February 2001
The social welfare organisation „Polar Star Union“ (in Chukotka „Unpener“) was founded 15 January 2000 and officially registered in Anadyr by the judicial department of the Chukotskiy Autonomous Okrug of Russia, Certificate No. 91, 24 February 2000.
Aim of the organisation is to provide a welfare support for the impoverished inhabitants of Chukotka, the elderly and handicapped, mothers with many children and young people. They are not only starving, but are also cold, as coal is lacking in many villages and liquid fuel for power plants is absent. Reindeer herders and hunters of Chukotka are also in a severe situtation, as they have not received their salaries for years and cannot buy the most basic goods. Evidently, economic reform in Russia has derailed and for the last ten years there has been no rise in the standard of living. This situation will probably stagnate in Russia and Chukotka for years to come. We understand that it is impossible to create many jobs in a short time in Chukotka, and therefore a portion of the population will need to depend on welfare for a long time. As usual, neither the Okrug budget nor the municipal budgets of the regions have the means for complete social support of the population in need.
One of the effective ways such support can be realised is by providing humanitarian aid.
We believe that humanitarian aid should not only provide food, but also medicine and support to medical centres in the form of material and services, as well as dental services, providing instruments and transportation for traditional crafts, clothes and shoes, school equipment, etc.
The initiators of this welfare organisation are persons well known in Chukotka and who are genuinely familiar with the needs and problems of the population of this region. The president of the welfare organisation „Polar Star Union“ is Etylin Vladimir Mikhaylovich, vice president of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON). He is head of the laboratory of traditional exploiting of nature of the Chukotkan Department of SVKNIM DVO Russian Academy of Science and lives in Anadyr. Elected as vice presidents are Mikhail Antonovich Zelenskiy, president of the production centre „Nukan“ in the Chukotka region – he works as a radio journalist at the Chukotkan national radio and lives in the village of Lavrentiya – and Anna Mikhaylovna Kutynkeva, member of the Okrug parliament, president of the „Kayettyn“ community of the Bilibino region, and living in Bilibino.
Our activities are based on the federal laws of the Russian Federation „On humanitarian aid and humanitarian organisations“ and „On social unions“.
The following is a list of required forms of support:
1. Food
2. Children's food - milk based nutrition, vitamins, juices, fruits, vegetables; dried or in cans
3. Clothes and shoes for adults
4. Clothes and shoes for children
5. School supplies for children and school equipment
6. Tools and instruments for crafts, sewing, household, etc.
7. Craft and transportation equipment - boat motors, snow mobiles with spare parts, fishing gear (nets, rods, spoonbaits), binoculars, stoves, thermoses, halyards, lamps, etc.
8. Medicine and sanitary/hygienic equipment (with certificates)
9. Medical equipment (with certificates)
10. Medical service, including dental specialists and opticians
11. Special clothes for reindeer herders
12. Special clothes for hunters
13. Children´s books and dictionaries
14. Children´s toys
15. Supplies for pregnant women and newborn children
16. Means for curing alcoholism and tobacco addiction
17. Literature for school and pre-school organisations
18. Subscriptions of newspapers, magazines, video films for organisations
19. Subscriptions of magazines, newspapers and video films for village libraries
20. Covering costs for treatment of individual, heavy illness
21. Covering costs for education of significantly gifted children
22. Special aid programmes for homes for the handicapped, homes for children, homes for the elderly and boarding schools for indigenous children.
Adresses of our representatives and branches, for contact and correspondence:
1. Central office - 689000 Russia, Chukotka, Anadyr, a/ya 119, phone/fax (+7) (47422) 2-62-66, e-mail: etylins@anadyr.ru
2. Provedeniya branch, Chukotskiy Autonous Okrug, Ivan Vasilevich Tanko, phone (+7) (235) 2-29-54
3. Lavrentiya branch, Chukotskiy Autonous Okrug, Ulitsa Dezhnëva 41a, appt. 6, phone/fax (+7) (236) 2-26-69, Mikhail Antonovich Zelenskiy
4. Branch in Bilibino, Arktika mikrorayon, Chukotskiy Autonous Okrug, house 5, wing 3, appt. 12, phone (+7) (238) 2-60-19, Anna Mikhailovna Kutynkeva
5. Beringovskiy branch, Chukotskiy Autonous Okrug, Ulitsa Beregovaya, phone (+7) (233) 22-33 and 24-22, Stanislav Fedorovich Taranenko
6. Moscow branch: Rublevskoye Chaussee 34, wing 2, room 341, phone/fax (+7) (095) 415-53-19, e-mail: yetylins@ftcetner.ru, Olga Vladimirovna Etylina
7. Magadan branch, pos. Palatka, Ulitsa Komsomolskja, Kislova Anna Ilinichna.
8. Alaska branch, USA: Andrey Khalkachan, 221, Meyer st. 13, Anchorage, AK 99508, phone (+1) (907) 277-79-83.
e-mail: akhalkachan@hotmail.com