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Social Organisation of Saint Petersburg «AFRICAN UNION»MissionThe “African Union”, a St. Petersburg Social Organization was established on September 8th of 1999, by a decision of the General Assembly. It was registered by the Department of Justice of Saint-Petersburg on December 30th of 1999. The “African Union” is a self-governed organization, based on voluntary membership, created as a free-willed union of people, wishing to join efforts in aiding African people and their families, and people of African descent living in St. Petersburg, to exercise their social, cultural, economic and other rights, freedoms and lawful interests, that are in force on the territory of St. Petersburg (Protocol #1, September 8th, 1999). The organization aims to serve the interests of Africans stationed in St. Petersburg, helping to guard their social, cultural, economic and other rights, freedoms and lawful interests. Members
Aliou Tounkara (Mali), vice-president
Activities:
Desire Defo (Cameroon), vice-presidentBorn in 1966 in Zoetele, Cameroon. Lyubov Ivanova (Russia), scientific advisor
work experience:
activities:
Ali Nassor (Tanzania), journalistM.A in International Journalism. Diploma (B.A equiv.) in Journalism. Freelance Journalist for BBC World Service, Deustche Welle Radio, The St Petersburg Times newspaper, Africa Analysis magazine and New African magazine. Worked for the St Petersburg Times for eight years from 1993 as a reporter, columnist and Russian Press Analyst. Worked for Africa’s first color Television in Zanzibar, Tanzania as a reporter and later as editor. Keyword “Ali Nassor” in any major website may lead to some of his works. ActivitiesFrom the moment of its foundation, the organization has been participating in various events: Within city limits:
Internationally:
Our projects
Our publicationsAli Nassor
General Situation of Black People in RussiaAli Nassor Complexity and spectrum of the daily problems encountered by Africans is so wide that, the organization barely resolves them, partially due to financial and legal problems that we encounter. Solving this range of problems, in some case means saving individual life’s from racial assault, which in certain case results into lost of life. Among those, who met this tragic fate was a medical student from Mauritius(Africa) ,who was ambushed late in the evening and heavily beaten up by skinheads nearly his hostel and later passed away. The NGO organization "African Union" would like to address the problems that are being faced by African descendants in this country. These are mainly children of Russian girls and African students, who upon completion of their studies departed to their home country leaving behind their children. These children very often were later abandoned by their mothers. In the child house or the orphanage, which has become their place of resident, they are easy targets for discrimination by their Russian mates We do look at the problems encountered by African graduates, who, due to one reason or another, were unable to leave Russia for their country after finishing their studies to their home country and presently are fallen into the trap of the Russian legal system, where most of them faced the problems of resident registration, lack of employment, proper accommodation and finance to support their return journey. Among these postgraduates there are some people with high family values, who did prepared staying with their newly acquired families than returning back home. Acute are problems of refugees, most of whom are former students, who stayed in Russia after their graduation due to danger of returning to their home country. Other refugees, mainly from Sudan, Sierra-Leone, Rwanda and some others countries did join them, though Russia is unlikely the final point of destination for a refugee from many countries of Africa. Among those who came are former students, who traveled home and later were forced to return back, while other has troubles with military background at their home country. They hoped that Russia will provide them with certain degree of security. However, many came to face open injustice from the police and nationalist element that has become a trend in the modern Russian society. Not all African in this country are illegal. Among the African in this country, there are those had the luck and opportunity to obtain permanent Russian residence permit, citizenship, through marriages and acquirement of property. Some establish small set of business to support themselves, their families and fellow Africans. These are the free places where African can get part time employment and understanding to their problems. Though, time upon time, luck of employment paper do attract to them attention of the corrupt police, who constantly demand for bribes and tip up from the small money they get. Not only that, but the businessmen do face injustice from the bureaucratic, discriminative and corrupt attitude of many government officials. Press about us
ContactsFor letters: 35 Lanskoe chaussee -Petersburg, 197343, Russia. |
