First time recipients of Presidential Grants

15 June 2021

Support for tired mothers, psychological support for school pupils, informing pregnant women with hearing impairments, and other project winners have been picked out by the Agency for Social Information (ASI).

On 11 June, the Presidential Grants Fund announced the winners of the second competition of 2021. 847 projects received support from the fund for the first time. ASI discusses some of them.

Finding Undiagnosed Patients

The Moscow-based ‘Gordey’ fund received a presidential grant for the first time for their project ‘School on problems relating to medical and social support for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD)’.

The project has several components. The first is educational: ‘Gordey’ will run a school for parents dedicated to the particularities of the illness and the behaviour, emotions and education of children with DMD. It will also run educational events for doctors.

The second is research oriented. The fund will develop a survey which will help identify undiagnosed sufferers of DMD. With the help of the survey the aim is to set up the first ever all-Russia census of people with DMD, in order to create a federal register of patients.

According to the fund, only one in four children with DMD in Russia have received a correct diagnosis, while the rest are diagnosed with autism, hepatitis, and cerebral palsy. This deprives them of vitally important treatment. What’s more, only around 500-600 people are in the care of specialised CSOs in Russia, while this figure should be closer to around 4,000.

Checking a Diagnosis

The ‘Life’ fund for supporting children with hematology-oncology diseases was a competition winner for its project ‘Studying illnesses and treatment’.

The project aims to reduce the likelihood of incorrect oncological diagnoses for children from 0-17 years. The fund will run additional diagnostics for 50 children.

The project plans to run an information campaign for parents and oncology doctors focused on the importance of double-checking oncological diagnoses.

The ‘Life’ fund has been working since 2007; it raises funds for the treatment of children with hematology-oncology diseases and helps specialist hospitals.

Supporting Tired Mothers

The ‘Be The Mum’ fund won a presidential grant for their project ‘Everything will be OK — service to support tired mothers’. Previously the Presidential Grants Fund had supported projects dedicated to family security, now the focus area is maternal burnout.

The support service will help women dealing with maternal burnout syndrome.

The project provides for individual consultations with psychologists, online support groups for women, work with assisting specialists, and information campaigns raising awareness of the issue. The project plans to release a series of podcasts and publications on the topic of post-natal depression.

The ‘Be The Mum’ fund created an initiative group for parents in 2016, the goal of which is to improve the lives of mothers in Russia.

Psychological Assistance for School Pupils

For the first time the Presidential Grants Fund is allocating money to a project of the Orenburg-based ‘Saving Lives’ fund, aimed at providing psychological support in school.

The ‘Protected Child’ project will create a supportive environment in schools for children and teenagers requiring assistance. Together with teachers and school psychologists, the fund will aim to prevent instances of suicide, aggressive behaviour, and bullying.

‘Saving Lives’ will provide support lessons for schoolteachers which will help them to understand the problems experienced by their pupils. The results of these will be used to draw up a road map of ‘Psychological Support for Pupils’, which teachers will work with in each individual case.

The project aims to help five schools, which are attended by almost 3,000 children.

The ‘Saving Lives’ fund surveyed a focus group and discovered that 87% of school pupils from the group experience higher than average levels of anxiety. 67% admitted that they needed support from parents and teachers.

‘Saving Lives’ was registered in 2013, it helps women and children in difficult life circumstances, orphaned children, and those who have left children’s homes.

Listen to the Silence

Another competition winner is the ‘Parents School in Silence’ project, which is being run by the Tula centre for supporting people with hearing impairments ‘Listen to the Silence’.

According to the centre, deaf women receive little or no information about pregnancy, childbirth, and caring for a newborn, while doctors in general cannot speak sign language.

In light of this, the project plans to prepare 40 educational video lectures, which will provide information in sign language from an obstetrician and gynaecologist, an expert on breastfeeding, a neonatal nurse and expert on maternal care, and handout material on the subject.

‘Listen to the Silence’ claims that there are around 145,000 women with hearing impairments in Russia who are currently of reproductive age.

The centre develops educational courses for people with hearing impairments, educates them, and helps tackle problems relating to a lack of professional qualifications among deaf people. The centre was registered in 2019.

The Presidential Grants Fund will allocate financial support of 4,162,000,000 roubles to the competition winners. The winners are free to begin implementing their projects from 1 July.

Applications for the first competition of 2022 will open on 1 September.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2021/06/15/fond-prezgantov-new-winners/