaning of solving the problem of violence in home has increased on a level of state organs. The suggestions of RPSOWC “Artemida” were considered in some normative acts of Republican level, for example in the Action Plan of BR Government for the year 2003. The organs of local self-government activated their work in the given direction. Four more SAS were established on the basis of the initiative from the local self-governmental organs.
5. There is an experience of cooperation of community organizations, state and law-enforcement organizations in the questions of support and providing help to the victims of family abuse.

Even though there are some definite achievements in the process of fulfillment of the project, it is necessary to mention important possibilities and difficulties which we faced in the process of work.

In the area of politics and low-enforcement

The project activity coincided with the election period in the region; therefore there was a juncture-politics approach in relationships with NPOs. Nevertheless, it was pleasant to see that “women's” topics were raised in pre-election programs of candidates, including the problem of home abuse.

Local SAS willingly participated in the work with candidates. This activity on SAS part was not covered by RPSOWC “Artemida”, being personal initiative of SAS workers of the BR regions and it was according to their personal beliefs. Later there were some arguments and problems in the relationships between SAS workers and state organizations. The reason for that were the political views of SAS staff, especially if they supported a rival at elections. RPSOWC “Artemida” took neutral position, fully realizing that if it would be necessary to state our position regarding the matter, than the real situation of working with state organizations would be described.

BR is an economically depressive region with a donation budget. So up to 70 % of the budget consists of transfers form RF budget. Having this kind of a situation it is necessary to prove the budget assignations from the center. Social programs are especially attractive, and it would be even better if they were timely and new. The demand of receiving innovations in social sphere is growing; therefore state organizations willingly take public initiatives and make them their own, even so, when they are supported by international and national norms.

In our opinion, this was the reason why the BR government enrolled into the Action Plan of promoting the role of women and their social status in economic and social development of BR for the years 2002-2005, in creating a network of social service of advocacy in BR. The completion is planned for the years 2004-2005, provided that we have all the social technologies, tested by 1^st SAS under the supervision of RPSOWC “Artemida”. Here, in this case, we cannot talk about copyright and know-how; according to a reliable source there are official conclusions from Ministry of Labor and social development of BR and Ministry of Public Health of BR regarding the project of Republican program "Prevention and protection from abuse in family for the years 2003-2005." The fact that those Ministries did not consider it necessary to inform the author of the project about their opinion speaks to the fact of disrespect of public initiatives in preventive work of offences in family sphere, not admitting the transformation of a person from the object to the subject of public life.

In our opinion, this very important political claim determines in the big part future independence of any passed juridical actions in the region. Increasing of the social role of a person, real participation of citizens, their unification in solving social problems can stimulate innovations in the social policy of the region. Any socially useful activity has a right to be appreciated and it should be seen as an input to economic development. Realization and appreciation of it allows to develop social partnership, in international understanding, on a higher quality level and to support initiatives of citizens by organizing competitive budgeting of project and programs. This is included into the Republican program as a base. We can suppose, that officials pay more attention to the financial provision of the program, than to its essence.

With this state of things 1 item brings peace to mind that at least some part of program activities will emerge in norm acts at local level, moreover, having an Action Plan of the BR government, that is the factual approval of the idea from "above".

In the area of social-cultural relationships

In order to solve the problem of women abuse in the BR it is becoming necessary to research the status of a woman in the historical development, because it gives an opportunity, having noticed the positive and negative sides of her status in the past, to identify the main directions for a factual improvement of her status in the present. It is necessary to take into consideration historical, ethno cultural and ethno confessional factors when discussing and solving the problem of the status of a woman today. If we neglect and disregard them, if we concentrate only on the present, it may bring a lot of mistakes, quick and not thought over actions.

A big Buryat family as well as a small one, in its structure was a patriarch family. Nevertheless, the status of a hostess of the home (wife, mother) was as high as that of the host - the head of the family (husband, father). Both parties performed organizing functions in all the forms of a Buryat family in equal manner.

