Since 2010, military training has been required in Russian schools as part of OBZh, a “health and safety” course. This year for the first time, a student in Tatarstan openly refused to take part because of his pacifist beliefs. He was threatened with a black mark on his permanent record if he didn’t comply. Read […]

The summer newsletter for 2017 reports on a project that helps children who have emotional or expressive disorders or complex intellectual impairment. The photo is from a “feeling gymnastics” session. Also featured is FHM’s latest book publishing venture into “paperback printing”, to add to our existing library of online publications.

Refugees in Moscow? Yes, and not just from Chechnya, like in the old days: now they arrive from Syria, Afghanistan, Africa… The Refugee School has been going for 20 years and is needed as much as ever.  They teach kids to speak Russian (necessary to enter the state school system) as well as a variety […]

In our spring newsletter we reported that FHM is helping to support the work of Moscow’s volunteer prison visiters, the ONK [Social Observation Commission]. Anna Karetnikova, a member of the Commission, writes about some of the prisoners she has encountered.  In this extract from her blog we learn what happened to Nadezhda, in women’s prison […]