Status Report of the

The past year 2005 has been a very eventful year, positive and negative for Phoenix. The children have been doing well at school, Sasha has started an apprenticeship, almost all children were able to travel to the Black Sea in summer. The end of 2005 and beginning of 2006, however, have been and still are dominated by serious legal problems and a – hopefully – temporary placement of the children in a number of stately owned children’s homes in and around Moscow.

In the first part of the status report we will inform you about the events of the year, and especially the development of the single children, in the second part we will write in detail about the current problematic situation.

This year again new supporters have joined Phoenix, therefore we will give some „historical“ information: The „Center for Humanitarian Aid Phoenix“ began its work in November 2001, when the German charity “Deutsch-Russische Gesellschaft Kraichgau e.V.“ decided to regularly support this new organization. This was the basis that made it possible to start the project, and thus one half of a semi-detached house in the village-like part of Rogachevo was bought. Rogachevo is a town in the north of Moscow, approx. 60 miles away from the Russian capital and located in the administrative region Dmitrov. The idea behind the choice of location was to carry out the project in an environment where “our” children would not stand out and where they would be able to attend school. Rogachevo has a school with all classes from the first to the last (eleventh), it is only 15 minutes walking distance away from the house.

o Organisation of private lessons for the children, part of whom have never attended school before moving to Rogachevo;

o Receipt of or application for birth certificates and passports for the children (successfully completed for all children who joined Phoenix in 2002 and 2003);

o Since June 2003 Phoenix has been carrying out a second project: a daily soup kitchen in the center of Moscow, close to one of the main stations that is highly frequented by homeless people (Kursk station).

Private lessons have been held throughout the whole year, most of all in the context of supervised homework at school, a rather usual procedure in Russia. These extra lessons appear to be a significant contribution to the learning discipline of the children, they continue to show good results in school.

By the end of 2004 all children living in the house had already been officially registered with local authorities. In 2005, this process was meant to be continued for the adults as well as for the new family members. Unfortunately, we had to find out that some modifications have to be made in this context, therefore this will take some more time.

The crop of 2005 has not been as good as in the first summer (2003), but nonetheless it was possible to prepare a considerable amount of conserved food that can be used in winter. There are still some rabbits and goat in Rogachevo, their number has not been increased yet, however. Once the new house will be finished, a new barn shall be built – and then there will be more room for further animals.

The single children and their development will be described on the following pages. But first of all, some words on the adults living in the house:

Temporarily, three „mums“ lived in Rogachevo: Elena, Nadia and Lena. Nadia left the project in the summer of 2005 in order to start an independent life in a different place.

Elena Istomina is in her mid-thirties, her birthday is on January 21st. She has spent a large part of her life in the street, and after years of homelessness she has found a new home in Rogachevo. Elena I. has no children of her own, but she has built up a very good relationship to the Phoenix children. She accompanies them to school, to the doctor and to all other places the children have to visit. Partly, she is being supported by Oxana Yegorova, the project manager’s sister (see below). In the house, Elena I. is responsible for cleaning, washing and gardening.

Nadia Soldatova is the mother of Sergey Soldatov, one of the Phoenix children. Following many years of life in the street, Nadia was hoping for a more regular life for herself and the only one of four children who is with her. Quite understandably, she was not able to cope with the alcoholism on her own, therefore several attempts were made since 2004 to convince her of the necessity of undergoing a therapy. Unfortunately, this was not successful, and in the summer of 2005 both parties came to the conclusion that Nadia would continue her life independent of Phoenix (at the moment she is working for an agricultural farm in Southern Russia). However, it was a great wish of Nadia’s to have Sergey stay in Rogachevo in order for him to lead a normal life and to attend school. She phones her son regularly in order to find out how he is doing.

