Alaskans collect supplies for Russian villages lacking heat, food

By MARTHA BRISTOW

Staff Writer

In the shadow of deep winter, the Chukotka village of Sereniki, across the Bering Strait from Nome, was without heat and light for 10 days this month. Last month, the village ran out of rice.

Reports from other towns and villages in the Chukotka Autonomous Region of Russia are as bad or worse as residents dig in for what promises to be another winter of inadequate supplies of fuel, food and warm clothing, said Nancy Mendenhall, Nome resident and coordinator of the Alaskan Friends of Chukotka, a nonprofit relief group.

The organization is working now to gather donations of warm clothing and other supplies for Chukotka. The group is also accepting cash donations to pay for goods in Chukotka and to help cover postage, freight, telephone and other expenses in Alaska. The logistics of getting help to the people who need it are a challenge, Mendenhall said. "We can’t figure out how to get coal or fuel oil to them," Mendenhall said, so the group has been sending candles and warm blankets instead.

In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, remote regions like Chukotka, once part of the state machine, have been left on their own. The centralized system that handled distribution of goods and supplies has broken down. Unemployment is high, money is scarce and transportation is intermittent because of fuel shortages.

"It’s a pretty grim situation," said Wendy Arundale, a Fairbanks resident and member of the Chena Ridge Friends Meeting, which is helping gather donations locally. "Because we live in the North, because we live in Fairbanks, we know how close to the edge we are," said Charlotte Basham, another Chena Ridge Friends member. Basham has "adopted" a family through the Alaskan Friends of Chukotka and has been sending boxes of supplies.

"They’re our neighbors, and we need to help our neighbors," Basham said. Living conditions in the region have degraded to such an extent that in August, the international Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies issued a press release warning of a ‘struggle for survivaI’ in Chukotka. The bulletin, posted on the IFRC web site, said that conditions in Chukotka are not expected to improve any time soon.

"Everyone who could get out of Chukotka got out years ago,"said Eugene Sienkiewicz, a member of a Red Cross team in Chukotka. "This is a harsh Northern environment, very different from the rest of Russia." The Red Cross has sent thousands of food parcels into the area. The United Methodist Church is involved in major relief efforts in the region. Despite the international attention, the need in Chukotka remains great.

"The current situation in Chukotka is surely bleak, because of political and economic reasons," said Peter Schweitzer, a University of Alaska Fairbanks anthropology professor whose research on Native culture and history took him to the region four times between 1990-95. Schweitzer is on sabbatical in Vienna but was interviewed by e-mail. On the political front, Schwietzer said, the region’s leaders have done little to promote foreign investment or other activities that might improve life for residents.

In economic terms, Chukotka has, in addition to the general Russian financial woes, the problem that it has hardly any marketable goods or services to offer," he said, adding that most reindeer herding, hunting or other traditional enterprises are not profitable. The population that remains in Chukotka is a mixture of European Russians and Natives. Wendy Arundale said the traditional lifestyle of the Native people was suppressed under Communist rule. Many of the people were moved out of their home villages to be near state-sponsored jobs. Now, those jobs are gone, and people are trying to return to subsistence lifestyles. "They have to go back to the old way of life, which is pretty hard to do when you haven’t lived that way for three generations," Mendenhall said.

The Alaskan Fiends of Chukotka are planning to assemble a large shipment of materials to make fishing nets in February, Mendenhall said. If the materials are sent in February, they will probably make it to the villages by June, in time for fishing season.

In the meantime, the Alaskan Friends’ ongoing effort is to keep sending warm clothing, food and sundries to make life easier. The Alaskan Friends of Chukotka also can help arrange the adoption of a Chukotkan family where donated items should be mailed. Warm clothing is still needed, particularly for men and children, Arundale said. Items should be clean and mended because soap and sewing supplies are scarce. The people there also need warm boots, bandages, cloth diapers, vitamins, fishing supplies, small tools, yarn, soap, mending supplies, school supplies and reusable household aids, Arundale said.

But a monetary donation may be the best help of all. Checks made out to the Alaskan Friends of Chukotka can be mailed to Mendenhall at P.O.Box 1141, Nome, Alaska 99762.  Or, call Nancy Mendenhall at 907-443-2455 or email her at nfnmm@yahoo.com.