The second stage of the competition for the creation of church centers for humanitarian aid has begun. Icarus: Russia will send grain for humanitarian aid Homeless people have begun to be helped to get a job
On June 6, Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuevsky, chairman of the Synodal Department for Charity and head of the Orthodox aid service “Mercy,” consecrated the Humanitarian Center for pregnant women in crisis situations, needy people and large families. The center became the new, 27th project of the Mercy service.
According to experts, in Moscow alone more than 1,000 pregnant and young mothers are in a situation of acute crisis due to lack of support from the child’s father, relatives and other reasons. Many people, out of desperation, decide to have an abortion or leave the child in a maternity hospital. But if a woman is supported at this difficult moment, tragedy may not happen.
“Proponents of abortion argue that society should pay for abortion, since women often abandon children without the means to support them. But the Church not only calls not to have abortions - it strongly supports mothers who find themselves in difficult situations. With the blessing of Patriarch Kirill, humanitarian centers are now being created throughout Russia. During the year, 55 such centers were opened, and in total there are more than 100,” said Bishop Panteleimon.
The humanitarian aid center operates like a store, with the difference that goods are distributed free of charge. In the bright and beautiful showroom, visitors will be able to choose and receive women's and children's clothing, maternity hospital discharge kits, disposable diapers, children's cosmetics, creams, shampoos, and toys.
Liturgy in the main church of the country, the opening of a humanitarian aid center, the publication of a textbook on caring for terminally ill children - our service achieved a lot in 2017
Last year, the entire Mercy service gathered for the first time at the Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the SaviorEmployees, volunteers and wards of the Mercy service gathered together for the first time at the Liturgy, which was held with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. About 2,000 people came to the service. Among them were not only friends and volunteers of the Mercy service, but also wards: lonely old people, special children, large families, disabled people permanently living in a psychoneurological boarding school. Sisters and volunteers brought even the most “difficult” charges so that they, too, could take part in the common prayer - for many of them, attending a service and receiving the Mysteries of Christ in the main church of the country always seemed like a pipe dream.
We invited all the people involved in the work of mercy to the Liturgy to together ask God for help - all year the Mercy service was struggling with the financial crisis, which jeopardized the further work of many projects. But the most important thing for which we have gathered, according to the head of the Mercy service, Bishop Panteleimon, is to “thank God for what we have done and will do together,” and to feel the joy of meeting Christ and each other.
Humanitarian Aid Center opened
In 2017, the Mercy service launched a new, 27th project - for pregnant women in crisis, those in need and large families. The center operates like a store, the only difference being that the goods are distributed free of charge. In the bright showroom, visitors can choose and receive women's and children's clothing, maternity hospital discharge kits, disposable diapers, children's cosmetics, creams, shampoos, and toys. During the six months of the center’s operation, from June to December 2017, 1,459 families received assistance at the center.
A manual on palliative care for children has been published
For several years, the Mercy service, together with the Praktika publishing house, worked on the translation into Russian and publication of the world's most famous textbook on relieving children's pain. The publication of the book in our country is recognized by leading experts in palliative care in Russia as an important event on an all-Russian scale, since until now there were no modern fundamental textbooks in this field in Russia. The Oxford Guide to the Care of Terminally Ill Children was written by 72 specialists from 12 countries, and the book is recognized worldwide as the best guide on this topic. Now, using the published manual, many Russian specialists will be able to train in palliative care for children. The first thousand copies of the textbook are distributed free of charge to doctors, representatives of educational institutions and charitable foundations specializing in helping terminally ill children.
An annual support program is open for children with cerebral palsy
For the first time in Russia, our specialists launched a pilot project for annual support for children with cerebral palsy. The goal of the program is to provide patients with continuous professional support instead of annual one-time rehabilitation courses that do not bring the desired effect in the development of children. According to Ksenia Kovalenok, head of the “Mercy” Center for the Rehabilitation of Children with Cerebral Palsy, now in Russia there is practically no systematic approach to the management and rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy. We hope that the results of the new long-term rehabilitation program will confirm that the idea of annual support can and should be implemented at the state level. You can support the implementation of the new rehabilitation program on the Miloserdie.ru website.