Elena Kusminykh is the mother of the Phoenix children Yana and Sergey K. Throughout the past years she had already spent several weeks in Rogachevo and helped with the daily work. This always happened when she had no place to stay in Moscow. Finally, in 2005 she made the decision to put an end to her irregular life between the street and temporary lodgings and join her daughter in Rogachevo instead. At first, this had been planned as a temporary solution, but in the course of events it turned out to be good for the long term as well: Elena K. is a primary teacher, and as such she is able to do good quality and helpful work with the children. At first, only her daughter was with Phoenix, but after the death of her ex-husband, Elena was able to fetch her son to Rogachevo as well, so now the whole family is together in Rogachevo.

1.) Andrey B.

Parents / family: In reality, Andrey was born in Chisinau (Moldova), his parents are probably still there. He also has a brother and a sister, but we do not know their whereabouts.

History: His parents used to beat him up, he lived in the stables together with the animals and almost starved. Several years ago, his mother took him to Moscow by train, at a Moscow train station she told Andrey to wait for her, but she never came back.

Later on, Andrey met Maxim K. (see below) in a children’s home, and from then on they stayed together, several times they ran away from children’s homes together.

School: It seems that Andrey visited two grades in Moldova. In 2003, he still had serious problems in reading and writing, speaking was also rather difficult as Russian is not his mother tongue. This has further improved, and although the fourth grade does not correspond to Andrey’s age, what is more important is that he can follow the lessons and makes an effort to be successful at school. Andrey will most probably not finish all nine grades, the main goal is to give him enough education to be able to learn a handcraft profession afterwards. Andrey enjoys working with his hands, and he is good at it. Also, we were able to see that Andrey continues to be interested in gardening, and now and again the construction workers allowed him to assist when they started work on the new house.

Leisure time: Andrey continues to play football, in 2005 he was even given an award for his good skills.

2.) Andrey S.

Family / history: Andrey joined Phoenix together with his sisters and brother (Anja, Nikita, Vera, Lyuba). He had spent all his short life in the street together with his mother and his sisters and brothers. At the moment, he is learning to speak.

3.) Anja

Family / history: Anja joined Phoenix in June 2005 after having visited the soup kitchen. She has five brothers and sisters, four of whom are now also in Rogachevo (Nikita and Andrey, Vera and Lyuba).

School: Anja started to go to school in September. She was full of expectations and joy and proudly went to the school enrolment. Up to now, Anja is a good pupil in the first grade.

Leisure time: Anja has found good friends in Sitora and Yana. All three enjoy looking after their younger “brothers and sisters”.

4.) Dima

Parents / Family and history: Dima lived in Moscow together with his mother until he received the diagnosis of serious kidney problems. The doctor gave his mother the advice to move to the countryside because conditions there would be better in order to cope with the health condition of her son. She followed the advice, sold her flat in Moscow and bought a small house in the countryside instead. However, the house she had bought burnt down shortly afterwards. We do not know the reason for this, in any case, the consequence was that now she and her son did not have a place to stay. Authorities sent her from one place to another, rejected all requests and by doing this forced her to start living in the street. Dima’s health became dramatically worse, They became regular visitors of the soup kitchen, and in November 2004 the decision was made to accept the ill Dima in Rogachevo.

School: Dima has not visited any school yet because due to his slow development he would not be able to follow the lessons. The process of having him inscribed in a special school has taken a long time. The main problem is his speech: it is still hard to understand his articulation, this is another issue that would complicate his participation in normal lessons. Also, his articulation again and again becomes a reason for jokes and social exclusions. It is not easy for Dima to handle this, his “brothers and sisters” as well as the adults of Phoenix do what they can to support him. Dima worked with a speech therapist throughout 2005.

In the last quarter of 2005, finally all examinations and expertise by the state school commission were finished, there should not be any obstacles left for Dima to start attending a special school close to Rogachevo. At the same time, work with the speech therapist should be continued.

