19 May 2008, 10:34
Capital of Dagestan hosts a rally against closing the "Charitable Women's Hospital"
The central square of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, is now the venue of a protest rally, in which about one hundred persons take part. The protesters demand to stop prosecuting the "Charitable Women's Hospital".
The rally is held in the central square of Makhachkala, near the building of the Administration of the President and Government of Dagestan. The participants of the protest action, mainly women, move the requirements to preserve the "Charitable Women's Hospital" and not admit its closing.
"We have here both former patients of the Hospital and sympathizing women," one of the participants of the rally told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "As if our Republic has no other problems but to be at war against this unfortunate hospital, where poor and miserable people are helped free of charge."
The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Stanislav Gorlov, an advocate who is representing the interests of the Regional Public Foundation "Charitable Women's Hospital" and a lawyer of the Independent Non-Commercial Organization "Lawyers for Constitutional Rights and Freedoms" (LCRF), now the Hospital continues to accept and treat women patients.
According to Stanislav Gorlov, "the Hospital takes care of several children abandoned by their parents. They are nursed and treated there. Besides, the Hospital runs rehabilitation programmes aimed at health recovery and adaptation of children-invalids back into society. That is, the Hospital is in fact engaged in the State Programme announced by Russian President-Elect Dmitri Medvedev, who emphasized the need to improve the level of public health services in Russia, especially the protection of motherhood and childhood."
Author: Timur Isayev, CK correspondent
