New Year's good deeds can already begin! Who do we help? How volunteers are useful.

Is working for free an oxymoron, nonsense or modern reality? Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Russia help those in need, save those in trouble, and perform socially important work on a voluntary basis. Want to join them?

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The volunteer movement in Russia has strong roots - from hospice houses, people's hospitals and collections for the famine-stricken in the Volga region to Timurovites and BAM. However, over the past 20 years, the number of volunteer organizations has increased many times: on the one hand, social tension is growing, on the other, more and more people want to help selflessly. If you decide to make a difference, where can you turn?

1. Charitable foundations. Official organizations collect money for treatment of patients with complex and terrible diagnoses, accompany them during treatment, and help patients in hospitals and after discharge.

2. Hospices. Workers are always needed here - to help clean the wards, walk with walking patients, feed bedridden patients and carry out hygiene procedures. Master classes, concerts, and creative activities with people are welcome. Great endurance and patience are required.

3. Ecologists. They collect and separate garbage into different types of waste (plastic, metal, etc.), organize cleaning in parks, forest parks, natural areas, plant trees and help restore forests. They are fighting against tree cutters, collectors of “Red Book” plants, and malicious environmental polluters.

4. Nursing home. Any help will be useful - communication with wards, cleaning, care, care. Caring volunteers collect gifts for the elderly for the New Year, Easter, March 8, organize concerts and performances, enter into correspondence and send postcards to “adopted” grandparents.

5. Orphanages. They practice 6 options for assistance - social development of children and teaching them to live independently; gifts, clothing, shoes and equipment from sponsors; “PR” of the child on social networks with the aim of a speedy recovery; assistance to children with disabilities; additional education; correspondence and virtual guardianship of orphans.

6. Help the homeless. Work for those who are strong in spirit and body. Volunteers prepare and distribute food for the homeless, clean donated clothing, and provide medical and sanitary assistance. Relevant legal support, assistance in document restoration.

7. Zoo defenders and animal shelters. The main concern of animal rights activists is the capture and sterilization of stray animals, providing them with veterinary care and placing them in good hands. Shelters need volunteers to care for animals, feed and communicate with them, and raise funds for the maintenance of the establishments.

8. Volunteer firefighters. Teams of volunteers spend days and nights in forests and fire-hazardous areas for months. They patrol the area, identify potential forest fires, and use equipment purchased with donations to extinguish the flames on their own.

9. "Lisa Alert." Search teams combing the area and checking basements, abandoned construction sites, deep forests, etc. in the hope of finding missing, lost, and otherwise uncontacted children and adults.

10. Festival volunteers. Cheerful and positive volunteers participating in the preparation and holding of all kinds of more or less informal open airs. The work required is varied - from construction and security to design and cooking.

11. Helping women in crisis situations. Help centers for women who have suffered from sexual and domestic violence, shelters and homes for pregnant women and young mothers who find themselves in difficult situations.

12. Help at the temple. Work in the church, maintaining the premises in order, participating in the choir. Caring for the elderly, sick and infirm parishioners, working with young people, helping large families, collecting donations.

How to become a volunteer?

Use an Internet search, buy a couple of newspapers, walk around the neighborhood and choose the option that you like best: helping people, nature or animals, old people or children, healthy or sick. You can start from the portal Volonter.ru is a single coordination service volunteers . Then contact the nearest thematic organization - just call or come and ask how you can help. Don’t expect any special gratitude or delight; it’s unlikely that anyone will appreciate your efforts, say “thank you” and give you a key to heaven. It will be hard, tiring, maybe even dirty. But you will be warmed by the knowledge that you are making the world a little better.

“Give Life” - helping children with oncohematological and other serious diseases

“Live” - helping children with oncohematological diseases.

"Rusfond" - helping seriously ill children.

“Life Line” - saving seriously ill children and creating a culture of charity in society.

"Vera" - helping hospices.

“Best Friends” helps people with developmental and intellectual disabilities meet and make friends with their peers.

“Naked Hearts” is a fund to help families raising children with special needs.

“Old Age in Joy” - the fund helps elderly people living in nursing homes.