Fedya

Parents / family: Fedya’s mother works as a cleaning woman at a Moscow train station, his father was murdered several years ago. Fedya still does not speak about this, but based on the information we received from his mother he witnessed the murder. According to her impression, he has been suffering from partial paralysis since then. Two of Fedya’s brothers are with the Tadzhik army, a third one is also in Moscow (his whereabouts are not known).

History: Fedya and his mother left Tadzhikistan after his father’s death in order to join Fedya’s brother in Moscow. Something must have gone wrong at that point, because they ended up in the street. They began to come to the soup kitchen, heard of the family house, and one day Fedya’s mother asked if her son could move there. She visits him regularly and often talks to him on the phone. The two have a good relationship, but Fedya’s mother had come to the conclusion that she would not be able to provide her son with a future in Moscow, herself being without an official registration or permit to stay in Moscow, and also because due to her physical disability (one foot is attached to the leg the wrong way round) she would hardly have a chance to find an official job.

School: Fedya finished two grades in Tadzhikistan and started to attend the third. Teaching language was Tadzhik, apart from that he is fluent in Russian. By now he attends the fourth grade in Rogachevo. Periodically he has been doing very well at school, periodically he tends to turn into the clown of the class. Probably typical for his age...

Health: Health-wise, Fedya is our most problematic child. Since 2004 he has been suffering from epileptic attacks, apart from this his second teeth have not started to grow, and no serious improvement can be observed concerning his left-sided paralysis. During 2005 several examinations were carried out by doctors in Moscow, including computer tomography. The pictures of the computer tomography clearly show a lump in his brain, they were also looked at by professor D. Rating of the Heidelberg university hospital. There are two theories among the doctors: the lump has either been there since Fedya’s birth, or it appeared later after having fallen or being beaten on the head. In both cases the experts agree that the lump puts pressure on nerves, and that this leads to the partial paralysis and the attacks. Opinions differ, however, concerning the treatment. One part is of the opinion that this should be operated, the other – major – part believes that a treatment with anti-epileptic drugs should be able to suppress the attacks and thus lead to a gradual improvement of the motoric functions. At present, Fedya is being treated with those drugs, due to the high risks we prefer to try the way without an operation.

Leisure time: In 2005, Fedya continued to play football together with Andrey and Maxim. Regardless of his motoric disadvantages, the trainer works well with him, Fedya takes part in all exercises and as a motivation is even sent to the field to play in some matches.

6.) Yana

Parents / family: In reality, Yana was born in Tchelyabinsk, in the Southern Ural region. Since the age of two she lived in the street together with her mother, after they had left Yana’s father. Yana’s brother continued to live with his father until the latter died in 2004.

School: Before moving to Rogachevo, Yana visited neither kindergarten nor school. By now, she attends the fourth grade. She gets good marks, but she has to do her exercises regularly and needs parallel private lessons, as she tends to be a bit slow in her learning pace. As the fourth grade corresponds to her age the most important goal for her now is to keep up with her classmates. Yana has found some friends at school and seems to feel at ease there.

Leisure time: In 2004, Yana started to attend the school choir. She still continues to do so, apart from that she would like to visit dancing lessons and learn to swim.

7.) Twins Katya and 8.) Seryozha

Family / History: The twins joined Phoenix following an according request of the militia at the Kazan train station in Moscow. Their mother still lives at the train station.

When the twins joined Phoenix, they were in a neglected condition. They had infected themselves with a number of illnesses at the train station, and due to a former infection with Hepatitis A, they now suffer from a number of allergies. At the very beginning of their life with Phoenix, they underwent thorough medical examinations, a number of food allergies was diagnosed, therefore they now have to follow several rules in nutrition. Apart from this, according to the doctors no further treatment is necessary at the moment.

