Marina
Mikhailova worked in School Number 1 in Beslan along with her
father Alexander Mikhailov who taught metalwork and woodwork
as well as home economics for many years. He was respected and
loved by all.
Now his photo sits on Marina’s bedside table in a Moscow
hospital, where her mother takes care of her. Both women believe
that he continues to support them as he did all his life. Just
as he did almost three months ago, when their school in North
Ossetia, and the hundreds of children, teachers and parents
who were inside, were seized by armed attackers on the first
day of September – a special day in Russia, since it marks
the start of the new school year.
Trying to stop the fighters, Alexander was one of the first
to be killed in front of the shocked crowd. More than 300 people
were killed in the tragedy and some 600 wounded. The psychological
trauma is harder to quantify.
On 1 September Marina Mikhailova, 25, a primary school teacher,
was helping her class line up for the beginning of their fourth
school year together.
But the lessons did not begin that day. After surviving the
siege and its bloody and chaotic conclusion two and a half days
later, Marina was flown to a Moscow hospital with a bullet wound
in her left leg and a damaged artery under her knee.
She tries to stay strong, like many of those who were taken
hostage and lived through the horrors of those days. And yet
occasional tears, a shaky voice or a sudden silence betray her.
Among her regular visitors is the director of a neighbouring
school, who keeps her spirits up with pupils’ notebooks
that she brings for her to check.
“She often comes up with some passionate ideas for her
work in future,” says Marina’s mother. “The
last one was to use a room in our apartment in Beslan for her
lessons. ‘We’ll be in safety there,’ she said.”
The mother supports all her daughter’s initiatives and
admires her character and willpower.
Marina knows that she will go to work at school again. She is
not sure she will be able to walk though.
Three other women in the ward are from Beslan. Marina’s
mother cares for all of them: Zolina, 39, with a broken arm,
who lost her nine-year-old daughter and whose son is in another
hospital with broken legs; 35-year-old Andina, with her daughter
of four, both of whom were badly wounded by shrapnel.
Eleven-year-old Alina is another victim of the Beslan tragedy
getting treatment in the same hospital. A bomb fragment damaged
her spinal cord and her arm, her hair was burnt.
Having been bedridden for more than a month, she can now walk
and even play with other children. But her aunt accompanying
her in Moscow still has many worries. “She has become
impulsive, sometimes rude, sometimes thoughtful, always unpredictable,”
she says.
Alina is happy to sit in front of a camera with other girls.
However she bursts into tears when she sees herself without
hair on the digital screen. In a moment she composes herself,
but then nothing seems to be able to make her speak or smile
again.
She quietly takes her puzzle game with one hand, moves into
the corner saying bluntly “Leave me alone.”
Alina misses her mother. She does not know yet that her mother
did not make it out of the school alive. This will be the first
news she gets at home. It will be the most difficult wound to
treat.
The International Federation and Russian Red Cross appeal includes
psychological support as the main element of the programme for
the victims in Beslan.
“After a crisis, so many questions remain out of focus.
The state looks and acts globally often omitting individual
approaches,” says Federation psychological consultant
Vacheslav Otchuk, who recently visited Beslan.
“For the Red Cross, people and their reactions are most
important. There will be a conflict between those who survived
and those who lost everything. How will we investigate these
problems without making the psychological trauma deeper? Most
people in Beslan will need support with words and human touch,
not with medicines or money. The Red Cross will help them find
internal resources, the strength to cope with and overcome problems,”
he adds.
Alongside the assessment of needs in Beslan, Vyacheslav conducted
an initial group support session for 15 Red Cross workers working
across North Ossetia.
“It was necessary to re-orient them from distribution
of humanitarian aid to pro-active and relevant psychological
support. Many have been providing it instinctively. In the longer
term they need to know the psychological aspects of understanding
the grief, the skills to define feelings and find a new sense
to life.”
“Red Cross has a good potential for that,” Vyacheslav
continues, explaining that it enjoys a high level of trust among
the public. In Beslan people were grateful to the Red Cross
volunteers who were near the school throughout the crisis.
“Red Cross fundamental principles allow us to avoid making
too many mistakes. It can be more effective than the inflexible
state machine,” he said.
“I have no doubt that the Russian Red Cross has all the
resources to implement the programme that reflects the needs
of the affected population, both children and adults,”
said Tatyana Nikolaenko, Russian Red Cross President.
The Red Cross will implement its programme in Beslan through
teachers at schools, visiting nurses working with families and
through its social centre – a key element of the programme.
Apart from alleviating human pain it will help people develop,
raise self-esteem and widen their horizons.
And hopefully there will be a place for Marina and her pupils
there.
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Beslan
primary school teacher Marina Mikhailova is determined
to return to work in memory of her father, who died in
September’s siege (p12199)
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Alina,
an 11-year-old victim of the Beslan tragedy, was bedridden
for more than a month after a bomb fragment damaged her
spinal cord and arm, and her scalp was burnt. Now she
can walk and play (p12200)
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Andina
receives money from the Russian Red Cross, which has given
every victim of the Beslan tragedy 20 thousand roubles
(US$ 700) (p12201)
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Rozita,
Zorina and Alina made friends in this Moscow hospital.
After the course of treatment, they will soon go home
to Beslan (p12204)
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