The winner of the XIII All-Russian Nadezhda Monetova Homeless Aid Competition was nun Marfa (Guskova), head of the social rehabilitation center at the courtyard of the Elisavetinsky Monastery in the village of Lysaya Gora of the Belarusian Exarchate.
The award ceremony took place in Yekaterinburg at the plenary session of the XVII Interregional Conference on Church Social Service. Archpriest Mikhail Potokin, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service, presented the winner with a prize of 100,000 rubles, a certificate of honor and a badge.
The center, run by Nun Marfa, is home to about 170 people who find themselves in difficult situations. There is a dormitory, a canteen, workshops and a farm on the farmstead. Here people are helped to find shelter and undergo rehabilitation. Some of the wards subsequently get jobs and start families.
The contest is designed to support those who help the homeless and draw public attention to the fate of people left homeless. The award was established by the Synodal Department for Charity in 2013 in memory of Nadezhda Monetova. After experiencing homelessness, she was able to return to normal life and began helping people on the street herself, becoming an employee of the Orthodox movement Kursky Railway Station. Homeless people, children." In March 2012, Nadezhda tragically died.