9.) Masha

Family / History: Masha was born in the streets of Moscow. Until the age of five months, she lived in a public toilet together with her mother Malakhat. Malakhat told us that she had been repudiated by her husband because she had not given birth to a boy. Maksim met mother and daughter at the soup kitchen, and he decided to help. A first step was an article about the two in the „Moskovsky Komsomolec“, following this Maksim Yegorov was able to find a job for Malakhat in a village not far away from Rogachevo. Malakhat started to work as a home help. Unfortunately, Malakhat left her new place of work and living in early summer 2005, and she left her daughter behind – since this moment, Masha has been in Rogachevo. She develops well and has started to make her first steps in summer.

10.) Maxim

Parents / family: Maxim knows his mother and father. We do not have any information on whether his father is still alive, his mother used to live at a train station; she died about two years ago. Maxim’s sister and his elder brother live with their grandmother in their home town in Tver region. Maxim did not want to return to his mother because she is addicted to drinking.

History: Maxim has been living in Moscow since 1996, he came to the Russian capital together with his mother after she had run away from her drinking husband together with two of her sons. Maxim ran away several times from his mother and from chidlren’s homes, and several times he stayed with Nina (the first “mother” at Phoenix) for longer periods of time. All in all, he ran away from children’s homes seven times, several times together with Andrey B.

School: Before Maxim came to Rogachevo, he had never visited a school. By now, he attends the fourth grade and continues to get good marks – with the exception of those phases when he prefers to be the class clown, just like Fedya.

Leisure time: Maxim still enjoys playing football. He goes to the trainings together with Fedya and Andrey, up to four times a week. He actively takes part in every official match and has become an important part of the team – quite understandably, he is very proud of this.

Apart from this, the editing house Independent Media organized football competitions on Saturdays throughout summer and autumn. Children of diplomats and other foreigners took part in this as well as the Phoenix boys.

September 2005
11.) Nikita

Family / history: Nikita joined Phoenix together with his sister Anya and his brother Andrey, first contact was made at the soup kitchen. Nikita suffers from epilepsy and has started to undergo treatment with the same doctors as Fedya. They subscribed a number of drugs that should help to regulate the illness. A further thorough examinations by a specialist for epilepsy in Moscow has been agreed upon.

12.) Sascha

Family / history: Sasha spent the larger part of his life with his parents until both of them lost their jobs and became addicted to alcohol. His father died, and his mother started to live in the street. Finally, Sasha was sent to a children’s home. Conversations with the children’s home’s director have shown that Sasha used to run away often. During one of those escapes, he met the Phoenix people. They became friends, and the children asked if Sasha could be allowed to stay with Pheonix. His frequent escapes are also the reason why the director of the children’s home agreed to this because Phoenix seems to be the only place where Sasha is willing to stay, where he regularly visits school and has been able to take a first step in the direction of a normal life. Sasha is the eldest Phoenix child, the breaking of his voice is finished, and he has an own passport.

A short glance back at what happened in December 2004 and January 2005: At the end of December 2003, an ambulance of the children’s home Sasha had lived before appeared in Rogachevo. Two strong men insisted that Sasha be handed over to them. The background for this strange event probably is that Sasha would have the right to an own flat in his home town once he reached the age of 18 (October 2005), and the children’s home seemed to be interested in this flat. Therefore, they rememberd they still had the official custody for Sasha. Their plan seems to have been to send Sasha to a mental institution. This would have been the third time, after this following Russian law, Sasha would have lost his majority, and his custodian would have had the right to all his belongings, including the flat. The future of Sasha was meant to be destroyed due to a small flat.

In a Western-like action, project manager Maxim Yegorov was able to free Sasha from the ambulance, and in the following weeks, Maxim Yegorov and Maxim Muravyov studied legal texts, prepared and handed in documents and finally were able to reach an agreement with the children’s home. Sasha returned to Rogachevo (for some time, the Yegorov family had “hidden” him at their flat) and continued to go to school. A second kidnapping took place right at school, following which Sasha was forced to stay in his old children’s home for several weeks until finally in March 2005 a court decided in favour of Phoenix, i.e. allowed Sasha to return to Rogachevo. Not a small part in this was played by Russian media supporting Phoenix, and by the fact that Olga Yegorova successfully applied for the personal right of custody.

