Chechen Republic

Chechen Republic just recovering from the 15 year war at their territory is experiencing tremendous deficit of both skilled specialists and elementary material supply to organise necessary work with youth. Social and economic situation in the region is such, that majority of the population lives below the poverty line. In some areas of Chechnya unemployment rates reach 75%, creating a favourable environment for the growth of crime, alcoholism and drug abuse especially among young people. Development of the civil society in the region falls behind the rest of Russia by about ten years. Because of years of conflict and instability in the region local civil society was cut out from the rest of Russia, where a number of projects, aimed at building civil society sponsored by USAID, European Union and other international donors were implemented. There is a number of strong Russian and international NGOs, including FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation and Caritas France, that have been operating quite successfully in the region for several years already, training local NGOs and helping them to build their capacity, yet there are still very few local civil society organisations; most local groups are weak, they lack trained personnel and have very little opportunity for professional growth. However the time is ripe to intervene with such a project now because the region is very quickly restored and its population starts to realise the very acute need of protecting the children and youth from the numerous challenges to their health.