Dear members of the International Board of Advisors and Board of Directors,
Please find below 2nd part of the Chairperson's trip report.
August 20.
Trip to Bern from Davos by train to meet with the Russian Ambassador to Switzerland, D.D.Cherkashin. This visit was suggested and set by Yuri Popov, our International Advisory Board member (former Consul General of Russia in San-Francisco, now deputy Secretary General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow). Ambassador Cherkashin is a very experienced diplomat (30 years of diplomatic service). He organized charity concerts and receptions when he worked in Hamburg.
He offered the Embassy grounds to us for a fundraising reception and suggested that he could help to organize an exhibit of the works by Zhenya Tarkhanov (one of the anemia patients from Vladivostok) and also proposed to bring Zhenya to Switzerland for the event.
Ambassador Cherkashin will look into different possibilities (like going to bankers) to find the funds to make it happen. After the meeting I wrote to Vladivostok and received from them a life story written by Zhenya himself, that is very sincere and moving. I will send the story to Ambassador Cherkashin. Zhenya is the author of the drawing "Emptiness".
August 21.
Trip by train to Bonn. Meeting at the headquarters of CARE-Germany.
The meeting was attended by Mr.Willi Erl (Chairperson of the Board), Ms.Manuela Robach (Chief Executive Officer), Jurgen Bartels (Program Officer, CIS) and Prof. Fritz Lampert (pediatric hematologist, Member of the Board). CARE-Germany 10 years ago provided the funds to create 10 oncology clinics for children in the Soviet Union (they raised over $120 million).
The discussion was very useful and productive. Prof. F.Lampert is the biggest sponsor of the hematology clinic for children in Ekaterinburg (Russia) and he promised to look into possibilities to help Vladivostok as well (e.g. he organizes bike races every year in Ekaterinburg and may be the same can be done in Vladivostok). Jurgen Bartels suggested to prepare grant applications and try to apply for funds in Germany, also he had an idea to include our Center project in the projects offered for the spring marathon in Germany next year.
CARE-Germnay will continue working with Ludmila Minkina, the chief doctor of the pediatric clinic for cancer and blood diseases in Vladivostok.
August 20-30.
Visit to Paris. Almost every day I had working meetings with our International Advisory Board member Eleonora Mitrofanova (she is the Deputy Director General of UNESCO) to discuss various projects in Moscow. She has a good insight into Moscow circles and knows the way
to make things work there. She is the person who found us the first $125,000 for the project. She also found an auditing company there that will audit our construction company in Vladivostok.
Ms.Mitrofanova organized a meeting for me in Paris with the new Russian Ambassador to UNESCO Mr.V.Kalamanov, who became our supporter as well.
During my stay there Ms.Mitrofanova invited me to attend a reception organized by UNESCO where I had a chance to meet with the Imperial Family of Russia, i.e. Grande Duchess Leonida of Russia, Grande Duchess Maria of Russia and Grand Duke George of Russia. We made a
connection in the first minutes of our acquaintance. The royal family expressed their interest in our project and said they will be happy to come to Honolulu next June to participate in the Days of Russia and help raise the funds for the Center construction in Vladivostok.
After the meeting I sent them the info on the Foundation and on the project and also invited one of the Duchesses to join our International Advisory Board.
September 1-8.
Visit to Moscow. One of the highlights of our PR campaign for the project was a program on the "Echo of Moscow" radio station organized by Mr. Leonid Slutski, our International Advisory Board member. The program was half an hour and consisted of my answers to questions posed by the anchor. It was well received. This station is the most prestigious in the capital.
A meeting with the Deputy Director General of ITAR-TASS (the main news agency in Russia) Mr. M.Gusman was organized by our International Advisory Board member Andrei Sitov (the Chief of ITAR-TASS bureau in Washington D.C.). Mr.Gusman had some very interesting ideas on how to organize the PR campaign for Boeing to publicize their donation of $50,000 this summer for our project. He also assured me of his full support and promised the help of the agency in any way possible in order to provide good coverage of the Foundation activities and the
Center project in Russia. I told him about our fundraiser in Honolulu November 30 and asked if he could send Andrei Sitov to cover the event. He asked me to provide an official letter of request, which I did the next day. So, he already called Andrei Sitov and confirmed his trip to Honolulu! This will produce excellent publicity for our event.
