Asher Ostrin, Director of the former Soviet Union, Joint Distribution Committee

Recently I was asked what our biggest challenge was when we (re) entered the former Soviet Union in the early 90's. It was not an easy question to answer. And then I realized that the difficulty in answering the question was the answer. Everywhere we turned there was rot and disintegration. With limited funds - where do you start? Indeed, I would say even now that one of our greatest challenges is maintaining focus. There is so much to do- how do we choose what warrants our attention, how do we set priorities among so many compelling needs, how do we stay abreast of developments so that we are sensitive to adjust, and sometimes change those priorities as circumstances change? And how do we do this in so many countries, across such a vast expanse?

When we began our welfare program, we took a decision to concentrate on providing food to the needy elderly. The needs were enormous, indeed overwhelming. Food was but one of many heartrending shortages. Medicine was very expensive, and often unavailable locally. Entire groups of needy received no support: children, the psychologically and emotionally challenged, the chronically ill. The list was endless. But we realized that we needed a focus. And so we began with food for the elderly who had income below the poverty line.

After a few years, and as our resources grew, we added programs. Medicine and some medical care were included in the basket of services offered by our existing support programme. A medical equipment lending program was included. The list goes on. But each addition to the list of entitlements came after careful consideration, and assurances that we would not dilute the impact of our support by being "all over the map".

Housing is an area in which we have not been involved.

Housing in the former Soviet Union was always very problematic. There was a chronic shortage of suitable dwellings for the population for generations. Post revolution there were massive transfers of populations from rural settings to cities, and the country could not build fast enough.

During the Second World War the urban landscape in the USSR was devastated (think Leningrad, and almost all other major cities). There was so much to be done to rebuild post War, that housing was only one of many priorities, and the housing market never fully recuperated.

By the early 60's another factor contributed to the housing crisis. The economic system was such that apartments were built around the USSR based on instructions from the centre, i.e. from the responsible ministry in Moscow. Buildings were thrown together quickly to meet artificially determined quotas, with no concern for quality. After all, an apartment never actually went on the market. It never had to appeal to a purchaser. Once a building was completed, people were chosen from a list and told to occupy it. Well constructed, poorly constructed, sometimes even only partially constructed, you were so pleased to have a place to live and to move out of the room that your family of four shared with your parents, that you jumped at the opportunity.

A second factor came into play. As societal norms deteriorated, an underground economy developed. If a thousand bags of cement were needed for a project, and were delivered to the site, the foreman could pilfer a few, and they would never be missed. The cement produced in the end was not quite as strong as standards required. Some of the bricks could be pilfered. The walls would be a few centimetres thinner, but who would know? Or care? And if someone in a position of authority uncovered the racket, he or she could generally be brought into it as a price for his or her silence. There was little accountability in the construction industry, and the final product stood as evidence.

Through the years, many people made the adjustments necessary to repair the shortcomings. If you were a butcher you made meat available to someone who knew how to spackle and had access to materials, in return for a day's work in your apartment. The plumber had piping from his construction site and would repair the teacher's bathtub in return for a slight adjustment of his daughter's grades.

But what about those who had nothing to barter? They lived, and live, in housing of substandard construction, and when the wear and tear on the building began to take its toll, they have no recourse. They are resigned to their fate.

To return to JDC and its support programme: As noted above, we put a high priority on focus. We limited how our resources could be used in order to maximize impact. House repairs, while often critical, joined a long list of other critical issues that we simply could not address.

Enter our sister organization in the UK, World Jewish Relief, a long time partner in several aspects of our former Soviet Union work, especially in the essential needs support programme. In addition, WJR has also branched out into other areas. Not long ago, WJR decided to commit funding over and above the long term support programmes into a programme for house repairs and we began to identify potential homes to benefit clients.

A professional is sent to the site based either on client request or referral from the support programme worker, often someone who visits the client and week after week witnesses the deplorable conditions in which our clients live. An evaluation is made, and an application is submitted (including a photograph). The situation is evaluated based on a set of criteria, the appropriate professional commissioned to do the work, and an oversight operation is in place. Criteria for selection include household income (below a certain threshold) family status (priority to those with little or no family), type of repair (priority to urgent/essential needs) and level of homecare assistance (priority to those who do not receive). An added benefit: the project favours repairs that increase efficiency and reduce monthly utility costs, thus further assisting clients who lack sufficient means to cover their routine expenses.

Once again, we are faced with a situation in which the need far outstrips the resources, and focus is critical. There are situations in which frail elderly have an outhouse instead of indoor plumbing. Under "normal" circumstances that is unimaginable. Superimpose a Russian winter onto that scene. Can we even imagine asbestos lined walls, or lead paint used in dwellings, and even worse in homes of children?

There is a risk that the scope paralyzes one into a state of inertia. You just simply don't know where to begin, and you spend so much time considering the various alternatives, that you basically do nothing.

Or, you identify the problem, early on come to terms with the fact that you will never address all of its aspects, roll up your sleeves, and begin to work. And that is what happened.

I opened this blog with a request that you look around you. That is your baseline. You may have seen a place on a wall that needs a touch up of paint. A scuff mark of which you took note that needs to be cleaned. Or myriad other "issues" that need to be addressed.

Now, look at some of these pictures in this blog page. Note two things among them:

1. The physical setting. The damaged walls, the cratered ceilings, the plumbing that isn't worthy of that name.

2. Note also that we have included a picture of at least one of the people who lives in this place. To remind us that this is not a museum site, or an abandoned room. Real Jews live here in 2011.  

Like, Luisa who 74-year-old Luisa, who lives alone on the outskirts of Zaporozhye in Ukraine in an unheated, decaying apartment. Or the Podgursky family. Emilia (aged 35) has two daughters, Marina (aged 4) and the daughter Victoria (aged 2). Emilia is an unemployed single mother, whose only income is the state child support.

Emilia and her children live in an old shabby private house that desperately needs repairs. The roof of the house is constantly leaking, which makes the house especially unsuitable for living. The roof needs to be repaired. The house is damp and cold, which is the reason for the poor health of Emilia and her daughters. The girls suffer from chronic thoracic diseases and the mother has problems with her pulmonary tracts.

In the Jewish calendar we are in the month of Elul, in the very last days before we begin a new year.  The year is ushered in not with the levity characteristic of new years in other cultures.  Instead, we are each bidden to do a cheshbon nefesh- a process of introspection, to ask ourselves if we have led the lives we should, have done what we are required to do.