A Holiday Charity Ball-Auction was held at the Santa-Resort Hotel on December 23. Seventy persons attended including entrepreneurs, regional officials, representatives from NGOs, and mass media sources. Children’s artistic works from the Rehabilitation Center “Preodoleniya” and the Aniva Children’s Shelter were auctioned off along with works donated by artists from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The auction raised 14,000 Rubles which were given to the Children’s Shelter. The Charity Ball-Auction was organized with assistance from representatives of the Association of Alumni of Training and Cultural Programs of the US Federal Government “Development” and the NGO Center “Garmoniya”. The Association “Development” was registered on Sakhalin during the spring of 2003 and possesses as members more than 100 Sakhalin residents. The goal of the Association is to assist and strengthen links between our countries and unite the alumni of the Programs for better coordination and continuing development of experience received during training in the US.

December 18

December 17

The Coordinator spoke to 12 adult intermediate-level evening English language learners in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on December 17. These persons working during the day for mostly private Sakhalin companies identified work-related needs as the primary reason why they are studying English. The lessons are taught by English teacher Lyudmila Saykova who specializes in making quality lessons available to adult learners at largely symbolic fees.

Bernadette Foley, the Civic Education Project’s Visiting Faculty Fellow at Sakhalin State University and her students conducted a mock jury trial exercise on December 17. In the State of Washington vs. Defendant Tom Mills, the latter was tried but ultimately acquitted by a seven-person student jury of arson in the first degree and attempted murder. In connection with this exercise, three student attorneys for each side filed written pre-trial evidentiary motions and participated in an oral hearing on their merits, presented opening statements and closing arguments, and examined and cross-examined witnesses. RI RFE Coordinator Kregg Halstead served as the trial judge. After the verdicts were announced, Ms. Foley and Mr. Halstead visited with the students about aspects of the US criminal justice system and their applicability to Russia.

December 11

The Coordinator met with Aleksei Shumilov, Director of the Fund for Small Business Support “Counterpart Enterprise Fund” on December 11 in Khabarovsk.  Pursuant to Mr. Shumilov’s strong leadership and his and his staff’s hard work, the Fund is providing assistance to entrepreneurs and other small business people through a number of highly-impressive simultaneous initiatives.  In this context, the Fund:  1) continues its core work of making micro-credit loans to mostly Khabarovsk entrepreneurs averaging from 70 to 90 loans per month representing a portfolio of approximately 333,000 USD with the document and other credit history evaluation to receipt of loan funds turn around time ranging from three days to two weeks; 2) has begun work as a subcontractor for contractor Winrock International on the new USAID Project Enhanced SME Development for the Russian Far East; 3) will complete its one-year tendered contract in February 2004 for the United Nations Development Project on Kamchatka assisting with training and set up operations for the UN Project to engage in micro-credit activities; 4) has aided the Moscow-based Russian Fund “Micro-finance Center” in providing recently held micro-credit trainings in Yurkutia and Buryatia; 5) completed the re-registration under Russian law of the Fund with a new charter providing for a Board of Directors and the holding of assets and loans funds in a manner consistent with USAID regulations; 6) recently received a tranche of 3,000,000 Russian Rubles into the Fund in the form of a loan from the Khabarovsk Krai SME Support Fund to be used to conduct additional micro-credit loans with the Krai, recognizing the valuable contribution of the Fund, promising to provide an additional similar amount in the near future and attempting to replicate the work of the Fund in other areas of the Krai; 7) is negotiating with private banks working in Khabarovsk such as the region-leading Dalcombank to provide additional loan funds to the Fund for use in making micro-credit loans; and 8) completed in October a move into new more spacious premises in the building also housing the Far Eastern Chamber of Commerce & Industry.  Mr. Shumilov identified the biggest challenge facing the Fund to be obtaining additional loan funds to be able to satisfy the burgeoning amount of loan applications received from entrepreneurs.  He also noted micro-leasing as an economic area with a great amount of potential that is currently not readily available to RFE entrepreneurs

December  9-11

The US West Coast – RFE Active Partnership Program held a conference in Vladivostok on December 9 – 11 highlighting partnership activities in general and featuring the 16 partner recipients of the Program’s third round of grants.  Grant amounts are approximately 70,000 USD for new and 100,000 USD for existing partnerships.  The ongoing implementation period for the grants is from September 1, 2003 to August 31, 2004.  Partnership activities are aimed at social and economic infrastructure development, good governance, HIV/AIDS prevention, environmental advocacy, rule of law, and SME development.  US third round grant recipients include Alaska, Washington, California, Oregon, and Vermont-based entities.  Their respective RFE grant recipient partners consist of Sakhalin, Primorya, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Kamchatka, Irkutsk, and Buryatia-based entities.  Also attending the conference were:  Pamela Spratlen, US Consul General; Irina Isaeva, USAID RFE Representative; Carol Vipperman, President, Susan King, Program Manager, Natalya Proskurina, Program Deputy Manager, Sonia Ghayem, Grant Manager, Derek Norberg, Director of the American Secretariat of the Russian-American Pacific Partnership, Jeffrey Valkar, Director of the American Business Center in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and other FRAEC personnel; and the Coordinator.  Also participating in the conference’s first day International Partnership Festival were USG funded Projects under the RI RFE:  the Civic Initiatives Program; ROLL; the Eurasia Foundation; IREX; ARC Vladivostok; the Internet Access & Training Project; and the Productivity Enhancement Program.

