Astrakhan: health condition of hunger-striking teachers gets worse

Ambulances are called to the teachers holding their protest hunger strike several times in day: three of them were offered hospitalization; the condition of one more protester causes special doctor's alarm - if sugar in his blood will drops by one point more, he is under threat of coma. Despite it, none of the 19 persons who take part in the hunger strike is going to stop the action.

"I take part in a hunger strike for the second time," Svetlana Lavrova, a teacher of the Centre for Children's Scientific and Technical Creativity, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "My blood tension jumps up and down; yesterday, I called an ambulance. But we wait and hope that the authorities will react to our action and come to see us. We demand only one thing: our establishment should remain state-owned."

"We've resorted to a compromise with the Ministry of Education and agreed to creation of a holding, including our establishment. We were told that two branches would be set up by July 3: we'll have our settlement accounts back, restored at the tax inspectorate, and we'll leave for vacations from our centre. All the necessary documentation should have been ready by July 3. Nothing has been done. On July 15, we went on our second hunger strike."

"Our nerves are strained to the limit, but nobody will give up; if we refuse from our demands, we'll win nothing," said Olga Biryukova, a teacher with 30 years of experience.

Nailya Ibragimova, grandmother of a 12-year-old pupil of the above Centre for Children's Scientific and Technical Creativity, joined the action on July 16. "My grandson goes there for three years; he's engaged in modelling. We want to have it open for our children," she noted and added that not all parents "can pay enormous money for their children engagement in something."