DOING THE BUSINESS IN RUSSIAN

The fact that Alex Kovalenko, Information and Systems Manager at Castlemilk Economic Development Agency is a fluent Russian speaker, came in handy when CEDA was invited to Russia to address a conference.

Held in Nizhny Novgorod, a city of 1.2 million people on the banks of the Volga River, the conference was organised by the city's authorities which are re-developing economically and socially. Some of their officials had visited Castlemilk during a fact finding tour of the UK and had been impressed by what they saw. Following that, CEDA was invited to the conference to highlight the ways that partnership working can impact on poverty and poor housing.

Said David Coyne, CEDA Chief Executive, 'Alex's expertise was a real help. Our speeches were translated in advance so that all the delegates had a copy to take away with them and digest. The sub-titles on our slide presentation were in Russian too. That made it easier for us to communicate with our Russian speaking audience. While their English was excellent, my Russian is confined to a few phrases.'

Accompanied by Stephen Brooks who is in charge of Project Development at CEDA and Rod Hunter of Scottish Housing Associations Resources for Education (SHARE), David is hopeful more of the Russians will now return to Scotland and Castlemilk to follow up areas of particular interest. 'It is fine for them to hear people in suits, like me, talking but it is even more important that the people in the working committees there meet people in the community here and see first hand, how partnerships are working.'

Both Stephen and David said they were taken aback to see the extent of the poverty and the poor housing conditions. 'In contrast,' said David, 'I thought they enjoyed a much healthier diet than we do here. They eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg which they buy daily at stalls in the street. There aren't supermarkets. Since the city is on the river, they also have fresh fish in their diet.'

Stephen spoke on getting people back into work and was astounded to discover that one in five of the population has been in prison. 'It is almost as if it is a crime to be out of work.' He said. 'Housing conditions for the homeless and people who came out of prison or even those who had lost their documents, really unsettled me, but I expect I would feel the same way if I was shown round similar hostels here.'

Added David, 'It was useful to us to make these presentations in Russia. It helps us to see how far we've come.'