The purpose of this strategy is to optimize the delivery of benefits to individuals throughout Chukotka, create a mechanism to assist women and children, and promote sobriety.

Humanitarian Aid Support
Despite numerous bureaucratic difficulties, Alaska-based national and international humanitarian organizations have continued to provide assistance to Chukotka. Alaska Native Regional Corporations have played a prominent role in trying to minimize the damage done by the disintegration of the civil society in Chukotka. There is a continuing need for food, clothing, medical, and other assistance.

Several organizations have recently been established to provide help to individuals in Chukotka. Polyus Nadezhdy (Pole of Hope) was created by Governor Abramovich to provide social assistance, including food, health, education, southern vacations for children, and other benefits. The NGO Severnaya Zvezda (North Star) was established by Chukotka Natives (Chukchi, Eskimo, Even) to deliver aid and promote human rights. The Chukotka Red Cross meets social and economic needs of individuals and communities.

The Humanitarian Aid Support program aims to simplify and expedite the transport of humanitarian aid from Alaska to Chukotka, including food, clothing, and medical supplies. It helps coordinate the collection of humanitarian assistance in Alaska by providing a principal point of contact and the sharing of information. ACDP facilitates the shipment of supplies to Chukotka and obtaining clearance for major aid shipments. Under a cooperative agreement, CRC manages delivery of aid on the Russian side through its offices and field personnel in Chukotka.

The first draft of ACDP's Humanitarian Aid Handbook is now available online. To request a hard copy sent via post, please click here.

Family Support Center
The transition period is particularly difficult for women in Russia, where male alcoholism and domestic violence have always been a critical problem. While women's crisis centers have been established in many Russian cities, no help or services have been available in Anadyr or other Chukotka communities.

ACDP is assisting in the creation of the Anadyr Family Support Center to provide educational, economic, and psychological support to families in Chukotka. It will focus on family and women's health, including reproductive, prenatal, and postnatal care, domestic violence and stress, physical and emotional disabilities, and other issues. This center will provide crisis counseling and legal services to victims of domestic violence, offer business education, deal with public administration reform, organize other NGOs, and provide information to the public. It will also link with other women's centers and establish the foundation for self-sufficiency.

Sobriety
Chukotka has an extremely high incidence of alcoholism, which contributes to high rates of accidental deaths and injuries, suicides, homicides, child and spouse abuse, and inability to work effectively. While this is a universal situation, it is particularly serious among Chukotka's indigenous peoples.

Alaska has suffered from similar conditions, but has over the past several decades confronted these problems. While they have not been eliminated, experience has shown which approaches do and which do not make progress toward individual and communal sobriety. At present, prevention and treatment of alcoholism is mostly in the hands of Native organizations and communities, strongly supported by the state and federal governments.

The results of this component are aimed at achieving the broader goals of reducing alcoholism, decrease accidents and violence, increase reintegration of families and strengthen the ability of individuals in Chukotka to participate in the economy of their society.