WHEN:

Friday, 20 November 2015, 9am – 4.30 pm

WHERE:

CAN Mezzanine, 32-36 Loman Street, SE1 0EH

Admission:

Including buffet lunch, tea and coffee.
£45 per person
£30 Friends of BEARR
£20 full-time students

Booking form can be downloaded from this page. For more information please email [email protected].

The BEARR Trust Annual Conference “Support for vulnerable groups: institutions and alternatives” will examine trends in policy and practice in Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and other countries of Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia in dealing with a variety of vulnerable groups, from orphans to older people, young offenders to people with mental and physical disabilities. In Soviet times, many such people were stuck in institutions, away from the public eye and with little hope of a decent future. Since then institutions have been closing in favour of more people-friendly alternatives, but progress has been patchy. We look at developments in various spheres throughout the BEARR region, and how NGOs are trying to help.

Speakers:

Dr Victoria Shmidt, Institute for Research in Inclusive Education, Masaryk University, Brno
Nolan Quigley, Lumos
Dr Nino Makhashvili, Global Initiative on Psychiatry, Tbilisi
Seinap Dyikenbaeva, Association for Parents of Disabled Children, Bishkek (by Skype)
Dr Eduard Kariukhin, Dobroe Delo, Moscow
Alla Pokras, Penal Reform International, Moscow office
Dr Halyna Postoliuk, Hope and Homes for Children, Kyiv
Chrissie Gale, Strathclyde University

Ograniser:

The BEARR Trust is a UK-registered charity that focuses on health and social welfare issues in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, with particular emphasis on care of vulnerable groups and reform of the way the state deals with or looks after them. It is based in the UK and managed by a number of trustees with long experience and extensive knowledge of the countries of the region. BEARR has many partners among small and medium-sized voluntary and charitable organisations in the countries of the region.  To find out more about the BEARR Trust, please click here. Read more about the organisation here.