The Elizabethan Garden began working with the i-tracker device
The topic of cerebral palsy in 2017 turned out to be one of the leading ones for the Mercy service. Thus, specialists from a development center for children with cerebral palsy began working with the “i-tracker” computer system. For children who cannot speak, this system is an opportunity to get in touch with the outside world and begin to communicate on an equal basis with other children. The i-tracking system allows you to control a computer using eye movements, and with its help children will learn to speak and read. Funds for 2 “i-tracker” systems were collected after the release of a charity story on the NTV channel.
These are not all the achievements of the “Elizabeth Garden”: in October the Center was awarded the Moscow city prize “Wings of the Stork”, and in December, with the support of the Moscow Public Relations Committee, a resource center began operating in the “Elizabeth Garden”, which will conduct seminars, webinars and consultations for parents of children with cerebral palsy.
We launched a new website - “Hurray! Event"
Our service has developed a special website “Hurray! Event" for those who want to dedicate an important event in life or just a family holiday to charity. Thanks to the new website ura.miloserdie.ru, any user can raise funds to help the beneficiaries of the Mercy service, using a birthday, wedding anniversary or any other significant event as an occasion. In the New Year, you can, for example, congratulate the editor-in-chief of the Miloserdie.ru portal on his birthday and thus support the homeless during the January winter.
Help for homeless people to get a job
She opened a new line of work - helping wards find employment. The main goal is the socialization and rehabilitation of homeless people. So far, the project is working experimentally and helping people get jobs on farms. The service is now collaborating with a dozen households across the country: homeless people are given the opportunity to adapt to working life and get back on their feet to return to normal life. During the 8 months of implementation of the experimental direction in 2017, 1,501 people passed through the program, 644 participants received assistance in finding employment in Moscow and regions of Russia. It’s too early to talk about serious results. There are still many difficulties, mainly problems related to the difficult psychological state of people. Most of them need to come to their senses and believe in themselves again before finding a job.
On February 1, 2017, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', he began accepting applications as part of the second stage of the competition for the creation of church centers for humanitarian assistance.
77 dioceses that do not yet have clothing warehouses are invited to participate in the second stage. The competition was organized to distribute 39 million rubles: these funds were collected on the eve of Children's Day in all Russian churches. In a special event dedicated to Children’s Day, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill emphasized the importance of timely assistance to women in crisis situations: such comprehensive assistance is one of the most important steps to reduce the number of abortions.
Based on the results of the first stage of the competition, 53 Orthodox organizations from 48 Russian dioceses were selected; humanitarian aid centers have already been opened in these dioceses with the allocated money, and humanitarian aid centers will open somewhere in the very near future. The second stage is intended mainly for the 77 dioceses that did not take part in the first stage and where there is not a single church center for humanitarian assistance.
“In order to avoid an abortion, a woman often needs very little: words of support, material and psychological help,” says competition coordinator, head of the department for the protection of family, motherhood and childhood of the Synodal Department Maria Studenikina. “Both from my own experience and from the experience of many social workers and crisis psychologists, I know that in many cases a woman refuses an abortion when she is offered simple material assistance: a crib, a stroller, necessary things, clothes for the baby. It is to organize such support throughout the country that we are organizing our competition.”
The funds allocated through the competition are intended to cover the start-up costs of the project: they are used to purchase equipment for the humanitarian aid center, the salary of one employee for six months and the purchase of food and hygiene kits. The amount of funding for each project will be determined individually. It is assumed that after the end of the funding for the competition, the applicant organization itself will ensure its operation: on average, a month of operation of one humanitarian aid center costs 30-40 thousand rubles.
In accordance with the terms of the competition, dioceses must send their applications by March 31 inclusive.
Regulations on the competition, samples of applications and reports are published on the official website of the Synodal Department for Church Charity.
In total, the Russian Orthodox Church operates over 80 humanitarian aid centers, as well as 46 shelters for women in crisis, located from Kaliningrad to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Many of them have been created in the last few years.
Diakonia.ru / Patriarchy.ru