Givers of Hope is an international animal charity.

The “Crisis Center for Assistance to Women and Children” was created for teenage mothers, women who have been subjected to domestic violence, as well as women in a state of divorce and after a divorce situation, women with disabilities or with disabled children, single mothers with minor children.

“Volunteers of Victory” - assistance to Veterans of the Great Patriotic War.

“Medical volunteers” - assistance to hospital medical staff, career guidance for schoolchildren, educational programs.

“Volunteer Club” is an interregional public organization of like-minded people united by the desire to support orphans and children in difficult life situations.

Nika Butchen

Social volunteering is a very responsible type of voluntary work. This is due to the fact that the wards of such volunteers are people who have faced difficult trials in life and have gone through a difficult school of life. They often find themselves left by their relatives and friends to fend for themselves, and the care of employees of social structures is only enough to satisfy basic needs - supervision, food, etc.

Why volunteers choose orphanages

Volunteer activities, associated with such a human quality as mercy, are aimed at helping various categories of people in need - lonely old people, seriously ill children and adults, disabled people, war and labor veterans, disadvantaged and/or large families. But the largest number of volunteers are involved in providing support to the weakest and most vulnerable - orphans and children without parental care.

Such children evoke the greatest sympathy from society, since they are its most defenseless representatives - without a father and mother, a home, or loving loved ones, they are forced to be deprived of a normal childhood, and perhaps even a prosperous future. After all, these children do not have access to gradual integration into society under the guidance of older family members. Of course, orphans need much more attention from society, and volunteers try, as far as possible, to make up for the lack of care and warmth for these children.

Another reason why many volunteer groups make helping orphanages the basis of their activities is that it is much more pleasant to work with children. They give positive emotions, smiles and good mood. Helping the homeless, abandoned elderly people and people with serious illnesses and disabilities does not provide such returns. And not every volunteer has the moral strength to constantly see grief and suffering.

Features of volunteering in orphanages

First of all, it is important for every volunteer who strives to help children who are kept in orphanages to have a primary idea of what awaits them within the walls of the orphanage. After all, orphans are strikingly different from “family” children, not only in terms of behavior. This is, as a rule, a serious lag in intellectual, emotional and mental development, as well as a lack of trust in the world and self-doubt.

This picture often leads to the fact that 90% of orphanage graduates cannot find their place in life and become full-fledged members of society. Social volunteers must understand this trend if they want to bring real benefit to orphans.

And the little wards of charitable foundations do not need gifts and entertainment events at all - although for orphans (as for any children in general) this is the favorite part of communicating with volunteers. Children are happy with both, but they very quickly get used to the fact that every visitor to the orphanage strives to bestow them with attention, sweets and toys. And yet, orphans much more urgently need help in socialization and career guidance - in everything that will help them successfully adapt to adulthood in the future, when they leave the walls of the institution.

Volunteers must understand that they, like employees of orphanages or boarding schools, have a certain responsibility for their little charges, for their psycho-emotional state. Therefore, when planning to engage in one or another type of activity related to supporting orphans and children left without parental care, each volunteer must answer the question for himself: will my help bring real benefit to the children?

What is needed to work with orphans

Anyone who wants to brighten up the lives of little orphans can offer their services to any charitable organization engaged in this particular type of activity. Very often, volunteer movements recruit newcomers to participate in various events, promotions and programs.

But the most important thing for anyone who would like to take an active part in the lives of children in orphanages is a sincere desire, this is an opportunity to work with children with maximum efficiency.

So, you have decided to become a volunteer and you are doing it not out of emotion, but with a sober and calm assessment of your strengths, your time and your capabilities. You have decided which volunteer movement you would like to join and with whom to help orphans. Where to start?

Contact the selected non-profit organization - now this can be done remotely, through a special form on the official website of the non-profit organization. Almost every relief fund has questionnaires for those wishing to join charitable programs. Such questionnaires contain a number of questions regarding the personality of the future volunteer and his motivations, which must be answered in order to create the right impression of himself. It would be a good idea to indicate the applicant’s education, work experience and interests.

