Seemingly the conflict in Chechnya is gone. The topic is off from the front pages of the newspapers; - this is exactly what Kremlin needs.

Simultaneously, the youth generation which sees nothing but war and death, experienced deep emotional traumas. These wounds do not strike the eye like physical scars but their consequences are not less destructive for the whole nation.

Many children lost one or both parents, became social orphans. Disabled children are not given opportunity to feel normal because their stumps with no prostheses remind them of their situation all too clear. Also children with unaffected limbs have had almost no idea about school for twelve years,- they are like outcasts.

It hurts to look at mutilated children, the landmines victims who lost their arms, legs, eyes, who are confined to their beds. A huge amount of war-time babies are born with congenital malformations – ICP, mental defects.

There is one common problem in all these cases:. All of them need psychological rehabilitation.

Summer 2006 when I visited Chechnya, I was in touch with Aida Ailarova, UNICEF coordinator of social rehabilitation, who worked on one of UNICEF programs,- she called for the opening of 14 rehabilitation centers in nine districts of Chechnya to treat post-traumatic stress disorders.

Human resources turned to be the principal problem: the Republic lacks people with psychological education. Even the educated ones do not have practical skills of working in this situation. There is no doubt that the local specialists should be working here as they are capable to consider the characteristics of local mentality and ethno-psychology. They have to work at locations night and day, in the kindergartens, schools, rehabilitation centers.

Aida asked for help at the IsraelCenter for the Treatment of Psycho Trauma. She asked the Israeli professionals to give a workshop to their Chechen colleagues.

One and a half year project was organized for twenty Chechen specialists who once in every three months attended a five-day workshop under the supervision of the Israeli specialists. At these workshops local specialists got new skills and theoretical material, and as well studied various cases from their own practice.

So I traveled from rehabilitation center to refugee camp, from orphanage to orphanage, and listened to the children’ stories, each of them leaving bitter after-taste. Every kid here has his or her own hard fate, own tragic story. They try not to recall, sinking into daily cares…

On January 19th, 2007, Ramzan  Kadyrov, annulled all orphanages in Chechnya, because their existence contradict to the traditions of Chechen nation. But where are gone all those children?

I want to continue my project because I believe that any kind of public exposure, such as photo exhibition, a book or an photo-essay, will help to concern this problem more closely and will encourage donations which may help the disabled children to get prostheses, may help to establish more rehabilitation centers, to prepare more local specialists to help the young generation to recover from the war and get back to normal life.