Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
A group of student volunteers from the State University of Management traveled to Anapa to help eliminate the consequences of the fuel oil spill from the wrecked tankers.
Let us recall that in January, volunteers from the Moscow city branch of VSKS went on a similar trip to the Black Sea. Our heroes today do not have such professional skills and extensive experience, which is why it was all the more interesting to talk to them.
The following people helped to eliminate the consequences of the disaster: – Svetlana Savina, 4th year student majoring in Sociology; – Angelina Kolesnikova, 4th year student majoring in Sociology; – Nikita Seregin, 3rd year student majoring in Ecology and Nature Management; – Daria Siraeva, 1st year student majoring in Human Resources Management; – Artem Sikhimbaev, 2nd year student majoring in Global Economy.
— How did you find out about the opportunity to go to Anapa, how did you get there?
Nikita Seregin: Initially, there was a form that was sent out by our Department of Youth Policy and Educational Work. I was interested, I filled it out, and later the Department contacted me, we agreed on dates and went.
— Was there any training before the trip?
Svetlana Savina: We were offered to take trainings and courses before the trip to Dobro.rf, but we did not take them. There was a short excursion in Anapa itself, but without any special details.
— How did you get there, how did Anapa greet you?
Artem Sikhimbaev: It so happened that our train arrived in Anapa after the volunteer bus had left for the beach. And since we had some free time, and the coast greeted us with unprecedentedly cold weather for this time of year (the locals said that this had not happened for 10 years), I decided to rent a car and go to Krasnodar. We drove around there, saw the city, and immediately returned.
— What was the scope of work in general? What exactly did you personally do?
Angelina Kolesnikova: There are people there who clean up the fuel oil. This is what we were supposed to do initially. But we decided to self-organize and go to work at the headquarters. There you can go to the bird wash, to the hospital where they are looked after and fed, or directly to the headquarters, where there is an administration, a kitchen, a warehouse, and a utility room. Specifically, I was the administrator, I sat at the computer, answered phone calls, coordinated people, recorded arriving and departing volunteers, and determined the areas of their work.
Nikita Seregin: I initially worked in a warehouse, then I was sent to wash birds, but most of all I worked in the hospital, where we helped feed the birds, gave them medicine, changed diapers.
Darya Siraeva: I also worked in a warehouse, conducted inventory, accepted deliveries, and issued essential supplies. I tried working at the wash station – I washed two birds. And I also managed to try myself in the hospital, where we fed the birds and gave them medicine.
Svetlana Savin: I tried to gain as much different experience as possible. I washed birds, worked in a hospital, worked in the administration for a day, and went to the beach to clean up fuel oil. It was difficult to deal with fuel oil. Not physically, but because of its properties. Large frozen fractions were simply collected in bags. And the smaller ones had to be sifted through a mesh, but the fuel oil passes through it. It is impossible to take it with your fingers, it crumbles right away. The work is difficult, since you do not see the results right away. With birds, the situation is different, there the result is immediately noticeable. One day I washed two birds, took them to the hospital. Unfortunately, one soon died, but with the second one I saw how it was getting better. But the problem is that the cured birds are taken away far away and released, and they return to their usual habitats and again end up in fuel oil. Dolphins, dogs, and the entire ecosystem also suffer. And it can only get worse in the summer when the fuel oil melts, so you need to get rid of it as soon as possible.
Angelina Kolesnikova: We went to the central beach of Anapa and the sand there seemed to be clean. But when you start collecting shells, you can see that they are covered in fuel oil.
Artem Sikhimbaev: Considering that I had a rented car, I was put to work as a volunteer car driver, which gave me an incredible boost and understanding of what was happening. I visited all the headquarters of Anapa, drove bird catchers to the beach, drove caught birds from different points on the beach to rehabilitation centers. When the car rental ended, I moved on to washing. It consists of two stages. The first is beak treatment: they carefully cleaned it from fuel oil with cotton swabs. Then the beak was fixed in a closed position so that the birds did not clean themselves and did not pollute the beak again. The second stage of washing is quite simple – in a basin with cleaning agents. Volunteers came up with their own life hacks – they washed with fish oil and starch, which wash off fuel oil better. To understand, a standard wash of one bird took about two hours, and with starch and fish oil – about 40 minutes. Two people wash the bird: one holds it, the other washes it. I did both. I also worked in a rehab center. I was engaged in forced feeding using a tube. Inserting a tube correctly is also a certain skill. And you need to know what to give to whom, in what dosage. Therefore, when I was taught, I myself then taught seven more volunteers how to insert a tube correctly. But experience is still needed, each bird must have its own approach, each has its own character and habits. I managed to work in a warehouse and as a coordinator, I knew everyone and everyone knew me. In fact, I only did not catch birds and did not sift sand on the beach.
— Are there many other volunteers in Anapa?
