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Pacifist protest in school
The Tenth-Grade studentversus the military
They threatened to mess up his permanentrecord if the tenth grader at a village school in theArsky region did not take military training classes.The classes are required for boys as part of OBZh —a health and safety course taught in all Russianschools.
“I’m a pacifist. I think it’s just not right forme to assemble and disassemble automaticweapons. I don’t want to spend beautiful days inMay playing war,” explained 17-year-old Kamil tothe newspaper Evening Kazan.
This is the first case in Tatarstan where astudent has openly refused to take part in the OBZhclasses out of conviction. Up until now, if youngpeople asked to be excused from the training, itwas on grounds of poor health.
The student turned for help to For Our Sons,the advice centre for conscientious objectors andconscripts that is supported by Friends HouseMoscow.
For Our Sons took up his case. But they neededto find a way to stay in contact with him during thelong and complicated process of arguing with theauthorities.
With financial support from FHM, the advice
Newsletter Winter 2017
Дом Друзей в МосквеFriends House Moscow
office purchased an inexpensive mobile phone andloaned it to Kamil. With its help they kept in touchwhile Kamil wrote applications and filed appeals.
Meanwhile he did not report to the camp. Hejust kept going to school every day. And despitetheir earlier threats, the school administrators didnot force the issue.
Instruction in preparedness for militaryservice has been required for high schoolstudents, and also for those in pre-professional colleges or technical schools,since 2010, when it was established by orderof the Ministry of Defense and Ministry ofEducational Sciences of the RussianFederation.
In the last couple of years there havebeen similar cases of protest in different partsof Russia. Human rights workers aredeveloping a proactive strategy. Along withthe weapons training, they would like highschools to develop alternative programmes inpeace skills — like firefighting or first aid.
Friends House Moscow
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Anton Konovalov is an expert in conflictresolution. He is an educational psychologist, andmember of the Association of Curators of MediationServices and Mediators, based in Moscow.
Anton came to us with a proposal to set up anation-wide training programme for mediators. Heplanned to create instructional sessions for at least200 educational specialists (psychologists, teachers,administrators), in which they would be trained asmediators and as initiators of reconciliationservices. The work would take place in sevendifferent regions of Russia.
Thus the project called, in Russian, "Peace toyour Home" was born.
Training for mediators
The "Seven Cities" project
Wider outreachIn fact even more than seven cities were
involved (see map). And the influence did not stopthere. Much of the material has been videoed andplaced online, including a webinar by a specialistfrom Ukraine who spoke about this kind of work inhis country, and video lectures by Lyudmila
Karnozova, an expert on restorative justice.On his website, Anton has also added a
collection of educational programs and manuals foryoung mediators in schools. These materials havebeen contributed by mediators from severaldifferent regions of Russia.
The first reconciliation services in Russia were created in2001-2. They run more than 3,000 programmes annuallyinvolving 12,000 people.
Above: training in the city of Kirov, as reported by local TV
Would you like someone to come and speak about FHM at your Meeting?
In the USA: [email protected]
In the UK and europe: [email protected]
Friends House Moscow
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The AVP group in Moscow has been inactivefor a while, but work is starting up again. Thefacilitators have been using our Moscow office forregular meetings. In September they held aworkshop. One ofthe participantswrote about it onFacebook:
"Hooray!"Alternative toviolence" is alive !!!Because there areinterested people!We will continue
"
AVP in Moscow
International Peacemakers awardAlla Soroka of AVP
Ukraine has received anInternational PeacemakersAward.
Every year since 1984,the Presbyterian Church(USA) has chosen twelveindividuals who can help thechurch to more fully“embody and activate God’svision of a just and peacefulworld”.
There have been 250awards to people from 60different countries. Therecipients visit the United
Alternatives to violence in Ukraine
States to meet with congregations, colleges and communities.Alla Soroka is a leading light of the Alternatives to
Violence Project (AVP) in Ukraine. This work is supported byFriends House Moscow and by the US charity This Child Here, forwhich Alla works as project manager in Odessa.
