Helping others

Every person who does not have an idle desire to help others has his own way. My path began with work in a charity group at the Church of Cosmas and Damian in Shubin: twice a week we received the homeless and the poor in the temple, fed them in two shifts, on other days we distributed clothes, collected parcels with books for prisoners. It was not an easy job both physically and mentally, but it was this experience that facilitated all my further volunteering experiences, and there were many of them.

How does it start? As a rule, from some seen or heard story that hooked you specifically — for a variety of reasons. Eight years ago, I came across a photo of a little girl Lera on the Internet, at that time she was nine months old, like my youngest son. She was in the oncology department of the RCCH with a terrible diagnosis and had already undergone two surgeries. Volunteers asked for help for this family from the Voronezh village. Lerochka’s 20-year-old mother, Masha, was depressed, confused and cried all the time, dad could not find a part-time job in Moscow, two more operations were waiting for the baby, money was needed for literally everything … I looked at the photo, and my heart ached: my -then the son is healthy, he has everything, but these people have nothing and there is only a grave uncertainty ahead. And I went to the RCCH, met Lerochka and her parents, got involved in this story, went around with a hat around all my acquaintances and friends, tried to collect money via the Internet, bought medicines, played with a girl, talked with Masha … Lerochka died after four months, her parents took her to bury her home. Until now, we keep in touch with Masha; she gave birth to two children who, thank God, are alive and well. They live very poorly, but even in this insecurity Masha finds an opportunity to somehow help the district orphanage; she says that she remembers how people helped her in her trouble, and considers it necessary to do the same.

In this branch of the RCCH, I met volunteers Nastya Kolesnikova and Karina Mikhailova, who some time later organized the Life Fund for helping children with cancer (www.deti-life.ru), since then they have helped a large number of children. In the same place, I later met a girl who regularly donated blood and told me about the Donors for Children initiative group (http://podari-zhizn.ru). I myself, unfortunately, can no longer be a donor, but some of my friends have been doing this since then and now, having learned from me about this possibility.

• Is pain our social glue?

Then there were more children and adults, the sick, the homeless, the poor, again looking for money for operations; collection of things, medicines, diapers; there was a trip to a children’s anti-tuberculosis sanatorium in the Dorogobuzh district of the Smolensk region with a huge load of everything — from bed linen to bicycles. In order to accommodate everything brought for this sanatorium by a variety of people, acquaintances and strangers, I, as a coordinator, had to rent a garage in the yard. And those who wanted to help all walked and walked, brought and brought toys, clothes, electrical equipment — housewives from «mom» sites, «office plankton», people from the advertising business, the military, journalists, clowns, sports coaches, drivers, teachers … In the end from the “Volunteers on Wheels” community (http://vk.com/volonterinakolesah) there was a person with a personal truck who agreed to go with me for 350 km, young students helped us load two cars at 5 in the morning … And so on.

It is gratifying to note that so many are engaged in various volunteer activities. If you wish, you can find yourself a similar field to your liking, wherever you live — there would be, in fact, a desire. Caring people are needed everywhere: in nursing homes and orphanages, in churches and charitable foundations, when putting out fires or collecting things for victims of fire, in protecting and restoring architectural monuments, in attaching abandoned animals, in finding money for treatment, in hospitals, boarding schools … I am always sincerely pleased with the willingness of my fellow volunteers not only to do their own thing, but also to participate in related projects in one way or another. Let’s say after a holiday arranged in a nursing home, there are half a box of balloons left. “Hey, ask those who go to the orphanage, don’t they need it?” — “And we have two packages of clean, worn things, some people brought them late, they didn’t have time to send the package to the fire victims in Tver, can you intercept and bring it to Dr. Lisa Glinka to the fund?” * — “Of course, no question!”

During this time, I met wonderful people from various charitable foundations — «Creation» (bf-sozidanie.ru), «Children’s Hearts» (detis.ru), «Alive» (livefund.ru), «Old Age is Joy» (starikam .org), «Need Help» (nuzhnapomosh.ru), development of palliative care for children (rcpcf.ru) and many others. People from various social strata and positions in society, young and old, large and childless, employed and unemployed, are united by one great desire — to be needed and useful to those who need help. This is an amazing experience of communication and interaction, mutual assistance and support.

Yes, almost every volunteer from those who in one way or another come into contact with illnesses or extremely difficult life circumstances of their wards has “their own” cemetery. I have five children on mine, one adult is a doctor-radiologist, one homeless man, whom my friends and I tried to help return to society … A piece of heart is buried with each of them, but every time you remember how many people managed to help, how many, it seemed If only impossible sums for treatment were collected in the shortest possible time, and most importantly, how many more of those who are waiting for you, having mourned the departed, are moving on.

I am often asked by those who do not know where to start, where to go. I answer that a volunteer is a person who sincerely and responsibly is ready to share not so much his own money as his time, strength and skills, and I give a link to the article “How to become a volunteer” by Yuri Belanovsky, head of the Danilovtsy youth volunteer movement (danilovcy .ru), he very clearly and intelligibly formulated the basic principles of volunteering as such**.

In conclusion, I want to congratulate everyone with whom I happened to work together and be close, learning patience, tact, and cheerfulness on the International Volunteer Day. Strength to you, dear friends, new included friends and endless good luck.

* Fund for helping the homeless poor «Fair Help» (doctorliza.ru)

** nuzhnapomosh.ru/2013/11/kak-stat-volonterom