Russian Children’s Fund sends psychologists to Beslan

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Sept 8 2004

UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION, September 8 (Itar-Tass) – A group
of specialists in emergency psychology has come to Beslan on the
initiative of the Russian Children’s Fund. Academician Valeria Mukhina
is leading the group, which includes a number of doctors and candidates
of sciences, Albert Likhanov, head of the Russian Children’s Fund,
told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. The group starts work on Wednesday morning.

“Those people are professionals in the field. They worked with me
in Armenia, during the Spitak earthquake, and later in Budennovsk,”
Likhanov continued. He came to New York to attend the 57th World
Conference of U.N.-associated Non-governmental Organisations.

“Psychological aid is what North Ossetia needs most today. The famous
Dr. Leonid Roshal has just returned from there. When I asked him what
assistance is needed in North Ossetia as a matter of priority, he said:
‘Send psychologists there,” Likhanov said.

In the opinion of Likhanov, actually all the Beslan children are in
need of psychological assistance. “Psychological help should be given
to them, in order to help them overcome the shock,” he said. The work
will take several months.

Assistance to the parents, who lost their children, will be a special
sphere of work for the emergency team. “It will be even more difficult
to do, because there is no consolation for a mother or a father in
this situation. But we sent professionals there, and they are going to
stay in North Ossetia for some time,” Likhanov said. According to his
information, Moscow specialists will train the local psychologists,
who have higher education, but who have no experience of work in
emergency situations.

The head of the Russian Children’s Fund is sure that any revenge,
any actions in retaliation for what happened in Beslan “will trigger
conflagration in the Northern Caucasus.” “We must prevent it, because
guiltless people will become its victims, the people who have nothing
to do with the Beslan developments,” he stressed.

“Let us pray, pray and help those who remained alive. That place of
the suffering of children should remain in the history not only for
North Ossetia, but also of the whole of Russia,” Likhanov said.