Peacebuilding UK have recently begun working alongside Dobrota to assist them with their work with women and families in the Caucasus.

Dobrota is a Chechen NGO that aims to bring together the vulnerable and to help them find the means to look after themselves and their families after years of conflict. Dobrota is based in Grozny, and is run by a team of national project staff and international volunteers, The organisation has a network through the country and works with other local NGOs to identify the most needy.

Dobrota focuses on women in rural and mountainous areas who have lost the male members of their families during the war and have no means to support themselves or their children. Currently Dobrota is assisting a group of 25 women from different regions in Chechnya to develop sustainable income generation projects suitable to the environment. The women have chosen their own projects, such as livestock rearing and small-scale agriculture.

Many people in Chechnya do not have access to the kind of health facilities where chronic and severe illnesses can be treated. Dobrota has already raised the funds to send one child to another Russian city in order to have a life-changing heart operation.

Despite the presence of international relief agencies for a number of years, many vulnerable households have not received any kind of assistance and are still struggling to make ends meet. Dobrota has gathered information on a number of such families who will receive special assistance packages in the future according to their particular needs.

By June 2010, Dobrota had already reached out to four different female-headed households in mountainous areas through its income generation project. Tamara Borzieva lives in Akhkinchu Borzoi, in Kurchaloi district. Tamara lost her husband in 2000, when her husband was caught in cross-fire. Since then, Tamara has been living on a widow’s pension, raising her three children. Dobrota has given Tamara the opportunity to rear cattle and has provided Tamara with a cow and a bull.

Contact details:

Sofia Janjua, Executive Co-ordinator: dobrota_ch@mail.ru

Robert Wainwright, Project Manager: dobrota.ch@gmail.com