Many volunteer movements regularly organize meetings for volunteer candidates where they can get acquainted and ask questions. If a person decides to become part of this movement, he is offered lists of upcoming events where help and participation are required.

Any serious foundation or organization must provide training to new arrivals - instructions, trainings. Their task is to bring new volunteers up to speed, familiarize them with the nuances of their responsibilities and the peculiarities of working with orphans. The basics of psychology and pedagogy are also taught.

You should understand that when you come to work with children, you need to have not only desire. A volunteer needs an idea of the job, a theoretical basis and an understanding of how suitable he is for this job. Of course, if the desire is very strong, enthusiasm alone may be enough for the first time. But such a volunteer simply needs basic knowledge and training. It is possible that a force majeure situation may arise, the successful outcome of which may largely depend on how prepared the volunteer was for his duties.

All representatives of volunteer movements note that one of the most important components of volunteer assistance is regularity. Let a person have little time (1-2 hours a week), but his participation should be regular - then such help will be of great benefit.

A little about the likely difficulties

As mentioned above, working with orphans is by default much more pleasant than helping other target groups of charitable foundations and organizations. By arranging entertainment programs for children, purchasing and presenting gifts, accompanying them to circuses, museums and zoos, volunteers receive pure childish joy in return; pupils of state institutions are looking forward to a new meeting.

The disadvantages of volunteering in orphanages are associated with the negative consequences of the wrong approach. Moreover, these consequences arise both for children and for the volunteers themselves. For example, very often volunteers (especially newcomers who have long dreamed of helping children), once in orphanages, begin not only to communicate with their charges, but to give them excessive love and affection. This leads to the fact that children get used to affectionate relationships and suffer greatly after the volunteers leave - employees of government agencies do not have the opportunity to fill these emotional gaps for children. Often, even nannies and teachers themselves urgently ask not to overdo it with tender feelings, or even completely abandon them in favor of formal communication. This is very difficult for volunteers who are just starting their activities in the field of cooperation with orphanages.

But in the process of interacting with orphans, a volunteer who devotes himself entirely to charitable assistance may naturally develop a strong attachment to his charges. Such a volunteer begins to live the life of those he helps. This may manifest itself in very frequent, regular visits to orphanages; in the volunteer’s desire to embrace the immensity, combining several functions at once - a teacher, a friend, an animator, and someone responsible for raising funds and purchasing gifts. At some point, a volunteer may “finish out” or worse - encounter insurmountable difficulties and stop working, making a negative impression about it. A former volunteer is often left with a bad taste from a failed activity.

Instead of a conclusion

In our commercial age, when people are more concerned with making money, selfless help to those in need is especially highly valued, because volunteer movements quietly do a truly great job. And of course, little children from orphanages especially need their help. It doesn’t matter how exactly a volunteer is ready to help - financially, remotely, spending his time, effort, intense energy and even professionalism - if directed in the right direction, this help will bring undoubted benefit to every child left without parental care.

No gifts to orphanages. Yes, I don’t mean at all: “Guys, help urgently, this year we don’t have enough gifts for the unfortunate deprived children in orphanages,” I mean exactly: “Please, stop torturing children from orphanages by failing their gifts."

I understand that the text of this article will be very painful to read for approximately half of those who are going to do this (stay strong, positive at the end). And the other half will nod quietly and sadly with the words: “Yes, I talk about this all the time too, but that doesn’t stop anyone.” I know that the first article will cause frustration or even aggression. Therefore, I immediately want to say: “Yes, I also really love children and people in general,” “Yes, I myself also do something to help others, namely, I devote approximately 95% of my time to this, not counting sleep,” “Yes , I have been to a huge number of orphanages in my time and even lived in one for a week, right in a group with children,” “Yes, I deal with volunteers from more than 20 regions of the country, and everywhere there is exactly the same as in Moscow.” . So, guys, instead of frustration, let's just try to make our help at least a little more effective, that's exactly what we all want, right?

So, why is it still impossible to give gifts to orphanages, and what can be done instead?

