| 1 | 1 | | At a state store north of Moscow you can see brightly coloured bumper stickers with |
| 2 | | red hearts and the words 'Friendship Parcel' in blue letters, both in Russian and in English, |
| 3 | | which are plastered on glass cases and walls. Tatiana and Roman Amlinsky look into a |
| 4 | | similarly decorated plastic bag containing five kilograms of US.-made salami and smoked |
| 5 | | sausages ordered for them by acaring uncle in New York City. |
| 2 | 6 | | The coupie, who are stretching their combined monthly income of 1,200 rubles to |
| 7 | | make ends meet as priees shoot up weekly, shyly express their gratitude. They say they will |
| 8 | | give the pareel to Roman's mother, a 67-year-old pensioner with a monthly income of less |
| 9 | | than 400 rubles. |
| 3 | 10 | | The Amlinskys are among several hundred families in the Commonwealth of |
| 11 | | Independent States (CIS, the former Soviet Union) who have picked up an average of four |
| 12 | | friendship pareels distributed by Chilewich International Corporation. New York -based |
| 13 | | Simon Chilewich, president of the company that was founded in Russia 100 years ago by |
| 14 | | his father, is distributing the packages 'to give something back to his country', which he |
| 15 | | visits frequently. |
| 4 | 16 | | The Moscow shop is next to a warehouse storing 40,000 frozen parcels. Relatives or |
| 17 | | friends in the US. order and pay for the pareels. So far , the firm has filled orders for about |
| 18 | | 1,000 friendship pareels for people in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Novosibirsk and |
| 19 | | Perm. |
| 5 | 20 | | 'It seems ridiculous that anyone would come from such a distance to piek up five or |
| 21 | | ten kilograms of chicken and sausages,' said Alex Heydel, head of the Chilewich Moscow |
| 22 | | office. The response reflects the food shortage that has reached crisis proportions in some |
| 23 | | of the republics. |
| 6 | 24 | | Although needy Soviets won't be the only ones benefiting from friendship pareels, |
| 25 | | spokesman John Vinnik said Chilewich is not cashing in on hard times in the |
| 26 | | Commonwealth. 'It's not a non-profit affair, but the return on our investment will be |
| 27 | | almost insignificant.' Refusing to estimate Chilewich's investment, Vinnik said, 'I can teIl |
| 28 | | you though that we are operating on a very thin margin.' And he added: 'Chilewich has |
| 29 | | accepted a tremendous risk of ordering 40,000 pareels with no eertainty of sales. I think |
| 30 | | this speaks for Simon's genuine concern.' |
| 7 | 31 | | The programme is just beginning. 'It's a pilot of a much larger effort to come,' |
| 32 | | Heydel said. Advertising in the US. will be expanded to the Pacific, the Northwest and |
| 33 | | Chicago. A food package of dairy produets will also be offered soon. Distribution eentres |
| 34 | | will open in ab out four weeks in St. Petersburg and Odessa and , later, in Kiev and Perm. |
| 8 | 35 | | Heydel said the donor base may widen as weil. 'We're hoping to expand so th at |
| 36 | | anyone in the US., and not primarily immigrants, can order friendship parcels.' Such a |
| 37 | | programme would involve mammoth distribution problems. This would make cooperation |
| 38 | | with a non-profit charitable organisation necessary, he explained. |
| 9 | 39 | | Getting the programme started was not a simple task: among other things, |
| 40 | | Chilewich's Moscow office had to find a cold-storage warehouse and determine shipping |
| 41 | | and customs requirements. Taking precautions, the company has hired a security firm to |
| 42 | | guard the warehouse. 'We have a large team of guards who are watching the area,' Heydel |
| 43 | | said. 'Believe me, if some mafioso tries to assault one of the babushkas (girls) who come to |
| 44 | | piek up a friendship parcel, they won't get very far.' |
