BOOMERANG OF KINDNESS

A number of projects to help the poverty-stricken strata of the population are being implemented in Azerbaijan. So, since last year the "Self-Help" programme has been operating as an alternative to the traditionally targeted social assistance (ASP). The families taking part in it are allocated a certain amount of targeted social assistance; after receiving this financial assistance the participants in the programme are directed towards setting up of small holdings. The aim of the project is to create conditions for the needy, so that their dependence on benefits is eliminated. According the data of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, today 90 per cent of the families involved in the project have already started to receive profits from the financial subsidy received.

At the expanded sitting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan on the outcome of socio-economic development for the first half year of 2014, the minister of labour and social security, Salim Muslimov, reported that a total of 128,000 families accounting for approximately 560,000 people in Azerbaijan are receiving the targeted social assistance. The country went over to this system in 2006, and the extent of social assistance is determined, proceeding from the "criterion of need" and the size of the family's per capita income. The average monthly amount of targeted social assistance received in Azerbaijan is 133 manats, increasing by 10.7 per cent over the past year. 

Those who have fallen on hard times

So, it turns out that there are needy people everywhere, in all countries, even in highly developed ones, and Azerbaijan is no exception. In some countries there are no documents in which they can register their destitute situation in the state structures. What is the nature of the "poverty-stricken" in our country and how can they be helped, what needs to be done to help them?

There are no men in the Kolesnikov family. Olga's 48-year-old husband left to earn money in Russia 15 years ago and has not returned. Throughout these years the family has been left without a steady income. To begin with, my mother would work as cleaner in people's flats and do shopping for them, the daughter Olga tells us (her mother, Zinaida, is 75), but now she is not well and unable to work, so we live off her pension." The mother's pension is not their only income. Olga's daughter, 26-year-old Diana Kolesnikova, is a group-2 disabled person, for which she receives a pension of 20 manats. "Diana finished secondary school, but her education ended there. She has very poor eyesight, which does not allow her to do fine work like sewing, for example, Olga says.

Olga herself cannot find a job either, firstly because she does not speak Azeri, for which only she is to blame, and secondly, because she cannot leave her mother and daughter alone. So, the family is left with a minimal means of existence; the Kolesnikovs do not have relatives or friends who could help them. In the cold winter months they could not afford to heat their flat and had to keep warm around the gas oven.

Their only hope is help from the priest and the nuns from the church. The family are believers and, even though they do not have any opportunity to go to church, they are regularly in contact with devotees there. "The nuns frequently come and see us and bring us food," she tells us. "Recently they put in an electric water heater."

Lamiya Qurbanova (the name and surname have been changed) found herself homeless after the wooden house in which she lived burned down. The woman was left without documents and any means of existence. Now she is living on the street, but does not want to turn to the state care bodies because, she says, she does not believe that they will help her. She also refuses to receive money and lives on donations of food and clothing from citizens.

On the whole, all that remains for those who have fallen on hard times is to count on help from the mosques, churches and a number of charities functioning exclusively on a voluntary basis.

Besides the state

"Our forum is not registered anywhere," the supervisor of the charity forum umid.az, Parvina Quliyeva, tells us. "All those participating are working exclusively on a voluntary basis. Someone happens to hear about destitute families; we learn about them thanks to 'sarafan' radio." True, all the information is thoroughly checked, so that there are no claims of abuse of the "charity's funds". 

In short, the forum is not linked to any state structures. "We have a solicitor who can help us, who suggests how poverty-stricken people can be assisted and what procedures need to be undertaken in a given instance," says Parvina Quliyeva. "For example, we recently helped disabled people to get wheelchairs. People have also turned to us for help applying for pensions and replacing pension books that have been lost. But unfortunately we do not have the powers to resolve these issues ourselves, because the Pension Fund can only issue documents or money to the relatives, but we do not have the appropriate documents." Naturally, there are state organisations that assist the work of the forum. "We gave a charity concert to collect money for the needy, the forum's supervisor recounts. "The Union of Theatrical Artistes provided us with its premises free of charge. Or, for example, we were allocated free tickets to the circus for the children of poverty-stricken families."

According to Parvina xanim's own personal statistics, women belong to the category of those who have fallen on hard times that are the least protected. "Men who do not have a job can at least go out and work as labourers loading sacks," she thinks. "But women are frequently limited when it comes to heavy physical jobs. Applications for help most frequently come mainly from women whose husbands have abandoned them and their children, leaving them without any financial support, widows and women with disabled husbands who have been forced to support the family.

Feeding the poverty-stricken 

Nigar Salikova, the creator and head of the "We shall make Azerbaijan a better place" charity group, says that her group consists solely of volunteers and exists on account of the money collected by volunteers. "We receive information about destitute people and begin to collect money for them, help in any way we can - with money, clothing, medicines, if they are needed," Nigar xanim recounts.

A few months ago, information about an elderly man, Grigoriy Alexandrovich, appeared on the Facebook social networking site which serves as a kind of arena for the activity of all the voluntary charity organisations; after being swindled he found himself homeless, without money and possessions. "He was suffering from gangrene so we managed to get him into a hospital," Nigar xanim says. "Then we tried to get some documents for him, but as a result we managed to get his family to agree to take him in." This is not the only case of this type. The volunteers have told me that at this moment they are trying to help an elderly woman who is also homeless.

It should be noted that it is rather difficult for charities to acquire official status. "When registering the organisation at the Ministry of Justice, we are required to have quite a large sum of money in our account, which we cannot manage for the moment." But the work on the spot is ongoing. Following the example of many Western countries, the organisation is launching the "The Suspended Goods" charitable project. The project boils down to people buying an extra dish for a homeless person when they go to a caf? for a coffee. True, we have only managed to come to an agreement with one caf? so far," Nigar xanim tells us, "but I am hopeful that the number will grow in the future."

It is understandable that all the destitute people cannot be helped, even with the best will in the world and the existence of soft-hearted people. This is why a law needs to be passed on charity operations. The existence of a special charity fund, into which definite donations could be paid by willing donors, would mainly ensure transparency and the monitoring of the way these donations are expended and would help put the well-meaning but uncoordinated charity actions on more serious rails.

The head of the Ministry of Labour's press service, Asaf Aliyev, reported to Regionplus that in order for families that had fallen on hard times and the unemployed to receive benefits, an official application has to be made to the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. "After needy citizens have applied to us, we will examine the request and assess it, taking into account numerous factors such as how many members of the family there are, whether they are working and if we have been paying out benefits for a year," he commented. Aliyev said that on average 23 manats per person were being paid out. For a family of four or five that would be approximately 100-110 manats.

In actual fact, it is not difficult to do a good deed. Each of us is in a position to do it without turning to the state and charities. Simply go and make a donation. It's like a boomerang: "You will get something back for what you have done."