Let's take, for example, an ideal situation, that is, a situation in which all children received the same gifts, equally, an ideal situation that excludes the possibility that the gifts did not reach the children. A situation in which a teenager did not sell a gift to buy cigarettes or beer. Or when the gift was not used to make someone jealous or simply demonstrate their superiority (“look what I have, but you don’t have the same”), usually after this the gift ends up either broken or stolen as soon as the owner was distracted from it, and, of course, this is very bad both for the owner and for the one who broke or stole.

So, even in this ideal situation (and you understand that this does not happen?), giving gifts to orphanages, boarding schools, social shelters and other forms of state orphanages (I emphasize: especially state ones) is destructive for the child’s psyche , because according to statistics, during the New Year holidays, a child from an orphanage attends about 17 Christmas trees and events and receives about 19 gifts (in the Moscow region - 25). Do you understand that this is just a marathon for survival? Do you want to be the twenty-sixth who came running frantically to love a child you didn’t know just yesterday? What about the eighteenth? The saddest thing is that you are ready...

Do you want to be the twenty-sixth who came running frantically to love a child you didn’t know just yesterday? What about the eighteenth?

In the next month and a half, billions of rubles will be spent on toys, teddy bears, sleds, Barbies and even tablets, phones and iPods (yes, many children ask for exactly this, and many adults buy it for them, although they themselves realize that there is something here) that's not true).

All this is monstrous because it fosters terrible dependency; the child gets used to the fact that everyone is always giving him something, giving him something, doing it, and without any effort or reasons visible to him. Some exalted people constantly come and frantically try to love them all to death in half a day and move on (I know, because I was exactly the same). And then suddenly the child turns 18, and... And nothing, no one visits him, no one showers him with gifts, no one cares about the problems of “an adult healthy guy who has to go to work.” Why should he? You only taught him to ask, you did not teach him to earn. You taught him to accept gifts and entertainment and thought that he should somehow figure out about work himself. As a result, only 10% cope with this state of affairs, and the rest become drunkards, end up in crime and prison, and commit suicide. Think about it! 10%! 90%!

You only taught him to ask, you did not teach him to earn. You taught him to accept gifts and entertainment and thought that he should somehow figure out about work himself

Children in orphanages (and in this case I mean all state institutions of this type) live according to the rules of a gloomy, inhumane and merciless system created at the beginning of the 20th century. Their students are not considered part of society, and therefore they do not become one. They are considered poor and unhappy, wretched and deprived, and only truly sincere and professional charitable foundations work on their socialization, try to restore their motivation to live, strive for something and achieve their goals, fill them with faith in their own strengths and satisfy them to families.

“Well, everyone helps as best they can,” they often answer me offended at the mention of professional funds. No, no, I'm not at all against a little help, and I know for sure that EVERY person can help. But we are not talking about help here. I am writing all this precisely to explain: gifts to orphanages on or without holidays, as well as a bunch of entertainment events on holidays, are not help, they are harm.

I will give an example from my own practice, when many years ago I came as part of a group of volunteers to one of the orphanages in the Tver region. We agreed on the visit in advance, prepared competitions and performances, and clarified with the director that there would be no one except us that day. When we arrived, another group of volunteers left right in front of our noses, and the children, stretching, left the assembly hall with gifts. They hoped to go about their business, but the director told them to urgently go back to the hall, because “the sponsors had arrived,” and the children wandered off to watch our next songs and dances, which they absolutely did not need. What benefit did we bring to them by forcing them to sit in the assembly hall for half a day? What benefits can be brought by a master class on weaving baubles and soap making?

The director told them to urgently go back to the hall, because “the sponsors have arrived,” and the children wandered off to watch our next songs and dances, which they absolutely did not need

Well, what should you do then and how can you help if you have such a desire?

I promised something positive at the end, and here it is: you may not only be needed, but really needed! For example, if you want to organize a truly festive event, then organize it for children with disabilities. Moreover, try to take them somewhere from home; in our country they are so rarely given such an opportunity. Better yet, consult with specialized funds and organize a joint event for ordinary children and children with disabilities. This will be very useful for both.

