23.11.2017

The Presidential Grants Competition’s Coordinating Committee has announced the results of its second competition of 2017 and published a list of winners in the most popular categories:

Support for families, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood

The highest score, 89.5 points, was awarded to the Chelyabinsk Regional Charity Public Movement for Help to Children with Cancer, the Iskorka Foundation, which was allocated 2,990,015 roubles. The money will be used to increase the availability and quality of professional help for children with cancer and their families. Under this project, dedicated support will be provided for at least 105 families who have children suffering from cancer including inpatient, ambulance and palliative care, as well as individual social and psychological rehabilitation services for 300 families/children. Steps will also be taken to organise expert help in the regional family support system and to develop standards for the inclusion of NGOs within the inter-agency support system. The third project element involves the dissemination of experience among 40 core NGOs in various Russian regions.

The second highest project rating (87 points) was for the Centre for the Social Adaptation of Young People, Gran (Khabarovsk district), which received a grant of 1,700,049 roubles. The principal idea involves the creation of a notional space for the development and socialisation of and prevention of disruptive behaviour by adolescents through their participation in a range of physical activities such as swimming, obstacle course races, climbing, cross-country skiing, caving, bike rides, fishing and survival skills in different environments. The project is aimed at children and adolescents including those brought up in orphanages in Khabarovsk and some municipal areas of Khabarovsk, as well as foster families.

The Association for Working with Patients with Rett Syndrome NGO (Republic of Tatarstan) also had a project rating of 87 points and was awarded 2,045,414 roubles. Staff from the Association work closely with Russian families who have children that suffer from Rett Syndrome. This is a rare genetic disorder which predominately affects girls and is manifested by multiple developmental disorders which are exacerbated over the years. More than 250 families from 52 Russian regions have registered on the Families section of the Association’s website. However, there are plans to create a separate platform for providing mutual support for families which will involve webinars and online fora where experts offer professional advice to parents.

The largest grant of 7,647,167 roubles went to the charitable private medical institution, Children’s Hospice (Moscow and Moscow region). Their project application scored 79.25 points. Dedicated support will be provided to 100 needy families including those with children requiring palliative medical care and those in crisis situations, including single mothers who want to hand over the protection and upbringing of a child to child orphan or children left without parental care organisations. Comprehensive care packages will include socio-psychological support for parents and relatives in order to keep a child with its family.

Healthcare and promotion of a healthy lifestyle

Rusfond (Moscow) was the winner in this category with a rating of 94 points. Their project to create a national bone marrow register named after Vasi Perevoshchikova was awarded 7,003,611 roubles. The register is being set up to find compatible donors for seriously ill people whose very survival depends on a bone marrow transplant. Rusfond has been working on this register since August 2013.

The dedicated search database is bringing together data on 75,000 donors. However, Russia needs 630,000 non-related transplants. The national register is currently growing by 10 – 12,000 per year and Rusfond expects to have doubled this figure and made system improvements from next year by introducing the concept of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to identify potential donors (such an analysis allows judgements to be made on gene compatibility of both donor and recipient). Increasing match types to 24,000 donors will cut costs by 50% (7,000 roubles per match compared to 14,000 at present).

The Rebrikhinsky regional community organisation for supporting local initiatives, Public Open Spaces (Altai district), received 89.5 points for their Healthy Older Generation project which was awarded 946,236 roubles for organising physical exercises for pensioners. There are plans to create health groups for elderly people in at least seven rural village clubs where pensioners will be able to engage in activities such as walking, tennis, chess and darts. The exercises will be led by elderly people who used to be physical or sports trainers and who will also act as project coordinators in their districts.

Third place went to the V. L. Zasova charity (Republic of Bashkortostan) with a rating of 89.25 points and was awarded 499,949 roubles. Their project aims to promote healthy lifestyles for disabled people and organise tourist activities such as mountain river rafting, climbing hills of various degrees of difficulty and field camps in which disabled adults and children can take part. Funds will go to the purchase of life jackets for severely disabled people.

The largest grant in this category went to the All-Russian Sports Organisation, Federation of School Sports (Moscow), whose project had a rating of 79.75 points and received 16,605,320 roubles. This is a socially important initiative aimed at ensuring that the maximum number of students are signed up to physical exercise and sports. The plan is to create and road-test an innovative model for the integrated development of school sports, including organising school sports clubs, competitions and large-scale school sports events.

