Foreign delegates hope trip to Yellowknife will improve their living conditions
Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Feb 23/01) - Three Russian women are hoping to use their newfound knowledge of Yellowknife to improve the social and economic conditions for women in their country.
Ludmila Georgyevna, Larisa Petrovna Fomenko and Natalya Almazovna Plotnikova of Norilsk, Russia were in the city this week to exchange ideas and issues of concern with local women's groups and female entrepreneurs.
The delegates were also assisting the NWT Chamber of Commerce and the Business and Professional Women of Yellowknife in planning a Northern and Aboriginal Entrepreneur Trade forum to take place in northern Russia this summer.
Early in the week the Russians visited the Yellowknife Daycare Centre, YWCA, the Women's Centre, the Status of Women Council of the NWT and the NWT Native Women's Association to gather information on how organizations for women and children were formed and how they are operated.
Norilsk, an isolated northern industrial city, has a population of 260,000. It is located 2,000 kilometres from Moscow without roads or railways to connect it with regional centers.
Women, who live in Norilsk, have no access to social programs or women's shelters -- only a crisis centre that troubled women can call when they need to talk about their problems.
Fomenko, a board member of the Norilsk Industrial Region Association of Women in Business, hopes to be instrumental in establishing a women's shelter in her town. She plans on using the Yellowknife Women's Centre and other shelters located on the Internet as an example.
"I'm interested in a shelter for women who suffer from violence from their husbands or ex-husbands or partners," Fomenko said.
Fomenko said the centre she has in mind could be a transition home or hostel, but she does know it will be a place where women in trouble can turn for assistance.
"When it is very cold outside that means you cannot just get out (of an abusive situation) because otherwise you are frozen.
"Many (Norilsk) women have no relatives, many of them have no friends and many of them are financially dependent on their husbands --so that's why a shelter is very important at the moment."
Fomenko said she has established contacts through her trip to Yellowknife. She hopes those contacts will benefit the Russian women when they return home to speak to their mayor about establishing a women's shelter there.
"We cannot cover everything but we can start from something.
"If you have good will to help the people around you you can do a lot," she said.