School / work: Sasha is of age by now, and he does not live in Rogachevo any longer; however, he is still supported by Phoenix. He finished school (after nine grades), and in September 2005 he took up an apprenticeship as a hair dresser at a state professional school. As the school unfortunately does not have a dormitory for its students, Sasha will live with Maxim Yegorov’s parents for the time of his apprenticeship because his school is a lot easier to reach from there then from Rogachevo.

13.) Sergey K.

Family / history: Sergey is Yana’s brother. He used to live at his father’s in Tchelyabinsk, separated from his mother. However, his father’s family did not treat him with love, he was often eaten, but his presence was accepted as son and heir. After his father’s death, the school director insisted he be taken away from the family. Sergey has two broken rips, his kidney is damaged due to blows, and his head is full of scars – all of this consequences of the „education“ by his relatives. When his mother came to take him to Moscow, Sergey cried and asked if the Phoenix children would be willing to accept him as a new member of the family. By now, he has well adapted.

Leisure time: Sergey enjoys playing football and already attends training, also, he visits a drawing group; he draws very well and dreams of visiting an art college later on.

14.) Sergey S.

Parents / family: Sergey is Nadia’s son, he spent his whole life before Phoenix in the street and in changing lodgings together with his mother. In the first part of 2004, Seryozha went to the kindergarten. The contact to children of his age was very good for him, also the necessity to follow a certain group discipline. This is also valid for school, by now Seryozha attends the second grade. The departure of his mum in summer 2005 was of course a disturbing loss for Sergey, but the holidays at the seaside seem to have helped to become at least a bit used to a life without his mother.

School: Sergey goes to the second grade and has less concentration problems than at the beginning of the first grade. Nonetheless, he still needs close supervision, especially with his homework.

Leisure time: Sergey loves to climb trees, to play football, to play memory, toy cars and TV movies.

15.) Sitora

Parents / family: Sitora does not know anything about her father (or does not tell), she grew up with her mother and her elder sister. Her mother is a teacher of Russian language, she came to Moscow several times together with Sitora. Those „journeys“ started several years ago, some relatives also live in Moscow, but there is no close contact. Sitora’s mother usually worked as toilet cleaning woman at a Moscow train station during her stays in Moscow, she also used to sleep there.

School: Sitora had already finished the first and the third grade in Tadzhikistan, she is fluent in Tadzhik and Russian, and she understands Uzbek. By now, she attends the fourth grade and is still very good at school.

Leisure time: Sitora is very eager for knowledge, she enjoys dancing and singing. Apart from that, she shows great enthusiasm when looking after the smallest children living with Phoenix. She helps with cooking, homework, and she enjoys the sewing lessons that Maxim Yegorov’s wife gives to her and Yana. Also, Sitora attends the school choire and has started to knit.

To our great regret, Sitora is not with Phoenix any longer. Her mother took her back to Tadzhikistan in February 2005, a return to Russia will not be possible.

16.) Twins Vera und 17.) Lyuba

Vera Mikhailovna Sinichkina and Lyubov Mikhailovna Sinichkina are the sisters of Anya, Nikita and Andrey. The twins came to Phoenix in September 2005. Before that, they lived in the street with their mother, from time to time also with their grandmother. According to their birth certificates, Vera and Lyuba were born in Domodedovo, Moscow region.

Temporary inhabitants: Alexander and Eena

Family / history: Alexander joined Phoenix together with his sister Lena in March 2005. Their mother had been released from prison a short time before that. The children had never seen anything else than a prison as they served the sentence together with their mother. The mother, Tatyana, had been convicted for theft because she had stolen a pair of jeans for her daughter Elena. Tatyana’s life had never been easy, she grew up in a children’s home in Belarus until her uncle took her to his home. He raped her – he is Lena’s father. When he started to sexually abuse three-year-old Lena, Tatyana ran away and started to live in the street. And from there to prison, where Alexander was born.

While the children lived with Phoenix, their mother – who is convinced she will not become criminal again – has solved part of her problems. She found a job in Samara, and she has found a place to live. In summer she came for her children who now live with her in Samara.

Alexey

Family / history: Alexey joined Phoenix at the end of 2004. Until then, he had been living in a rented flat in Rogachevo together with his mother. He had already been friends with Sasha for a longer time and had often come to visit him at Phoenix. Due to financial problems, his mother had to give up her flat and asked if Alexey could stay with Phoenix. By now, she has found a job in Rogachevo and has started to rent a new flat, Alexey has taken up his apprenticeship to become a hair dresser together with Saasha. He is still a frequent guest with Phoenix and does not forget the children together with whom he lived for a year. Also, he often discusses his apprenticeship with the Phoenix staff. In situations of need Phoenix helps out in order to guarantee the continuation of his professional education.

As a first step towards the highly necessary increase in space Phoenix bought the second half of the semi-detached house; following a long row of juridical procedures, it became Phoenix’s in 2004. This second half of the house as well as large parts of the first half, the barn and the two verandas are in a desolate state. Due to this, the second half has been used only as a place to keep clothes and food.

Following long discussions and setting up various financial plans, in the beginning of 2005 the decision was made not to start renovating the existing house as initially planned, but to invest in a totally new building.

Construction work started in the summer of 2005, by now the fundament has been laid, and the walls already reach up right to the roof. Completion of works has been promised until May 2006, however, the construction company has promised to do its best to reduce timelines (without having any negative effect on the quality, of course).

Thanks to the support of the „Diakonische Werk“ and the DRGK, all children – accompanied by Maxim Yegorov and his wife – were able to go on a three-week holiday trip in summer. First, they all went camping at the lake Seliger in the Tver region for ten days, after this the whole group went to the Black Sea for another ten days. For part of the Phoenix children this was already the second summer holiday in their life, for part it was not only the first holiday, but also the first trip to the seaside.

Elena I. and Elena K. took part in the first part of the holidays, i.e. they also camped at the lake Seliger and enjoyed ten days without routine homework, because here everybody helped to cook, barbecue, wash the dishes.

At the Black Sea, the group stayed in a holiday home, including meals. Thus, Maxim and Tamara were abel to fully concentrate on leisure time activities that were obviously enjoyed by the children. In order to say „Thank You“, the children drew a picture for the cooks of the holiday home and they set up a wall newspaper as their sign of gratefulness for a wonderful stay.

II. Soup kitchen

In the end of 2002, cooperation ended with an NGO providing a daily soup kitchen in Moscow. Our experience showed that a soup kitchen is an important source of contact with homeless people. Therefore the members of Phoenix started to discuss the foundation of a new soup kitchen, and with the help of the “Deutsch-Russische Gesellschaft Kraichgau e.V.”, a regular sponsor was found. The decision was made to start with daily handing out of food in a small park next to the Kursk train station.

The soup kitchen took up ist work in June 2003. Every day at approximately 12.00, homeless people can receive a warm meal, a slice of bread and hot tea. The food is prepared by a private company that uses the kitchen of the Moscow arbitral court.

- To offer a warm meal for free to homeless people once a day; a meal consists of a cup of tea, some slices of bread and a warm dish (mostly mash made of oat, rice or buckwheat);

- To keep up contact with the „world of the homeless people”, i.e. not to lose contact to the environment the children in Rogachevo have come from;

- Above all to stay in contact with homeless children, to organize activities for them as long as they live in the street, and apart from that to get to know them better in order to be able to react more quickly once additional living space appears;

- To distribute second hand clothes among the homeless – Phoenix receives those clothes from various organizations and private people;

- To organize banya (sauna) visits for homeless children (for thorough cleaning), accompanied by a Phoenix representative;

- To organize further activities with homeless children and adolescents, e.g. visits of the puppet theatre (Phoenix gets reduced entrance tickets for this), the Moscow zoo (free of charge for our groups) or the circus.