In the Buryat society attitude towards a woman, her status and the degree of her freedom depended on what tribe she belonged to and what role she carried in her family. Great freedom of a girl in the Buryat society, in particular, was seen in an indulgent attitude to her pre-marriage ties. Upon marriage, due to ethic and religious norms, a young woman - bride was under numerous restrictions and prohibitions, which regulated her behavior.

Having become a mother and the hostess of a house, a young woman received a higher status in a family, and in the society in general.

In the Buryat society the status of a woman, whose life pattern differed from the norm pattern (spinsters, childless), was very low.

In any life situations the dowry of a woman was her property. If the husband wasted her property, the woman had a right to tell the tribe elders about it. The husband was able to sell something of his wife's dowry only upon her agreement.

The Buryat woman could get a divorce with her husband in case of bad treatment and abuse from him. A great majority of Buryat women in the past used baptism as means of divorce.

In the Buryat society widows did not stay without moral or financial help. The common low of all local Buryat groups prescribed them to helps widows. The elder widows were supported by their children, childless - by their relatives. Some widows, if they wanted to, according to levirate, could move into the family of her deceased husband's younger brother.

From long ago, a widow, who was the head of the family, took equal part with men in suglans.

It is necessary to mention the fact that Shamanism and Buddhism of the Buryats supported patriarch, generational family style.

So, the Buryat woman had less juridical support in the past comparing to the Russian woman and to the woman of some peoples of Caucasus, though in some regions, at the same time, her status was characterized by a greater independence, comparing to the status of women in some nations of the East (for the example, Central and Middle Asia, China, India).

The above information is material from the first scientific research regarding the status of a woman in the Buryat society, done by a Candidate of Science in History Ludmila Dondokova. The author in several publications states the main points of the dissertation.

The necessity of research of new approaches in helping the victims of home abuse and violence requires consideration of the ethno cultural peculiarities of the Buryats.

In regards to the things mentioned above, the fact that a number of Buryat women looking for help is very low comparing to other nationalities, is not surprising. Even though the percentage of the Burayts among the Russians has decreased (up to 20 %) the generational customs among the Buryats remain. Nowadays, the Buryat women admit their special status in the family, so that is why there is low interest in participation on the project comparing to women of other nationalities. We have all the basis to suppose that this is due to the historical, ethno cultural and ethno confessional factors.

In the area of institutional foundations

An interest of the official structures in the project process and the possibility to use the results of the project especially arose due to the fact that the year 2003 was announced as "The Year of the Family". We noticed increase of organizations and structures that have social services for families in the BR, especially in the area of the social protection.

The realization of the project in the region became one of the main factors of creating a healthy competitive atmosphere in the area of providing social services to victims of home abuse. So, through RPSOWC “Artemida” organization of SAS was financed in Kyahta, Tunka, Mukhorshibir, Dzhida, Zakamensk districts of the BR, in Octyabrski and Zheleznodorozhni regions of Ulan-Ude city. According to the letter of Ministry of Labor and social development of BR, SAS were also created in Kabanks, Severobaikalsk, Selenginsk, Tarbagatai districts of BR.

A conflict situation created by receptors of monetary funds, who violated contract discipline, who showed low juridical culture and who used power methods of manipulation and who were biased to the corporative-state interests, promoted support and development of SAS by state bodies in those districts, where our organization stopped financing, in particular: Kyahta and Tunka districts of BR and October region of Ulan-Ude.

Let's hope that created structures, regardless of what form they take, would increase juridical protection of women. As polls show 76,8 % of all the questioned women consider themselves to be juridical unprotected. It is necessary to mention growth of non-governmental and non-profit organizations in BR with active civil position. It is interesting to notice that even though their lot among NPOs in BR is low (about 2,3 % from the total NPOs), they still desire to unite and to work out coordinated actions in the questions of lobbying and developing strategies in law-making in the sphere of social politics of BR. Having a great part of population (37 to 46,9 %) who think of abuse as an integral part of life and who allow all forms of management with force to be exercised over them, the presence of such organizations gives us hope to become a more civil society.

