Social activity
Every spring and autumn the Faculty of Philology holds a charity action for the orphaned children in Moscow Region. The kids are kept not only in children’s houses, but also in hospitals. Are you ready to learn more about our volunteer group? Contact Otkazniki.ru for more information.
The students came to know about the action from the LiveJournal community of the Faculty of Philology and from the notices put up in the building. Our Dean Marina L. Remneva announced the action at the Academic Council.
Nappies, children’s cosmetics (powders, creams, soaps, shampoos), washable toys, DVDs and videotapes with cartoons and fairy tales were gathered for the children. The pile was growing in the waiting room outside the dean’s office, with bundles of nappies certainly prevailing. There was even a DVD-player among the donations.
All that came from the students, teachers, and employees of the Faculty and elsewhere in the University. All the donations were transported to a storehouse in South Butovo by a church bus. Besides, the students cooperated with the permanent volunteer group of Otkazniki.ru and bought wholesale everything necessary for the hospitals. Our help thus reached Torzhok, Vyshny Volochek, and Tver.
On March 28, 2007 a trip to the hospital in Vyshny Volochek was organised.
The donations we bought were delivered by the hospital coordinator Inga Borovkova. «It all makes a truly dispiriting impression: small shabby wards curtained with rags instead of sun blinders, tumbling beds, poorly dressed and weak children, lack of toys. Yet one does have the feeling that the children are taken good care of and the staff take the situation to heart,» she said.
On April 28, 2007 our aid reached children’s hospital in Tver . Baby food, nappies, soaps, and other necessary things were bought by our students. The report on this trip you can find here.
Volunteers have been helping the Central Children’s Hospital in Torzhok since December 2006. The hospital was in absolute poverty. When the volunteers came for the first time, there was not a single nappy. The children were swaddled right on bare table. They were lying on oilcloth because, when they had got bored, they had stripped off the cloth and started picking the mattresses. The children even had time to eat the wadding, as they were neglected by the personnel. Every time volunteers visited the hospital, they discovered that the donations was making the lives of the children a bit better. The report on the trip to Torzhok you can find here.
Soft toys are not allowed in hospitals, but the children live not only in hospitals. The toys brought to the dean’s office were given to the orphanages in Egoryevsk, Moscow Region. And as we announced the trip, the number of toys increased. It goes without saying that the students’ help counted far more than the three days in March. The students are still interested in the lives of the orphaned children. Probably, the main result of the action is in understanding the fact that those who need your help are near, they don’t live on another planet, and anybody can make their life a little happier, even if they have only a dollar or a box of coloured pencils.
Alexandra Sopova
