After Conflict, North Caucasus Aid Projects Ease Poverty
FrontLines - April 2010
By Andrei Muchnik
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Abo Patiyev started a tile producing
workshop in his backyard after receiving a
program grant in 2009.
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VL ADIK AVK AZ,
Russia — Abo Patiyev,
46, worked all
across Russia in the
construction industry
for years, but his
dream was always
to return home to
North Ossetia and
start a company of
his own. After
receiving a small
grant from USAID
in 2009, Patiyev
organized a tile
workshop in his
backyard.
Business is good.
He already has a
waiting list that will
keep him busy
through the spring.
“I would not have
been able to afford
any of this without the grant,”
said Patiyev, pointing at the
equipment for mixing cement.
USAID is working to assist
people in Russia’s mountainous
North Ossetia through a small
grants program for local entrepreneurs.
The start-up funding
for new business owners helps
address pressing problems of
the two predominant ethnic
groups that live here in the Prigorodniy
district—the Ossetian
and the Ingush.
The two groups were in
conflict in 1992. In the aftermath,
most Ingush residents
were uprooted from their
homes. The Ossetian did not
fare much better, with many
falling into poverty.
That is where the small grants
program came in. Under the
World Vision-run project, residents
here have received 40
grants, averaging $6,000 each.
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Marem Katiyeva raises and
sells sheep with the help of a
USAID small grants program
for entrepreneurs in Russia.
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These grants helped to create over
100 jobs in sectors including agriculture
and trade. The project also
helped establish a business education
center at the Kurtat Community
Center where courses about
starting and improving businesses,
certified by the International
Labor Organization, are now
available to local residents.
Marem Katiyeva, 50, who
lives in the predominantly Ingush
village of Dachnoye, raises sheep
both for sale and for shearing.
“Most of them were purchased
with the grant from USAID,”
Katiyeva said in Russian, standing
in a large shed where several
dozen sheep milled about. She
plans to start producing blankets
and mattresses.
Denis Baziyev, 21, attends
college in North Ossetia’s capital,
Vladikavkaz, while providing for
his parents who are both disabled.
Running a small farm at his home
in the Kurtat village might provide
enough income to help his
family and continue his education,
he said.
Baziyev walked across a spacious
courtyard to the barn in the
back and opened the door to show
off three cows chewing on some
of the best fodder available. Both
the cows and the fodder were purchased
with the help of a grant
from the project.
One of the cows has already
started giving milk and Baziyev’s
mother helps make cheese that
they can sell to a local café. As
the main ingredient in Ossetian
pies, cheese is in demand.
USAID, through World
Vision, has been working in Prigorodniy since 2006 as part
of its $8 million per year North
Caucasus program.
★
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