Much of AVP Ukraine’s recent work has been withrefugees from the war in eastern Ukraine, especially thedisplaced children. AVP workshops build trust between peopleand teach skills in dealing peacefully with conflict situations.About her work, Alla writes:
"In the atmosphere of acceptance and freedom,participants are given the opportunity to work and deal withconflicts. I felt and realized people must appreciate each other.When they can listen to each other without criticism, whenthey practice these skills, they create an atmosphere ofhealing."
Quakers in Philadelphia were delighted to meet Alla,
Alla Soroka
especially because it was her birthday.It was celebrated with a dinner, aconcert, and some birthday cake. Allawrote: "I was unbelievably happy toobserve my birthday with Friends. Thiswas very unexpected; it was thesurprise of surprises! But I am so happythat it was in this company!"
One of the dinner guests wasFriend Chuck Esser, who helped todevelop the very first AVPprogrammes. AVP was originallycreated by Quakers for peace work inAmerican prisons in the 1970s.
It is a wonder to see AVPpractices reflected back, gifted back, tous from Ukraine, where trainers haveapplied it in different situations, andhave developed particular strategiesfor work with children and youngpeople.
Alla with Quakers in Philadelphia
What does your donation buy?Some examples from recent projects..
$27 (£21) - phone, postage etc. for 6 months(school mediation project)
$120 (£95) - one issue of a newsletter forconscientious objectors
$450 (£360) - projector (children with specialneeds project)
$1,430 (£1,145) - programme coordinationfor 1 month (refugee school)
$1,300 (£1,040) - Quaker outreach websitework for 1 month
Friends House Moscow
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Donate online at www.friendshousemoscow.org or send donations to:In Europe:
Friends House MoscowUnit 14451PO Box 6945London W1A 6US, U.K.
In North America:Friends House Moscow Support AssociationPO Box 60253Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA
Donations to the U.S. address or online in US $ are tax-deductible on U.S. tax returns.
Could you help publicise our work and raise funds? Email [email protected] for details
Thank you!Can you volunteer to help?
Scan this code tovisit our website
FHM supports projects that promote peace and transform lives in the countriesof the former Soviet Union.Join us in our work
Please donate to Friends House Moscow
Friends House Moscow is now a publishinghouse, thanks to the past five years of fundingfrom the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Theproject has yielded twelve books translated intoRussian, and numerous shorter texts postedregularly on the Russian language website and inRussian Wikipedia.
Underpinning this is the development of in-house expertise by FHM staff in the translation andediting of Quaker texts, and the cultivation of agroup of translators who have acquired anunderstanding of Quaker ways of thinking.
Popular downloads so far are Beyond MajorityRule, by Michael Sheeran, Elizabeth Fry, a Biography,by June Rose, Rethinking War and Peace, by DianaFrancis, and Notes from an Exhibition, by PatrickGale.
The translations feed into topics fordiscussion on FHM’s Russian facebook page, on itsequivalent vKontaktye, in online courses under theauspices of Woodbrooke, and the Meditation Grouprun twice a month in the Moscow office and opento the public.
Recently we had an enquiry as follows:“We are a group of Quakers worshipping in the
Canary Islands. We have Russian visitor attending ourmeeting who has asked if Quaker Faith & Practice ispublished in Russian. I am unable to find the answer.Maybe you can give me more information about this?”
And of course we could! QF&P was an earlytranslation by FHM. Another example is a Quakerin Poland who uses FHM translations as she speaks
Our very own ISBN numbers!Outreach in the Russian language
The online library page for "Elizabeth Fry, a Biography",with links to download in .doc, .pdf, .epub and .mobi formatsPublishing far and wide...
Russian but not English.What next? The challenge for FHM is
building on these foundations now that the JRCTgrant has been spent. One model is a grant fromThe Retreat Quaker Psychiatric Hospital, in York, tofund the publication of The Retreat by Samuel Tukein Russian. Ideas for partnerships of this kind arewelcome.
Stories on the frontpage of the website:"How hard it is to
find a good Quaker"and "Mary
Pennington andIsaac Pennington"
