Problem Adolescents Find the Right Path

Although serious attempts were made, as part of the democratisation effort in society in recent years to create new legal institutions in Russia and to bring them into harmony with international practice, the country still does not have a judicial system addressed to juvenile offenders. There are juvenile corrective institutions and penal colonies, but there is no acceptable legislation to deal with juveniles cases. This is a reality that requires special attention and this is the aim of a UNDP project “Support to the implementation of a luvenile lustice system” being carried out jointly with UNICEF, the NAN Foundation (No to Alcohol and Narcotics), and the Judiciary Reform Social Centre in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

From the moment the project was launched in November 1998 in St. Petersburg, social workerVictoria Jay has been working with a problem adolescent, 18-year-old Denis P., and has helped him immensely to take a new look at his life and set himself on the right path. At the age of 15, Denis, who lives with his mother and stepfather, began abusing heroine, selling things of value from his own home to feed his habit. Before long, as is usually the case, he began having other problems. Denis was sentenced to a probation term for stealing a lady’s purse. Thus began the arduous path back to normal life. Surveillance was ended, and soon everything started all over again. One dose, another, followed by breakdowns.

He turned to Victoria Jay, who had helped him before with advice and practical assistance. She and Denis’s mother insisted on a six-month treatment course at the Stepanov-Skvortsov Psychiatric Hospital. “I was completely isolated”, recalls Denis. “Although I was allowed home on the weekends, it was very hard to be confined to the “four walls,” particularly the first month”. He returned from the hospital more relaxed, normalised his relationship with his stepfather, helped his mother at their country home, something, that he had never done before, and became interested in books and politics. But then he had a relapse.

Now Denis completely lost contact with his old friends, disassociating from everything that reminds him of drugs. The “social” therapy initiated by Victoria Jay helped him in many respects. After his relapse Denis found a job. Commuting to work took up most of his free time. Gradually his life filled with other values, and he renewed his relations with his girlfriend Caroline. Although there is still the danger of another relapse, Denis realises that no rehabilitation centre can help him more than he can himself. He sais: “A lot depends on me, I must deal with life by myself from now on. But if things get really bad, I know I can turn to the Centre, because people there helped me find the right path”.

It turns out that mischievous and naughty Granny Shapokliak, a character from a cartoon loved in Russia by children and adults alike, is not only good at firing a hand-held catapult or upsetting rubbish bins. The authors of the play “Shapokliak Is Up to Her Tricks”, which has been running for several years now at the Rolan Bykov Foundation music theatre under the direction of Natalia Delitsieva, decided and, rightly so, to follow Shapokliak’s sublime words to the effect that “good deeds will get you nowhere”, and staged a play which presents road safety rules in a way easy for children to understand.

Little children take great delight in watching Granny do mischief and actually participate in sorting out road safety violations, since the play is built on direct involvement of the audience in the action on the stage. They watch in fascination as the Road Mistress, Traffic Officer and Granny Shapokliak, who constantly gets caught in the crossfire, participate in sorting out the violations.

This year alone, the play will be seen at approximately 80 schools in Moscow. Recently, the Road Safety and Accident Victim Rehabilitation Foundation, Pedestrian-Car-Road-Environment, the French Citroen Automobile Company and the UNDP Office in the Russian Federation have joined in financing the project.

The play itself is a charitable undertaking aimed at primary school children. It is not the first UNDP transport project.

Since 1998 UNDP Country Office in Russia has implemented Moscow City Transport Project. It stipulates development of the long term Transport Strategy and transport policies for the next 20 years. In the frame of the project new highways and road junctions will be constructed and new lines of tram and light metro will be opened in Moscow.