In addition we partnered with United Methodist  Church in McMinnville, Oregon to send school supply boxes to 17 villages. Many groups and individuals contributed the high quality warm clothing for this drive, ranging from a Methodist church in Tennessee to St. Francis (Catholic) Church in Kotzebue, to Shishmaref Lutheran Church.  Many, many thanks to all of you!  Many thanks to United Methodist in Nome for letting us use their large room as a staging area. Without this it would have been impossible. In addition, we were able to use many items from their Thrift Shop to fill our boxes when we were missing an item.

   This fall we began a new strategy of encouraging churches, schools, and other groups and individuals to do their own drives and mail direct from their hometown, thus saving time and postage money.  We use e-mail to communicate the necessary information to those teams.  As of this date over 40 groups and families were doing their own direct mailings to families.  One large group took on an entire list from a village and sent their boxes direct: United Methodist at Glenwood, Iowa. McMinnville UMC sent at least one box to each child at an orphanage in Anadyrн. Other smaller groups and families from in and out of Alaska sent from one to four boxes each. This means we have really expanded the number of Chukotkan families reached.

   Thanks to every one of you that jumped into this project and decided to carry out your part independently!

  We also want to thank again those organizations who helped with freight to bring clothing to Nome:  Maniilaq, Inc. and Bering Air. About 20 Nome people volunteered to do the packing, and I think about the same number have been doing that for the Chena Ridge drive too.

   Sue Steinacher did a great report on her trip to coastal villages of Chukotka. It was printed in Nome and Fairbanks papers, resulting in a great increase in support.

   We also want to thank very much for the outreach done by Russian Far East Task Force.  Jim Campbell, while touring with his new video tape about Chukotka and fund raising for their own large distribution, put families in touch with us who wanted to do direct mailings.

ANYONE WHO WISHES TO "ADOPT A FAMILY" AND SEND YOUR OWN BOX DIRECT PARCEL POST CAN GET THE INFORMATION FROM US.

   Meanwhile, other aid groups continue to work in Chukotka.  By January, 23 of the 40 villages will have received some kind of aid from the U.S, though for a few it is only a school supplies box so far.  All this work continues to be well coordinated. Just as exciting, there are now three private Russian aid groups and the Russian Red Cross working in Chukotka. The result is that things don't look so bleak for this winter.  However, people will still be short of clothing.  As of this week, Provideniia is running low on fuel again; we don' know how many other places. Fuel will still need to be rationed, but all families should get at least two small shipments of food staples, some more will get nets, and there will be more fuel available.

  One of the Russian aid groups is Polius Nadezhdy, a foundation created by Roman Abramovich, the Duma representative for Chukotka.  His goal for this winter included seeing that each Chukotkan got a large box of staples, a jacket, that the children got better meals through the schools, and that each school got new text books.

 The Russian Far East Missions, a Lutheran group, also continues its aid efforts in the Chukotksii region.  Russian Far East Task Force (see above) has continued its aid work in Providenskii and Anadyrskii regions and is expanding to Bilibinskii this winter. For addresses of any of these groups contact us.

   Of course Alaskans are interested not just in aid but in increased contact with Chukotka which will lead to community and economic development for both regions as well as easier visiting between relatives, which for most is still impossible. We look forward to progress on this in the next months. As part of this trend, Duma representative Abramovich and his private development team visited Alaska twice this fall including a trip to Nome where they spent their time looking at how things are done in Alaska --  for example how to set up their own regional airline. AFOC was involved in these proceedings and was able to coordinate with Russian aid efforts in that way.

   Our plan for year 2001 is to continue with our clothing shipments since it will be some time, even in the best of times, before Chukotka can get its economy and infrastructure to the point where it can meet the needs of its village families.

   Thanks again to everyone of you who contribute goods, time and funds to help our neighbors in their hard times!

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