In economy sphere

In any sphere we can rely only on three main resources: time, people and money. More often people complain about lack of money, forgetting that if they are creative and if they make the idea of protecting the rights of women and of life without abuse and violence in family attractive, this lack of money can be made up for by attracting people and beforehand planning. As a proof to that we can mention volunteers who took part in the project and some people who sympathize and share the same ideas. The overall number of those people has reached more than 35 people. The fact that they have free time and desire to help allows us to minimize expenses on the project. We cannot put price on intellect and creativity, but they can modernize any project in social sphere.

In particular, this was the reason of economy on salaries of more than 1 thousand US dollars and it allowed to increase expenses designated to equip public office of SAS.

Using a selective process to attract organizations, which have their own sources of funding and potential possibilities of realizing the project in the future, and creating on their basis SAS in districts of BR helped to save finances on the articles like "business trips" and "sub grants" in overall sum of more than 12 thousand US dollars. The main task was not to create and to support budget-dependant life style of the organization, which passed the qualifications. Also the project results speak for themselves.

Analysis of economic situation of BR allows us to draw some conclusions regarding financial provision of Republican program "Protection from and prevention of home abuse for the years 2003-2005", and also regarding any program of social focus in the region:

1. According to our research about 80 thousand US dollars are spent annually by business ladies for charity. These funds are often not registered. In our opinion, this monitory flow can be and should be increased and legalized through tax reduction in local and regional (republican) budgets on the sum, which serves social needs, having a status of regional program. As our poll showed a great number of business ladies (more than 54,2 %) are willing to directly finance social projects if they have such conditions.
2. Transformation of a person from an object to the subject of public life of the region and, therefore, social politics of BR allows to use mechanisms, which coincide with the following principles: availability, openness, selectiveness, result and possibility to evaluate the results; additional sources of financing and resources in the form of free-will offerings, membership fees, human resources, intellectual property and non-material assets. Which lead to increase of volume of public significant activities and occupation of BR, development of socially oriented business, decrease of social tension and strengthening social security of the society.

A. As a result of the project realization there was an increase in knowledge about the issues of home abuse, more people asked for help from SAS in the area of home abuse and violence. Medium growth of numbers of help enquiries was 103,4 %. There is also growth of numbers of help enquiries from men; the percent in the year 2002 was 11,7%.

The fact that the President of the BR discussed the problems of abuse in regards to women and children had a great social resonance. The Republic is a region with commanding-administrative order, having some special historic and ethno cultural peculiarities; therefore discussion of this issue at such a high level of authority was locally considered as an order for action. The majority of representatives of local governmental bodies showed initiative and activated local work in creating services for women, who are in difficult life situation. There were 11 SAS organized all in all. The issues of prevention of violence and abuse in family were raised more often at scientific-practical conferences of the region and in republican mass media.

B. The biggest problem was low qualification, and sometimes absence of people at local SAS, who were able to analyze work results and to work out indicators for identification of specific results on the project. The majority of SAS staff (those are mainly representatives of state and municipal organizations) and responsible people for the project mainly do statistical data. There was a weak use of relative and integral indexes. In our opinion, this is due to several reasons:

- In governmental organizations it is very important to keep one's position and to make a career, therefore any objective information about the real state of women, who suffered home abuse, may be regarded as a proof of "incompetence" of a worker. Which leads to misinformation and false data. The author of the project had frank talks with specialists of ministries, who agreed that if the information, which RPSOWC “Artemida” presents in reports, will somehow come to the hands of a higher organization, than the best that can happen to them is that they would loose their jobs.

- There is a great flow of paper work locally.