At the suggestion of Mr.Leonid Slutski, I started the procedure to register our Foundation, Children in Russia, in Russia in order to open our bank account in Moscow (as not all the Russian companies are able to send money to a foreign bank).
In order to make this happen we need a local legal address of the Foundation which was kindly provided by the Social Innovations Foundation. These are the people who donated the first $125,000 to the project, Sergei Korostelev and Artur Rean. They also suggested we sign a partnership agreement for the implementation of the Center construction project. Furthermore, they generously offered to pay our representative in Moscow $500 a month during the first 6 months. I was lucky to find a perfect person to be our representative! Her name is Natasha Tavdumadze. For the last four years she was working as a visa consul in the Russian Consulate in San-Francisco. Her husband, Nikolai Tavdumadze, was a Deputy Consul General there and a
curator for Hawaii, so I know them both very well. He is a well-connected and experienced diplomat. Now he continues to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. Natasha is a very knowledgeable, intelligent and creative young woman with an excellent command of English and superior diplomatic skills. It is a true find!
My sincere thanks to Sergei Korostelev and Artur Rean.
Mr.L.Slutski also helped us locate a legal agency, "Bazalt," in Moscow that will take us through all the hardships of opening the office in Moscow in less than 2 months. As soon as I come to Honolulu (September 17) I will start preparing all the necessary documents to make it happen.
Our small project to sponsor the two directors of the orphanages in Ussurijsk and Ekaterinovka to participate in the International Conference on Pediatric Rehabilitation in Moscow October 9-11 is developing very well. I had a meeting with the officer of Firefly Kids Fund, the American non-profit organization that is putting this conference together, to confirm their participation. The conference will be attended by doctors, social workers and businessmen from 26 countries.
Mr.L.Slutsky organized my meeting with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs r.G.Mamedov, our long-time supporter. It was his idea to ask Boeing for a donation. I briefed Mr.Mamedov on the status of the project and was happy to hear his new ideas about ways to find money.
On the 8th of September the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs celebrated its 200th annivesary. A special jubilee medal has been issued dedicated to this occasion. I was fortunate to be awarded this medal by Deputy Minister A.Fedotov. After the ceremony he wanted to know about our project in Vladivostok and asked for written materials, which I fortunately had with me. He offered his help in finding sponsors for the Center construction.
Our preparation for the fundraiser in Honolulu from the Moscow side is going well. I had a meeting with both the Chef Mr.Bikov and also Mr. A. Cherkassov, our sponsor. They both confirmed their commitment to participate.
While in Moscow I received the final blue prints for the Center with all the approvals by the local authorities in Vladivostok, prepared by the Petersstroi company. These consist of 11 volumes. I received 4 of them that I left with our representative to be given to the private
accounting and auditing company FBK which is fully prepared to do the audit of the Petersstroi company. One of FBK partners, Ms.Elena Proskurnya, confirmed that they will not charge us for their services!
I had a meeting in the headquarters of Boeing in Moscow with the Vice-President of Boeing, Sergei Kravchenko, who gave me a very warm reception. We discussed a ceremony to be organized at the Embassy of Russia in Washington D.C. when a senior Boeing officer there,
Mr.Pickering (former US Ambassador to Russia), will give a symbolic check for $50,000 (the money has been already given and spent by us) to the Russian Ambassador Yu.Ushakov. Mr.S.Kravchenko briefed me on the objective difficulties in obtaining future donations from Boeing due to the fact that Boeing did not get a big contract from Russia for selling their planes.
However, the door is never closed and we should never lose hope! Both John Schmidt and Sergei Krachenko are true supporters of our project, they did their utmost best to give us the first $50,000.
Our project to put together an exhibition of the works of members of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts is moving along. I had a chance to talk to the President of the Academy Zurab Tsereteli and the Executive Secretary of the Academy Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin. Their commitment is firm. The actual collection of art pieces will start in October, as now most of the artists are still not in Moscow. The school year at the Academy starts October 1.
