SOME STATS SAY 3.5% OF THE RUSSIAN POPULATION IS HOMELESS! VALERY SOKOLOV - NOCHLYAZHKA CHARITABLE FOUNDATION and OUR MESSAGE TO RUSSIA

SHARE INTERNATIONAL  read the full, heartbreaking, article Homeless in Russia.

A visit with Valery Sokolov  who was homeless in Russia for six years, from 1986 to 1992. Sometimes he slept in a railroad station and sometimes in the forest. For him, the most difficult part of homelessness was earning money to buy food.  Valery Sokolov, journalist and president of the fledgling Nochlyazhka Charitable Foundation in St. Petersburg, tells about homelessness in Russia and his surprise at finding homelessness in the United States.  EXCERPT: There are between 30,000 and 50,000 homeless people in St Petersburg. They are called bomzhi - having no fixed abode - the official status of those who lack the propiska - a stamp in the internal passport verifying an official place of residence. Without a residence permit, the homeless are deprived of employment, medical services and social welfare, and can be sent to prison for up to two years for "vagrancy, begging or leading a parasitic life." The Municipal Mortuary reported 3,515 homeless deaths in St Petersburg in 1994. The bezrodniye, or social orphans, are buried with headstones bearing numbers instead of names and dates. St Petersburg has 250 beds for homeless children, but none for anyone else. In a report last year to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights, Valery clearly states: "The Russian Federation authorities pursue policies which can be defined as little other than latent genocide based on a social discrimination." In 1996 the local government of St Petersburg gave Valery 20 million rubles - about $4,000 - as the first social contract for the homeless. "Mayor Sobchak has looked me in the eye," mentioned Valery, "and said, 'homelessness is the invention of the journalists.' *** WE KNOW RUSSIA if not RUSSIANS is reading us, so here are our suggestions should you be a human being hitting our blog to learn about poverty in America. We know many homeless hate census and hate registering with police or other agencies, but we suggest that by NOT having such a registration and giving people the papers that they NEED in order to obtain employment, medical services, and social welfare, RUSSIA IS KILLING THEIR OWN PEOPLE OFF.  That is shameful.  We no longer think of RUSSIA as a poor country, not with extremely wealthy RUSSIAN businessmen buying massive boats, exclusive homes - even islands, and all the rest! We also know that here in the United States many people who are homeless can only make some money legally through jobs that have high turnover and are physically difficult.  But sometimes it's enough to sleep in a motel and eat. SIGN HOLDING, BREAKING APART CARS FOR PARTS, LOTS OF TELEPHONE SALES, CLEANING HOTELS and MOTELS (and ironically HOUSES), being UNPAID CARE GIVERS and NANNIES, HANDING OUT FLYERS TO TOURISTS etc.  Dead end jobs usually. But when you refuse to let a person legally work, RUSSIA, you should not be surprised when people turn to cash jobs and crime. Finally, the general consensus even among homeless who have a very difficult time here in America, is that RUSSIA has NO HEART because it has now a HISTORY OF OUTLAWING RELIGION and part of COMMUNISM.  Many of us are not religious, or sick of being prayed over, however, even a HUMANIST has a HEART.  As you read through this blog you will learn that there is not enough help for the many (possible 55,000 homeless just in Los Angeles) but also that there are MANY PEOPLE and SOME ORGANIZATIONS that do have HEART.  So in reading about these in our blog, we hope you will be inspired to know that there are giving and caring human beings here. We suggest that you OPEN OFFICIAL DAY WORK CENTERS where homeless or anyone else that needs to make the money to stay in a motel or other legal place at night can work.  Day work can be anything from secretarial work to farm labor.  The employer should provide at least a hearty and nutritious lunch as part of the pay and you should be careful that the employer knows that he or she may not exploit these people as slave labor and monitor them. ONE WAY TO DO THIS IS TO PROVIDE A GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY TO THE EMPLOYER OF OFFICIALLY REGISTERED HOMELESS. We want RUSSIAN WOMEN to know that Southern California is the SEX TRAFFICKING CAPITAL of the country, and also the PORN Capital.  Russian women who are thinking of coming to the United States should be EXTREMELY CAREFUL in accepting ANY offer of employment to come here, as there is a strong criminal element among both Russian and Armenians immigrating to Southern California.   We suggest that applying for the immigration LOTTERY may be a best idea! We HAVE met RUSSIAN WOMEN WHO CAME HERE, WERE TURNED INTO PROSTITUTES, and BECAME DRUG ADDICTED and HOMELESS! By the way, RUSSIA, we like that you are willing to populate your eastern barren lands by allowing people to have acreage to make their own.  This was also done in the expansion of the United States, historically. SOME VIDEOS FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS