Rehabilitation Aid to Beslan Act of Terror Victims

The Russian Orthodox Church continues with its help to the people who fell victims to the act of terror in Beslan.

In 2004-2006 the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate drafted and carried out a special rehabilitation programme for the Beslan victims. It was implemented in cooperation with the Stavropol and Vladikavkaz diocese, health ministry, ministry of science and education, and of emergency situations of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, as well as local hospitals and schools. North Ossetian medical institutions involved in the rehabilitation of the victims and schools in Beslan, which are in charge of day-to-day education and psychological rehabilitation of children and their families, received help within the framework of the programme.

This work was continued in spring 2007 by a training seminar "Rehabilitation of Children with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder". It was convened together with the Ministry of Education and Science of North Ossetia. The seminar's main goal was to improve professional qualification of school teachers and psychologists in methods, which help to overcome post-traumatic stress disorders of children and teenagers, victims of the Beslan tragedy.

In June-July 2007 the maternity department of the Republic's clinical hospital in Vladikavkaz received aid i.e. special medical equipment, for monitoring of pregnant women: the stress experienced by women three years ago now affects the health of yet unborn babies.

This help to the victims of the Beslan tragedy is a continuation of the Russian Orthodox Church's efforts to support our countrymen who were affected by emergency situations in different regions of our country. Such church work is of special intensity in the North Caucasus where the Russian Orthodox Church has carried a number of humanitarian aid initiatives since 1995 to render support to IDPs as well as people affected by the catastrophic floods in 2002 in the south of Russia and the victims of the Beslan act of terror.

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