On November 28, 2024, the first day of Christmas Lent, the traditional charity event of the «Miloserdiye» «Give joy at Christmas» service started. 13 years ago, it was invented by volunteers, who over the years have handed out more than 300,000 gifts collected by charity workers in Moscow alone. This year the service is preparing surprises for lonely elderly people, adults and children with serious illnesses, as well as for the wounded in Moscow hospitals.
The campaign is taking place in a dozen Russian cities, and on its website you can find links to partner events in Donetsk, Belgorod, Tomsk, Veliky Ustyug, Khabarovsk, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Rostov, and other cities.
In the framework of the campaign «Give joy at Christmas» a catalog of gifts in need of the underprivileged is being formed. Participants of the campaign in Moscow will be able to pay for these surprises and deliver them by convenient way to the festive warehouse until the evening of Christmas Eve. From January 8, volunteers of the «Miloserdiye» service will go to tea parties to the wards to deliver them gifts from the benefactors. The online catalog of gifts will be launched on December 4, the feast of the Entrance of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple.
Besides toys, clothes and household appliances, «Miloserdiye» is collecting A charitable budget to give a major Christmas gift — to provide a year's worth of decent care to the 30,000 people cared for by the service. Donations will be used for bulk purchases of medical consumables and specialized hygiene products: absorbent diapers, adult diapers, mesh mattresses, lotions and detergents for less mobile patients. Crutches, wheelchairs, underwear, pajamas, warm clothes for residents of boarding schools and almshouses will be purchased with the professional expertise of nurses of mercy. The collection of money begins on the first day of Christmas fasting on November 28 and will last until the Epiphany of the Lord — until January 19.
The campaign is also raising money for creative materials for children who are hospitalized in Moscow. Many of them are waiting for complex surgeries or recovering from surgery for long weeks, spending time away from home and relatives. Volunteers of «Miloserdiya» try to diversify the leisure time of young patients with master classes, board games, reading and joint creativity. These activities require a stock of stationery, coloring books, puzzles, puzzles, and literature.
Service «Miloserdiye» invites to take part in the action as much as possible «Give Joy at Christmas» everyone who wants to spend the Christmas Lent in good deeds. All participation options, cities, and types of gifts can be found on a special website.
The «Miloserdiye» — the largest Orthodox social service in Russia. 26 projects specializing in different categories of assistance to the beneficiaries are located in Moscow, some programs are spread throughout the country. Every year, the staff and volunteers of the service help at least 30,000 people, helping people with serious illnesses, the elderly alone, orphans, the needy and those in crisis. The mission of the service «Mercy» — to follow the commandment of love for neighbor through good deeds and help to those who suffer.
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One of the key features of the service «Miloserdiye» — is the availability of its own infrastructure, thanks to which comprehensive, professional, systematic assistance is provided to the permanent wards. Svyato-Sofiysky Social House, Center for Rehabilitation of Children with Cerebral Palsy, Elizavetinsky Orphanage, Elizavetinsky Orphanage, Svyato-Spiridonievskaya Almshouse and other projects of the service — these are non-governmental non-profit institutions, whose life, work and economic activities are provided, mainly, by funds transferred by donors of the service. Many donors become regular donors by making automatic monthly payments to the Friends of Charity. The budget formed by regular donations helps to plan the systematic annual expenses of the service «Mercy».
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The history of the service «Miloserdiye» began in 1991 in the First Grad Hospital, when several parishioners of the hospital church of the Blessed Tsarevich Demetrius became sisters of mercy. The initiator of the modern sisterhood was priest Arkady Shatov, now Bishop Panteleimon of Vereya. Currently, the Sisterhood has more than 200 sisters of mercy, who can be found in almost every hospital in Moscow. The service «Miloserdiye» in its present form has existed since 2005, hundreds of specialists work here and more than 1800 volunteers help.
News and stories about the Church's social ministry are published in the Telegram channel «Church Affairs» and in the groups of the Synodal Division on charity in VK, OK, on Youtube channel.
.You can help refugees and affected civilians at helpvbede.rf. You can support church social projects on the online platform of the Synodal Department for Charity «Let's help».
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