Our project to organize three concerts of the best performers in Moscow in winter is developing beautifully. The Deputy Director of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Aleksei Shalashov, came up with an idea for the first concert.
On January 7 the famous orchestra conducted by the outstanding I.Fedoseyev will play Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. A new, complete translation of the fairy tale of Hoffmann on which the Ballet is based will be read by two actors and one child. A team of 2-3 people is being put together by Aleksei Shalashov to organize the event. It will include an experienced PR person, a theatre designer to make stage and foyer decorations and also a writer to make a booklet for
the event. The team will also search for sponsors with the help of Natasha Tavdumadze and Russian members of our International Advisory Board who are in Moscow. We expect to make $100,000 per concert. Two additional concerts are under development. We already have identified the performers, we just need to come up with the concepts.
The press release for these events was written by me with the help of Eleonora Mitrofanova and later reviewed and edited by Andrei Sitov.
Moscow is enthralled just now with two musicals: "Metro" and "Notre Dame de Paris", staged by Katerina Urmancheyeva, a young talented producer. I had a meeting with her and she was very enthusiastic about donating one of the performances of each of these hits to our project. Different ideas were discussed, i.e. may be to organize a special performance consisting of pieces of these musicals?
She introduced me to Irina Miloshich, the PR person of Mumi Troll, one of the most famous rock stars in Russia at the moment. His first name is Ilya and he comes from Vladivostok. Irina assured us that he will be happy to give a concert there or in Moscow. Natasha Tavdumadze will continue working on these initiatives.
Our project with Natasha Drigant, a young fashion designer (graduated from Paris Academy of Haute Couture and worked 1 year at Christian Dior) who is opening her own Fashion House in Moscow in October, is going very well. She is making a summer collection based on drawings
(60 of them were provided by the Vladivostok clinic) by our sick children. These are happy drawings of hope for a new life. Natasha named the collection "Angels and Children". We extended an invitation to the wife of the American Ambassador to Russia Ms.Lisa Vershbow to
create the fashion jewelry for this collection. First the idea was to show the collection during the Haute Couture Week in Moscow in November, but later we decided that it will disappear among the rest of the presentations and decided to make a separate show in December.
Natasha Drigant also volunteered to participate in decorating the foyer for the Nutcracker performance. So many ideas!!!!
I met again with our good friend, the Korean Ambassador to Russia, Chung Tae-ik. He offered to call the LG Electronics office in Moscow again and to nudge them. He also promised to look for sponsors for our winter charity concerts among the Korean companies in Moscow and to introduce our Foundation to the new Japanese Ambassador to Russia when he arrives in Moscow mid-October. Ambassador Chung Tae-ik is such a warm and caring person. His wife is engaged in helping small children who stay in prisons with their sentenced mothers.
My meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Mr. I.Klebanov was arranged by Mr.L.Slutsky. Mr.I.Klebanov is also a Minister of Science, Technology and Heavy Industry in Russia. I had a quick chance to brief him on the project and asked his help in promoting it among the Russian businessmen as potential sponsors, which he promised to do. The Minister was leaving for Vladivostok next day (what a coincidence!) and I asked him to talk to the Governor of Primorski Krai about lending us more support for the Center construction.
Now comes the best news for dessert. We can also check who read my report to the end.
I had a meeting arranged by Yuri Popov with Nikolai Kosov, the First Deputy of the Chairman of the Board of Vnesheconombank. This bank gives money to many charities including children's leukemia. Mr. N.Kosov was very happy to learn that we are building our Center not
in Moscow, but so far away, thus providing relief to the children of the Russian Far East. He committed to sending $200,000 to our bank account after October 1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This means that we can start making the foundation of the Parents' Home this year! I also hope that it will make our task of finding money a little easier.
My deep thanks to all the members of our board for their hard work and especially to the Russian members of the International Advisory Board for their outstanding help in finding such wonderful sponsors for us!
Yours,
Natasha