The session "Bright and successful practices of social Service" was held at the XII General Church Congress on Social Service in Moscow. The leaders of the church's social projects took part in it. They shared their experience in organizing social service, talked about their methods of work, and also presented real-life examples of helping those in need, demonstrating how their initiatives are changing people's lives for the better.
So, during the meeting, Ilya Kuskov, director of the public-church shelter for the homeless "Warm Welcome", organizer of the projects helping the homeless "Mercy Bus" and "Salvation Hangar", told the stories of the people he helps. "For all the time I've been helping the homeless, I've realized what wonderful people they are. Kind, open, honest, direct. It's just that these are people who have not had enough of our love, who have been rejected by their loved ones, have become hardened, despondent, are sitting on the street and waiting for a hand to be extended to them," Ilya Kuskov shared.
Daria Tkach, head of the assistance center of the Patriarchal Humanitarian Mission in Lisichansk, spoke about how the Church helps in the conflict zone. "Two weeks after the start of active hostilities, my father and I started bringing free bread to the city. We used our last money to buy this bread, went to neighboring cities, loaded up at night, and drove back at our own risk. It was scary. But the Lord helped. We were returning to the city where no one wanted to return, where there was still a smell of death. At that moment, our fourth child was beating under my heart. Sometimes on the flight I would hold my stomach and say: "Lord, give me the opportunity to help people," said Daria Tkach.
Deacon John Klimenko, head of the Orthodox Sobriety School of the John the Baptist Sobriety Fraternity, spoke about helping addicts. "A 65-year-old grandfather came to one of our sobriety schools. His alcohol experience was half a century. He had heavy, powerful binges. But when he heard, living 70 kilometers from Moscow, that there was a sobriety school, he bothered to come. He continued to work hard. Very strongly. He came every day, did all his homework. He was already an Orthodox man at that time, but he simply did not know how to deal with this passion. And he did it. A year ago, on the feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist, the patron saint of Orthodox teetotallers, he took monastic vows," said Deacon John Klimenko.
Archpriest Alexander Malikov, head of the St. Paraskeva orphanage at the church of St. Paraskeva Friday in the village of Manychskaya, spoke about helping children from disadvantaged families. "We tell our children in charge that their mom and dad are wonderful people who are going through trials right now. And we must fight for them together. Since 2006, 116 children have passed through my mother and me. 97 we returned to the blood families. They are coming with their children now. The kids hug me and say: "You are our second grandfather," Archpriest Alexander Malikov shared.
Also, the head of the social department of the Rybinsk Diocese, Director of Mercy Rybinsk, Priest John Perevezentsev, head of charity projects of the Irkutsk Diocese, Sister of Mercy Anastasia Startseva, organizer of the Assisted Living House in the village of Razdolye in the Vyborg diocese, President of the Perspektivy charity organization, Maria Ostrovskaya, creator of the Lighthouse Assisted Living project, Olga Timoshenko, director of Elena Fedoseeva, Director of the Smolensky House for Mothers, Tatiana Stepanova, Charitable Foundation "House of the Deaf and Blind", Elizaveta Pshenichnikova, head of the social service at the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, head of the Anapa-Mama Maternity Support and Protection Center, head of the St. Luke's branch of St. Alexy's Hospital in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Sister of Mercy Yulia Tovstaya, coordinator of the Orthodox school of foster parents "Tenderness" in St. Petersburg, executive director of the social center "Tenderness" Nadezhda Ambartsumova, foster mother of 17 children with disabilities, Olga Ustyuzhanina, head of the My Family Maternity and Childhood Protection Center.