C. Another problem is changing of leading people of state and law-enforcement agencies of middle joint that are due to elections to juridical branch and/or changing of the leader of a ministry. So, because of a shift in the management already now it is hard to talk about he quality relationship of the work organizational department of divisional inspectors MIA, BR and about a desire of corporate work regarding a prevention of violence in households. RPSOWC “Artemida” took more than 3 years to prove its trustworthiness and commitment to the work to the previous responsible persons. Taking into consideration that very attitude of a structure towards an organization fully depends on the director's opinion, and mentality of organization and administration's workers is quite stereotype and mythological, it is clear that there is a necessity of constant work with new people. In addition, the case is worsened by the fact that interference of stereotype mentality and perception is rather high, especially in the area of abuse towards women.

D. In the process of project realization one more difficulty appeared. It was out-of-date knowledge about the third sector of society and/or absence of the trained personnel from the state and law-enforcement organs for working with non-governmental organizations. If there is a person then his mentality, as a rule, is stereotype and often reflects “soviet perception of society”. Apart from this, we can detach one more group of problems, which, from our point of view, are an inheritance from the post-soviet period. These are: a low legal culture of society, legal nihilisms, nostalgia toward paternalism and so on. These problems deserve separate research though.

E. The main advantage of the project was understanding of the society that it is conducted with the support of UNO and trust fund of UNIFEM. Giving an international status let more freely open the doors of many official persons, shortening time for proving significance of the declared theme.

Basically, big problems appeared concerning support of communication with the regional UNIFEM office and UNDP. We have to read dozens of e-mails every day and state the facts of important e-mails being whoever-knows-where lost e-mails. We can definitely observe violation of privacy of e-mails from the third parties. To prove that there is a fact that our organization has not received the originals of a grant agreement in English and in Russian, though it has been mentioned twice.

We ask to send certified copies of the agreements to the office of UNDP in Moscow, where our representative can take them in the nearest time, it is desirable to send an e-mail copy with attachment of scanned agreement.

We think, it is necessary to create a regional representative office of UNDP; it can be temporary, for the period of conducting projects in the region. The responsibilities of the structure can be:

• representative structures;
• supporting communication with organizations, participating in the realization of projects and campaigns;
• action coordination of the parties involved
• conduction monitoring of the projects and campaigns
• providing translation services to the organizations, working out the project.

F. In the process of conducting the project a strategic partnership with the following organization was organized and promoted:

1. Consultative Council of women in the presence of BR President
2. A Council of women in the presence of Ulan-Ude Mayer
3. A committee of the president Administration and the Government of BR regarding the work with nationalities and connections with public, religious organizations.
4. An Administration Committee of social policy of Ulan-Ude
5. Management of Labor and social development
6. Organizations, on the basis of which SAS were founded: Administration of Dzhidinski district BR, Science Center “Center of healthy life style and family planning” of Zakamensk district BR, MO “Territorial center of social help to families and children, village “Zagorsk”, RPSO “Union of women in Mukhorshibir district BR” and so on.
7. Buryat State University
8. East-Siberian State Technological University
9. More than 20 NPOs
10. More than 50 business ladies
11. More than 5 republican mass media

A. Support of public initiative and public useful activity in BR is not possible without admitting the person as a subject of programs that have a social focus. This important political claim should find its reflection in Concept of social development of the Buryat Republic for the years 2003-2008. It is recommended to include a separate chapter dealing with human rights, including life without violence and abuse in family. After that to discuss and to accept Republican program “Protection from and prevention of home abuse for the years 2003-2005.”

B. To activate efforts for working out mechanism of intersectional interaction in realization of the Republican program.

C. The main distinctive moment of the present in Russia is constant renewal of legislative basis. We recommend focusing your attention on organizing educational programs on implementation of law norms for protection of the victims from home abuse and violence among mixed groups from representatives of governmental organizations and law-enforcement agencies, SAS staff, mass media and publicity.

D. To allocate funds for strengthening institutional foundations SAS in districts of BR, especially for communications, salary for consultants and methodological supplement.

E. To attract workers of procurator's office and courts of BR more actively in organizing educational seminars.

F. To do monitoring of events, having attracted specialists through a selective process.