• Russia
• What we do
• Partners
• In brief
• Read more

Russia

Sparks of hope for the homeless in Russia

Workshop with Russian NGOs and institutions in St. Petersburg, March 2006.

The Russian Government is not trying very hard to solve the problem when keeping a very unjust and old-fashioned system of person registration, which denies millions of people the right to medical treatment, formal employment and access to social services. Civil society, however, tries to give the homeless a hope of a changed future.

In early March 2006 a number of Russian NGOs and institutions gathered together with DanChurchAid’s Russia Office to prepare what will become the first countrywide alliance fighting to improve the livelihood of the socially marginalised people. Supported by the EU and Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DanChurchAid has for three years tried to promote and facilitate that organisations working with the socially marginalised people of Russia join forces to treat more than just the symptoms. In March the organisations met in a very dynamic workshop to take ambitious steps to become advocacy and rights-based actors in Russia, despite a challenging political climate and a very passive public opinion. But exactly because of the risky climate, it is absolutely necessary to work together.

Workshop, St. Petersburg, March 2006

Today, official sources estimate that there are about 5 million people living in Russia without a registration and without a home. People who, one way or the other, lost their entitlement to a residence, and thus, according to the Russian law, also to a registration as Russian citizens.

Officially, Russians can enjoy all human rights as guaranteed by the Russian constitution, but in practice they can only do so if they posses a residence permit, the so-called “propiska”.

Without a propiska you can’t get a job officially, but you must try your luck in the informal sector, subduing to the harsh conditions this sector offers. If you are an old person you can not get your pension and if you are sick you cannot benefit from medical care and social services. If you are an ex-convict, likely to be ill of a chronic disease such as HIV/AIDS, your chances of getting any of these rights fulfilled are equal to zero. The only way to get hold of new propiska, once you have the demonstrated mental resources needed to climb a mountain of bureaucracy, is to buy a residence. And with prices for a one-room apartment floating at around 35.000 USD in e.g. St. Petersburg, this is way beyond the most optimistic dreams for all homeless.

Progressive forces from various corners of civil society such as the penitentiary system, members of the regional Dumas (legislative body) and NGOs working with societal problems of all sorts all work to help the millions of socially marginalised people. Now they took the first steps to establish a network which will aim at replacing the propiska system, now decades old and introduced by Stalin as a means of controlling mobility of people. Obviously, this is an enormous challenge for partners not used to work against governmental policy, and whose resources in terms of advocacy skills and (wo)man power definitely could be stronger.

The new network which has no name as of yet will have its first general assembly in June this year, and will set up a small secretariat in a Russian region still to be decided. Strategies and policies are now in the making. The alliance activities will be funded through applications to donors such as DanChurchAid, who will play a role as coach and sounding board during the initial stages.

These quotes stem from a project carried out by a Russian NGO and partner to DanChurchAid, Nochlezkha, where 3000 homeless where given a voice to tell their story and speak their message. Although they are from the year 2000, they are sadly relevant in 2006.

By Morten Ronnenberg Møller , Head of Programme Policy, DanChurchAid