December 8

Tatyana Korobenko, Director of the Regional Center for Support of the Program ROLL for the RFE - the NGO “Green House” and the Coordinator visited staff and offices of the Fund for United Sanitarium Business “Vzmorye”, an NGO 29,000 USD grant recipient of ROLL in Vladivostok on December 8.  Vzmorye is completing impressive year long work to implement under the grant the project “Bed & Breakfast & Excursion in Primorya”.  Amongst other activities, Vzmorye conducted training seminars for entrepreneurs interested in benefiting from such tourism in 11 rayons of the Krai these seminars also involving the Committee for Tourism under the Krai Administration, the local rayon administrations and the RF Federal Employment Service, and compiled a complete computer database of the facilities such entrepreneurs have available to offer to tourists which is currently in demand by tourism firms in Vladivostok.  Also in Vladivostok on December 8, Ms. Korobenko and the Coordinator visited staff and premises of the Institute of Engineering and Social Ecology, a 23,000 USD grant recipient of ROLL.  The Institute is in the final quarter of implementing under the grant the project “The Experience of Working Out and Inculcating a System of Ecological Management for the Ltd. Enterprise “Russian Shipping Company””.  In this manner, the Institute has provided training and consultation for specialists from the Company to develop expertise in compiling environmental impact statements and submitting the necessary documents to the RF Ministry of Natural Resources thus allowing the Company to receive certification for conducting wood processing and other related activities.  Also under the grant, the Institute has assisted Russian companies in how to conduct environmental audits of their potential pollution or contamination liability.

Eric Batsie, Director of the Moscow Representative Office of “Kidsave International” along with two Russian children’s affairs specialists from Smolensk visited Sakhalin from December 1 – 5. The visitors conducted trainings for orphans resident in the three orphanages in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk relating to life and career planning and social adaptation after leaving the orphanage. Also in attendance at the trainings were: orphanage directors and employees; representatives from the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Department of Defense of the Population; other Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City and Sakhalin Region social sector workers; pediatricians; and attorneys practicing in family law. Kidsave International is the American partner in the US West Coast – RFE Active Partnership program “Crossroads of Life” which is addressing the factors preventing local adoption and foster care of Russian orphans and also providing business training to at risk children. Mr. Batsie and Galina Kazachinina, Director of the Russian partner “Podrostok” also met with Igor Zolotukhin, Vice-Governor for Social Problems from the Sakhalin Regional Administration as well as representatives from Exxon Neftegas Limited and Sakhalin Energy with responsibilities in the companies’ social sector humanitarian activities. Among numerous initiatives that Crossroads of Life is promoting, upcoming television and radio announcements asking Sakhalin families to give a New Year’s gift to a child by taking an orphan home to temporarily live with them over the holidays is the most noteworthy. The visitors were assisted by the RI RFE.

Tanya Mulholland of Portland State University visited and taught intensive business organizational and development-related courses to students at Sakhalin State University, Khabarovsk State Technical University, and Blagoveshchensk Pedagogical Institute during the last two weeks of November and the first week of December. During her stay on Sakhalin, Ms. Mulholland also gave a speech on business organizations and leadership at the American Corner in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on December 3 to about 25 persons most of whom were students or young professionals. In these endeavors, Ms. Mulholland was assisted by the RI RFE and the PSU representatives in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Khabarovsk, and Blagoveshchensk.

In connection with HIV/AIDS International Awareness Day held on December 1, the Sakhalin Regional HIV/AIDS Center held a training and informational session for twenty 10th grade students regarding how the spread of HIV/AIDS can be prevented. Those in attendance at the training included physicians and other medical and support personnel from the Center, the school children's teacher, a psychologist from the Sakhalin Department of Education, RI RFE Coordinator Kregg Halstead, and Assistant Coordinator Svetlana Vasina. The Coordinator presented remarks noting: the occasion of the Awareness Day; the problem and danger that HIV/AIDS represents worldwide particularly in Russia; the ongoing cooperation between the Center and the RI RFE; and the importance to the school children's lives of the anti-HIV/AIDS lesson. The Center is a participant in the US West Coast - RFE Active Partnership program "HIV Prevention among Youth and High Risk Groups on Sakhalin" and conducts such trainings on a regular basis in addition to a wide variety of other anti-HIV/AIDS activities. Lyudmila Dobrobabina, Head Doctor at the Center, was previously nominated by the Coordinator, competitively selected by the US Embassy, and actively participated in the March 24 - April 6, 2003 International Visitors program "Improving STI/HIV Prevention". The Sakhalin visual and print medias frequently report on the Center's activities. Photographs from the event are attached.