Aftermath of Chechen War: A Chechen Perspective

Gistam Sakaeva has been an aid worker since the start of the first war in 1994, when she was recruited by Doctors Without Borders from a refugee camp. In addition to Doctors Without Borders, she has worked for Handicap International, Care Canada and the OSCE.

She is currently a project officer for the Chechen NGO "Reliance", where she runs income-generating programs for vulnerable women and those with disabled family members. Gistam's main interests are gender-based violence and the marginalization of mine victims and otherwise disabled children and adults in Chechnya. In her experience, the war and its side-effects of violence, power disparity and a harsher social climate have had a particularly detrimental effect on already marginalized groups. For example, in today's Chechnya, children with mine injuries as well as those with congenital birth defects are de facto excluded from all schooling, cannot get the care and rehabilitation they need and are often simply hidden away at home.