Social services, social support and citizen protection

Among the winners in this category was the St Petersburg charity, Perspektiva, whose project application scored 95 points and received a grant of 3,549,481 roubles. The money will go towards developing measures to ensure continuity between institutions during the transfer of wards from residential orphanages for mentally ill children (DDIs) to psycho-neurological residential orphanages (PNIs).

The first stage of the project includes a unique programme for preparing children gradually for their transfer to PNIs, with the second to create the best possible environment that ensures the smooth transfer of those leaving to go to PNIs on reaching 18 years of age, and organising regular support following their transfer to PNIs. Their condition will be monitored and advice given to institution staff on the orphan’s individual social support needs. The results from the project will be included in a booklet for staff working at inpatient institutions for children and adults and NGOs which will also be available online.

The disabled people support charity, One Country (Moscow), finished second with a project rating of 93.83 points. 1,175,955 roubles have been awarded to the World of Equal Opportunities charity for organising the IX Festival of Social Internet Resources. The festival is organised in the form of a network resources competition for disabled people created by them or for them.

The private social service organisation, Children’s Village – SOS Tomilino (Moscow), finished third with a project rating of 93.50 points. This is a centre that provides all-inclusive social services and organises programmes for supporting and looking after orphans and children left without parental care; special extra family projects for helping youngsters aged between 12-15, 16-18 and graduates from the Children’s Village, together with those who have left foster families and residential orphanages; social prevention programmes and improving the quality of education services for children living in difficult domestic situations. They were awarded a grant of 2,999,631 roubles.

A project from the NGO, New Century (Republic of Tatarstan), scored 89.83 points and received 11,700,022 roubles. It involves testing and replicating an integrated approach for the social adaptation and integration of work migrants. The people behind the project plan to introduce a system of social patronage run by a multi-disciplinary team for migrants at home, in the workplace and in their leisure time. It will help the most “cut off” migrants who do not make themselves known to State institutions or NGOs. A model for this integrated approach will be outlined in a methodology booklet and offered to those Russian regions with the largest number of migrants.

Environmental protection

A project from the forest restoration NGO, Native Forest (Vologda oblast), achieved the highest rating in this category (94.25 points) and received 485,287 roubles. It involves the planting of 100,000 trees to replenish deforested areas, as well as organising environmental education activities involving Vologda residents.

A project from the Association for the Conservation and Reintroduction of Rare and Endangered Animals, the Living Steppe Environment (Rostov oblast), scored 92.50 points and was awarded a grant for 2,062,059 roubles. It aims to involve the local population in the conservation of the Don region’s natural heritage.

A project from the Republic of Buryatia’s Public Relations Agency in Ulan-Ude scored 89.75 points and received a grant of 3,380,180 roubles. The aim is the creation of an environmentally sustainable model for cultivating medicinal plants in the Baikal Natural Area as an alternative to the uncontrolled picking of wild plants. Pilot areas for cultivating and processing medicinal raw material will be organised on 10 farm holdings. The unique element of the project lies in the fact that the cultivation process starts from the bottom which is called “from the earth” and provides a model for the harmonious interaction between humans, nature and society.

A project from the World Wildlife Fund (Moscow) scored 73.50 points and was awarded the largest grant in this category (14,990,870 roubles). It will promote the development and practical application of recommendations to prevent conflicts between humans and large animal predators listed on the Russian Federation’s Red Book which are dangerous to humans if encountered in the wild. A polar bear has been chosen in Northern Russia, an Amur tiger in the Far East and an Asiatic leopard in the Caucasus. Support will also be given to the work of the Tiger Rehabilitation and Reintroduction Centre in the Far East including building additional cages in which animals taken from the wild can be kept as a result of conflict with humans.

Information note

Those taking part in the second contest of the year submitted 9,543 projects which is 44% more than 2016. The winners included 2,243 NGOs from across Russia with the total amount of grants allocated being 4 billion, 404 million roubles. Most winners in the second contest, 1,881 (84%), came from the regions.

A numerical rating given to project applications determined the grant amount, e.g. a pass score of 60 was set for the allocation of more than 500,000 roubles; 65 points for grants up to 3 million; 68 points for grants from 3-10 million roubles, and 70 points for grants in excess of 10 million roubles.

A full list of winners in the second competition can be found on the Presidential Grants’ website.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2017/11/23/vtoroj-konkurs-prezidentskih-grantov-2/