- Gathering juridical questions among the homeless people and offering help where possible.

III. Staff and supporters

Major support that makes the work of Phoenix possible is given by the „Deutsch-Russische Gesellschaft Kraichgau e.V. “ (DRGK), represented by its president Dorothea Volkert. Dorothea Volkert regularly visits the project and gives active support. Annette Holzmayr of the DRGK looks after the Phoenix homepage (www.phoenix-moskau.org).

Maxim Yegorov is the local project manager, the main person on the Russian side of the project. He pays regular visits to the house in Rogachevo several times per week, continuously cooperates with all relevant authourities. Apart from that, he is responsible for the soup kitchen.

Karsten Packeiser from Germany (by profession a journalist) is the coordinator for foreign supporters of Phoenix, and he actively contributes to the daily work of Phoenix. He pays visits to soup kitchen and family house in order to regularly get personal impressions of the projects and to pass them on to the partners.

Olga Yegorova (Maxim’s mother) is responsible for accountancy, apart from that she spends a large part of her leisure time in Rogachevo.

Oxana Yegorova (Maxim’s sister) studies at evening college and only has to attend lectures on Saturdays. Most days of the week she works as an educator in Rogachevo, she helps the children with their homework, plays with them, reads and writes. 2005 she again studied some small theatre pieces and songs with the children that those perform with enthusiasm.

Dagmar Sonderegger used to live in Moscow and moved to Switzerland (until December 2004 she worked in Moscow at a market research company) and supports Phoenix from there.

Elena Radchenko from Moscow (Russian psychologist, working in market research) supports Phoenix, she often visits the house in Rogachevo and is Phoenix’ coordinator with ARC

The Ev. Luth. Parishgroup at the German Embassy in Moscow actively supports Phoenix, they regularly help financially and with active work.

Expenses for private teachers, psychologists, school materials and documents for the children are partly covered by the British charity ARC (Action for Russian Children).

The British organization CICF (Contact International Christian Fellowship) regularly supports Phoenix, financially and with gifts (e.g. home-knit winter clothes).

The Doris-Epple foundation “Help for the needy in Russia” is the main sponsor of the soup kitchen.

The Blagomanz AG from Switzerland, headed by Ljuba Manz, is one of the regular and engaged supporters of Phoenix.

The publishing house Independent Media has been supporting Phoenix since the summer of 2005 with money and other donations.

The Moscow Internet shop „Sa Tumanom“ among other things donated tents for the summer holidays.

For three years, the Diakonische Werk has been supporting the Phoenix children. The organization sponsored the children’s holidays at the lake Seliger and the Black Sea.

The Software AG Stiftung and the Schmitz-Stiftung are financing the construction of the new house.

Udo Reitz from Bad Honnef creatively organizes money and other donations for the Phoenix children.

Further financial support as well as clothes are given by engaged people in Russia, Germany, England and Switzerland.

IV. Current situation

Earlier in the course of 2005, the local administration of Dmitrov had already tried to proceed against against Phoenix: Based on a supposedly unacceptable hygienic condition in the house, a lack of space in square meters and missing legal documents, the district attorney sued for taking the children to state children’s homes. However, the law suit ended with a defeat of the authorities, Phoenix was not charged for anything.

Later on, a group of the special police force OMON approached the Phoenix house because they had received a notice about Chechen terrorists living in the house. Of course, this proved to be a lie.

