Kondopoga Registered Charity No. 1002469

Community building in Kondopoga, Karelia In the far north west of Russia, Kondopoga is a town made up of the victims and guards of prison camps and their descendants. The climate is harsh, and there is 50% unemployment. But in these difficult circumstances Father Lev Bol'shakov of the Parish of the Assumption has proven how much can be achieved, when people work together. Together with the Order of St Lazarus, we gave the parish a tractor, a cow and fitted out a cellar for food storage. This means that the parish can feed up to 100 local people each day, with more in the school holidays. Recently, the local authority requested formally that they feed 50-60 destitute adults because the town's social services budget cannot provide for a soup kitchen. A self-financing carpentry workshop employs 30 people. A recent addition to the programme is a sawmill and drying chamber for seasoning timber, creating more jobs and helping to resource the parish's social programmes. A youth club provides a secure base for up to 100 children and teenagers, believers and non-believers alike, with activities throughout the year and the chance to learn carpentry skills in the parish workshop. Parishioners also visit patients in the local hospital, providing some of the emotional support, which the overstretched nursing staff are unable to do. Only one of the parish's cows produced a calf this year, and a bull-calf at that, so the other cow will presumably be eaten this winter. One of the heifers is expecting, the other is sickly and considered unfit for motherhood. Very little milk will therefore be available this winter. This is a great loss, since the sale of the milk left over from distribution to the children and the old was paying for the soup kitchen's huge distribution of bread. We hope to raise the £1,800 needed to buy them another cow. By supporting such committed and active people, we look forward to the day when they will be able to be self-sufficient. Return to top of page Return to map