If you definitely want to give someone a gift, there are children with cancer, there are children from low-income families, and just those who are undergoing long-term treatment in the hospital, you definitely won’t spoil them. There are also elderly people, people in hospices and hospitals, paralyzed people, prisoners (everyone generally forgets about them) - they will all be glad to see your warmth and attention, they will need your gifts and receive them with gratitude.

Well, if you want to do something specifically for children from orphanages, then my advice to you: donate money or become a volunteer in one of the funds that really changes their lives and saves them.

Even more important news and good texts from us and our colleagues are in the “Takih Dela” telegram channel. Subscribe!

Since the New Year is coming soon, and many will want to polish their karma by showering gifts on complete strangers in the nearest orphanage, I decided to show you one important text. I warn you right away: the text tells you why you can’t do this. And the point is not at all about ethical considerations (although there are those too), but about specific harm. But enough spoilers! Now you will find out everything for yourself.

Since I am not an expert in helping children, a professional will tell you about the problem. A few years ago, the magazine “Takie Dela” published an excellent article that explained why emergency gift giving to children in orphanages is harmful. Unfortunately, over these few years the situation in Russia has hardly changed.

A word from an expert in the field of charity, volunteering and corporate social responsibility, Anna Puchkova:

"No gifts to orphanages. Yes, I don’t mean at all: “Guys, urgently help, we don’t have enough gifts for the unfortunate deprived children in orphanages this year,” I mean exactly: “Please stop bullying over children from orphanages, showering them with gifts.”

So, why is it still impossible to give gifts to orphanages, and what can be done instead?

So, even in this ideal situation (and you understand that this does not happen?), giving gifts to orphanages, boarding schools, social shelters and other forms of state orphanages (I emphasize - especially state ones) is destructive for the child’s psyche , because according to statistics, during the New Year holidays, a child from an orphanage attends about 17 Christmas trees and events and receives about 19 gifts (in the Moscow region - 25). Do you understand that this is just a marathon for survival? Do you want to be the 26th person who came running frantically to love a child you didn’t know just yesterday? What about 18? The saddest thing is that you are ready...

“Well, everyone helps as best they can,” they often answer me offended at the mention of professional funds. No, no, I'm not at all against a little help, and I know for sure that EVERY person can help. But we are not talking about help here. I am writing all this precisely to explain - gifts to orphanages on holidays and without them, as well as a bunch of entertainment events on holidays - this is not help, it is harm.

Well, what should you do then and how can you help if you have such a desire?

I promised positivity at the end, and here it is - you may not only be needed, but really needed! For example, if you want to organize a truly festive event, then organize it for children with disabilities. Moreover, try to take them somewhere from home; in our country they are so rarely given such an opportunity. Better yet, consult with specialized funds and organize a joint event for ordinary children and children with disabilities. This will be very useful for both.

Well, if you want to do something specifically for children from orphanages, then my advice to you is to donate money or become a volunteer in one of the funds that really change their lives and save them:

"Change one life"- they find a father and mother for the children, and there is nothing more valuable than this gift.

One of the oldest and most professional foundations involved in the socialization of orphans.

"Volunteers to help orphans"- they are struggling to keep as many children as possible in the family and prevent them from ending up in orphanages, and also take care of the youngest refuseniks from zero to four years old.

"Big change"- systematic tutoring and development of orphans, they help them enter universities, find themselves in life, gain independence and autonomy.

With the money that is spent annually on teddy bears for children living in concentration camps, these funds can truly save them, get them out of there, protect them, take care of them.

Everything that I described in this article is far from new, and any expert in the field of charity will tell you exactly the same thing. Many companies and simply kind people have already realized this and are beginning to abandon the system of giving gifts and entertainment to orphanages, and this cannot but rejoice.

However, finishing the article, I also sadly look into the eyes of its readers, because most of them will agree with it closer to the beginning of the new year, when they return from orphanages, leaving there another dose of gifts..."

“In general, Olya and I have been planning something similar for a long time - we have long talked about the fact that there are different facets of charity, you can approach it in different ways, and help comes in different forms and all of it is necessary.

