Shauna McLarnon, Russia
The capacity to mobilize and work together
Shauna McLarnon first visited Russia in 1993 and went back in 1995 on a post-graduate exchange in Northeast Siberia. Call it destiny or serendipity but make no mistake: ever since that initial experience Shauna knew for certain that she had found her calling.
"I knew then that I was hooked and that this is where I wanted to do my work," says McLarnon, now the Canadian Red Cross project manager for a $3 million community development program in the Russian Far North.
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Canadian Red Cross Program Manager Shauna McLarnon (far left) meets with beneficiaries in Magadan | |
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After working for two years in Russia with the Northern Forum Academy the Yakutsk region and for the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation in Moscow, McLarnon was more than prepared for a new challenge when she learned about the Red Cross project focussed on the struggling far north-eastern Russian regions of Magadan, Chukotka, Kamchatka and Koryak.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, more than 700,000 people living in these remote regions have faced extreme hardships marked by shortages of food, clothing, power and other essential supplies.
Canadian Red Cross assistance initially focussed on emergency relief to the region. Today, however, with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the focus is shifting to community economic development, health promotion, social assistance, disaster preparedness and response and organizational development.
McLarnon, who took up her new duties in Moscow in June 2001, says the results so far have been encouraging.
"People have more hope now," she says. "They see they have the capacity to mobilize and to work together."
In all four regions, the Red Cross is providing fishing equipment to local brigades, including many who have been forced to return to subsistence activities in the wake of the economic collapse of the old Soviet system. Other Red Cross activities in the region include support for community drop-in centers, food canteens, distribution of food preservation kits and mother-and-baby kits for expecting mothers.
McLarnon, 31, who speaks fluent Russian, gets excited talking about the success of some of the community projects.
An innovative project in one village is producing soap, shampoo, lamp oil and other commodities from animal by-products such as seal and walrus fat.
Another project with great potential is a vocational school teaching traditional art and handicrafts. The Red Cross also supplies the specialized tools, such as bone cutting machinery and polishing equipment, which are necessary to produce the carvings, sculpture, knives, sheaths, amulets, dolls and other handicrafts.
Shauna says project beneficiaries are beginning to develop plans to help local artists market their work not only in larger Russian centres but potentially in the United States.
Almost a decade after her first trip to Russia, McLarnon still radiates enthusiasm for a country that, in many ways, has become a second home.
Shauna says Canada and Russia are alike in many ways. Northern regions in both countries share similar geography, geology and climate. Both regions have tended to be governed from a distance, and share similar challenges when it comes to transportation and commercial links to urban centres in the south. There are also many similarities in terms of lifestyles and social problems.
"There is definitely a connection between our two countries," says McLarnon, who was born and raised in Whitehorse,Yukon. "I've always wanted to bring us together and in many ways I have begun to do that."