Later on, following anonymous complaints, the complete accountancy of Phoenix of the last three years was thoroughly checked by the tax police. In the end it was proven that Phoenix does not carry out any illegal activities. After the end of all these investigations and the law suit, the members of Phoenix felt on the safe side, especially since the beginning of construction work for the new house that would soon provide better living conditions. Unfortunately this turned out to be too optimistic.

In the early morning ours on December 14th, a convoy of microbuses stopped in front of the house in Rogachevo. All 16 children who were in the house at that moment were forced to enter the buses. The two house mothers (Elena I. And Elena K.) had been taken to the local police department beforehand so that no adults were in the house who could have shown resistance to the police activities. For a long time, no one was shown any documents that would have justified or at least explained the motivation behind this action, only several days later Maxim Yegorov received an order, supposedly issued by the governor of Dmitrov region – supposedly, because it was neither signed nor did it carry a legally valid stamp.

The children were taken to various children’s homes and hospitals, with some of them it took weeks to find out where they had been brought. Two of the boys – Maxim and Andrei B. – were taken to the Moscow children’s home they had last lived in before joining Phoenix. The children’s home’s director did not approve of the authorities’ action and therefore allowed Maxim and Andrey to return to Phoenix after they had stated their own wish to do so. Unfortunately, the director felt pressure from some part of the authorities after this and on his urgent appeal the boys returned to his institution.

Throughout the following days, Phoenix was met with major support in the Russian and the German press. Phoenix actively enforced this because the experience with Sasha (see above) had shown that permanent attention from the outside can be able to prevent or at least restrict self-righteous actions from the part of the local authorities. Whether this tactic worked this time cannot yet be said.

Several supporters of Phoenix – private people and charities, organisations, the German Embassy in Moscow, pastor Amling of the Ev. Luth. Parishgroup at the German Embassy in Moscow , the president of the CICF, Lyuba Manz of the Russki Klub in Zurich and many more – have since then turned to authorities to ask for support. We would like to thank all of you for your trust and support and do hope that in the future we will all continue to contribute to the children’s well-being!

In Rogachevo, signatures were gathered on a petition asking for the return of the children, in the course of only half a day several hundreds of people signed the document. For us, this is a sign for a certain support in Rogachevo itself, a fact that is of course valuable for Phoenix. The teachers of the local school also stood and stand up for Phoenix, even though they have been threatened with serious consequences should they do so.

The main issue concerning the accusations against Phoenix is the lack of living space in the house, due to this the construction company that is responsible for the new building promised to do their best in order to finish work on the new house earlier than in May as initially planned. However, they cannot give any guaranties that this will work out because construction works depend on a lot of external factors, such as material and weather. You can find pictures documenting the development of the new house on the architect’s homepage: http://domtexstroy.narod.ru/dd.html.

Before and during Christmas, Dorothea Volkert, president of the DRGK, spontaneously went to Moscow in order to support Phoenix members in their talks with the authorities. She was able to take part in a meeting with the local Dmitrov authorities, and she visited part of the children in state children’s homes and hospitals.

The woman officially responsible for the rights of children in the Russian Federation also came to Rogachevo, in the end she argued in favour of Phoenix.

Health-wise, among all children Fedya has the most serious problems as he had not been allowed to take his medicine to the children’s home. By now, he no longer Is in a children’s home and he feels a lot better. You can find further details and up-dates concerning the present situation on the Phoenix homepage. With the help of a lawyer Phoenix is checking all juridical documents and, where necessary, corrections and modifications are made. Apart from this, two of the mothers are involved in lawsuits on custody.

A sad part of the whole situation is the fact that the children have definitely not forgotten their street knowledge. Thus, Sergey and Yana have already managed to run away from the children’s home, Maxim and Andrey have threatened to do the same in case they should not be able to return to Phoenix shortly. However, Maxim Yegorov is doing his best to convince them to hold on a little longer in order not to add further complications to the whole situation.

The situation is changing almost daily, we are doing our best to keep the homepage up-dated – unfortunately not yet in English, please do excuse this.