Getting ready for Christmas

The Orthodox aid service “Mercy” has launched a charity event “Give Joy for Christmas” - collecting gifts for orphans, elderly and lonely people in hospitals, homeless people, disabled children, as well as large and single-parent families. To make someone’s dream come true, just go to the website www.dari.miloserdie.ru , choose a gift and bring it to the gift collection point. Everyone will be able to join in the congratulations and present their gift on Christmas Day or Christmastide together with the sisters of mercy and volunteers of the Orthodox aid service “Mercy”.

All 85 thousand gifts currently announced on the website are the real needs of the wards of Orthodox social services in Moscow and the regions. For example, Raisa Nikitichna, who after the loss of loved ones has not left the house for many years, asked to give her a “cozy blanket” for Christmas, and 6-year-old Seryozha from a large family dreams of “a small crossbow with a bow and arrows on suction cups, so that no one hurt."

“Often, for orphans, sick and lonely people, our gifts are the only opportunity to feel the holiday,” says Marina Vasilyeva, a member of the board of trustees of the Orthodox aid service “Mercy”. “And this is important not only for our wards, but for all of us - to give at least a drop of kindness and love to those who are in need.”

The collection of gifts will last until January 5 inclusive. 15 cities are participating in the action, including Perm, Moscow, Tver, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Bobruisk, Yaroslavl, Izhevsk, Vladivostok, Vitebsk, Tskhinvali. In Moscow, gifts will be accepted at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy at Bolshaya Ordynka, building 34.

Merry Christmas greetings and presentation of gifts to wards will take place from January 7 to 17.

Last year, 6 cities took part in the event. More than 24 thousand gifts were collected in Moscow, including unusual ones, for example, a punching bag for a boy with cerebral palsy, and theatrical costumes for Kolobok, Dunno and Harlequin for children from an orphanage. About 900 people brought gifts in Moscow.