Angelina Kolesnikova: Yes, a lot. But the problem is that they don’t come for long. We were only on the job for five days. And every time people have to be retrained. Once, during the night shift, there was a storm, and they brought us 120 birds at once. The management asked us to call everyone in a row, but the night shift is from 00:00 to 8:00, everyone is sleeping. The birds are dying, and you can’t do anything.
— Tell us about your daily routine.
Angelina Kolesnikova: I got up for the morning shift at 6 am, had breakfast at 7, then worked until lunch at 1 pm, and the shift ended at 4 pm. I took light and night shifts constantly.
Svetlana Savin: I worked 16 hours a day because I took two shifts. There were three of them: morning, evening and night, from 8:00 to 00:00.
Artem Sikhimbaev: I came in the morning and left when work was finished. You know, when it’s 00:00 and you still have 30 birds to wash, are you going to leave? Of course not. Once I came home at 5:30 in the morning. Thanks to that, I met people who have been working there for a long time, the so-called “legends” who don’t back down and go to the end, regardless of time and their desires.
— What was the most difficult thing?
Angelina Kolesnikova: Stress, psychological pressure. I almost never went near the birds because I understood that I wouldn’t be able to work with them.
Darya Siraeva: I agree that the hardest thing is to see this whole picture of the catastrophe, these poor birds, who are brought in all covered in oil. I felt very, very sorry for them.
Svetlana Savin: I recorded dying birds. They are also given names. People come to me and say, for example, “The cutie has died.” My birds, which I named, washed, and took to the hospital, also died. That was the hardest thing. In addition, you can bring equipment to the beach and speed up the process, but you can’t help with birds with equipment, people still have to do everything.
Angelina Kolesnikova: Besides, at the sea there is fresh air and the smell of fuel oil is almost not felt, but in the hospital with birds it is a closed room and it smells strongly.
Nikita Seregin: The hardest job was probably at the car wash. Because it’s dangerous to your health, you can get burned by fuel oil. Birds sometimes bit you. But otherwise, it wasn’t that hard physically. Although I wasn’t on the beach, many of my expectations about the work were confirmed. It wasn’t too labor-intensive, I can’t say that I was very tired during the trip, I could have easily stayed there for another week. And the hardest thing was to directly observe the environmental disaster. I’ve been participating in the volunteer movement for about a year and a half, but this is my first experience of participating in an event of this scale.
Artem Sikhimbaev: I can’t say that I experienced difficulties. I was simply obsessed with the idea of understanding the system, making my contribution, and somehow improving the processes.
— It is clear that the trip was difficult morally. But can you point out anything pleasant?
Svetlana Savin: It’s nice to watch the recovery process. When yesterday you were forcibly feeding a bird, and today it’s already eating on its own, you’re like: “Oh, you’re such a clever girl!”
Angelina Kolesnikova: Among the positive aspects, I can point out the people who work there. For example, Olesya, who trained us. She came for a couple of days the first time, and then took a vacation and came for a month. That is, some people realize how much human capital is lacking, and are ready to sacrifice their time and money to come and help. The heads of headquarters are all such caring people, with whom it is very pleasant to work. The main motivation for the work is compassion for the birds.
Nikita Seregin: In general, all the volunteers who were there were very responsive, friendly, ready to help, to give advice. This is encouraging, it smooths out a difficult situation. If I recall something else positive, then our day of arrival was free from work, and we went to the alpaca park, fed the animals, walked around Anapa and went to Krasnodar.
Artem Sikhimbaev: The most wonderful thing is that like-minded people with very different social ranks are in one place and doing one important thing. It brings people together and warms the soul. It is impossible to describe in words, it is simply harmony. I think that everyone should go.
— Can you somehow indicate the quantitative results of your work, name some figures?
Svetlana Savin: It’s hard to say. I looked after about 100 birds, that’s the number I can name.
Nikita Seregin: I washed and fed about 30 birds. For me, it was an important experience from a professional point of view, I am studying ecology. It was interesting and useful to look at the situation from the point of view of an ecologist.
Artem Sikhimbaev: I brought about 15 birds from the beach and washed about the same number. I fed at least twice as many. The main result of the work is probably not in the numbers. I learned a lot about this man-made disaster, understood a lot, learned a lot in such a short time. I talked to veterinarians and other specialists who worked there from the very first days. Since I managed to work on almost the entire chain of work with birds, I proposed several ideas for modernizing the system. For example, adding fish oil to the feed, because it helps get rid of fuel oil. And the problem of high bird mortality is that we cannot remove fuel oil from the gastrointestinal tract. Previously, nothing could be done about it. I hope that all of us were able to help at least a little.
Svetlana Savin: It seems to me that we need to introduce more volunteer activities at the State University of Management. This is useful from the point of view of management experience. We understand how the work of large groups of people is organized, we see the flaws of the system. For a management university, volunteering is a very good base. I had an existential crisis there, I am still thinking about the meaning of life. So the experience is bright and useful.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 03/21/2025
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