And I myself remember my first trip to an orphanage several years ago, when I realized that everything I knew about it was completely wrong. I saw with my own eyes that these children do not need gifts at all. Moreover, there will always be those who will give these gifts. It turned out to be much more important that when leaving the orphanage, these children have no experience of communicating with those who are “out there”, who live in families, they have no experience of family life at all and, as a rule, the families that they build in future, experience great difficulties and collapse. We conceived a project on an ongoing basis, in which we would use the theme social volunteering- when representatives of different companies, bloggers and ordinary people unite and do something important and necessary. Together.

Because now many companies really want to help and are ready to do so. But, unfortunately, they have no options other than “collecting gifts for the New Year.” We met the guys from the Gazpromneft company, quickly found a common language about what exactly we would do and prepared this trip with them. The company financed consumables and provided transport, "Matryoshka" everything was organized.

Why did we go to Tikhvin? Everything is very simple. If you call any nearby orphanage, they will answer you something like: “come on the sixteenth at 15:30, you have an hour, because then there is a tight schedule.” This means that these institutions have a waiting list of people willing to help. But if you are 100 kilometers further away, there is less enthusiasm. Fate itself sent us to the Municipal Institution “Social Rehabilitation Center for Minors “Firefly”, or simply, the Tikhvin Orphanage.

This is a “borderline” institution - that is, it is not an orphanage as such, but not a pioneer camp either. Children from disadvantaged families end up here - some come during the day (study, do homework, talk to psychologists and go back), others live permanently (they are taken from the family for rehabilitation, from difficult conditions, and work with them for a year , then about 80% come back, and the rest, unfortunately, are sent to orphanages).

And these children are not easy. The director, Tamara Aleksandrovna, told us something that made our hair stand out - and all this happens to eleven-year-old girls and ten-year-old boys, simply because there is no one to help them, support them, guide them, listen to them, advise them. They don’t even understand what’s wrong with them; they take all the horrors that happen to them for granted.

Paradoxical as it may seem, such children need communication most of all. Communication with those who live “in the city,” with girls and boys who have a profession and can teach something. Just talk about this and that.

We quickly gathered a group of people who wanted to join: in addition to volunteers from Gazpromneft, she came with us Katya Gribanova(who, by the way, has extensive experience in participating in charitable projects, she is generally a person with heart) - the older guys made New Year's wreaths with her.
Katya Kovernik from Gogol Shop - the little one had such fun painting the toys and then hanging them on the Christmas tree!

Vanya Tabakov showed tricks - the boys were wildly delighted and took note of several tricks from him.

it was really fun!

Masha Gorelik She brought with her all kinds of decorative beauty and we made New Year’s cards together.

Do you know what's most interesting? When you asked who the card was for, everyone answered: “for mom.”

And the little children were entertained by our loved ones "Hares PR"- they know a lot about how to cheer people up.

Come with us Masha Surikova , Olya Boyarkina , Sasha Olkha, - thank you guys very much.

On the second floor there was a “noisy room” - there were a lot of kids, screaming, everything was quite chaotic and loud. And at the first one, where the older children were, there were such intimate conversations and calmness. Somehow it turned out that we absolutely naturally broke up into two or three and communicated in our narrow circle.

I had a girl Tanya and a boy Andrey, with whom we immediately found a common language. And on the other side sat two more beauties Ira and Lisa - this is a category, I tell you... I can’t even imagine how it’s all for them, because in the body of a child (they are just children, 11 and 13 years old) there’s already quite the unpleasant experience of an adult, beaten by life, and this is such a strange mixture of arrogance and embarrassment, glibness and low self-esteem... I wanted to hold each one close and not let go. But they have their own parents, to whom they can return and... build relationships again.

We just talked about all sorts of nonsense - word for word, about different things, without any moralizing. We made it clear that we came “without slogans or banners.” They were quite keenly interested in how it was there in St. Petersburg, who was doing what, whether it was possible to sell such postcards, whether florists and makeup artists could really make money... The boys swaggered around and talked about their successes. Well, in general, ordinary children. Just a little anxious and unkempt. That's all.