Helena's Farm in the Dell Foundation, in conjunction with the Montana National Guard, has shipped a van to Krygyzstan as part of a "peace building project" to help the mentally and physically ill in the central Asian country.

The van is used to transport handicapped individuals to the basement of an apartment, where a program for employment of the disabled is located. During training hours the van is used as a taxi and profits from the taxi business are used to pay the staff at the training program. Average staff salaries are $2 per week.

The next step is to build a training center in Bishkek, Krygyzstan, to teach people about the care of the developmentally and physically disabled and the mentally ill. It's hoped that the center will also be used by Montana doctors and nurses to train Kyrgese medical personnel in the care of the disabled. In addition, the center eventually will house the employment program for the disabled.

A dedication ceremony for the center tentatively is scheduled for September, which is when a group of Helena-area residents hope to travel to Krygyzstan.

Work on the peace building project involves the combined efforts of Lowell Bartels, who founded Farm in the Dell, Gen. Gene Prendergast and the National Guard, and Nadia Semenenko, a native Krygese who has a disabled daughter. With the help of Bartels and Prendergast, Semenenko founded the only program that employs handicapped individuals in her country and is trying to educate her fellow citizens on the potential of people like her daughter.

They hope that the result of their efforts will be a program similar to the Farm in the Dell, which was created in 1983 by the Rural Opportunities Project as an alternative to urban-based homes. The Farm's founders wanted to give vocational training to the disabled in a farm-like setting, and the popular program has received national and international attention.