The All-Russian award in the field of assistance to the homeless was presented in Gatchina

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At the XV Interregional Conference on Social Service in Gatchina, the winner of the eleventh All-Russian competition for homeless assistance named after Nadezhda Monetova was awarded. The winner of the competition was Alexander Apanasenko, the founder of two centers for the help of addicts and the homeless in Murmansk.
In 2014, Alexander founded the rehabilitation center for addicts "Awakening". During the work of the center, 756 people have been rehabilitated there. In 2021, Alexander opened the shelter and crisis center for the homeless "Warm North", which provided assistance to 350 people. Alexander is also one of the founders of the St. Theodore Temperance Society and the head of the Department for the approval of sobriety and addiction prevention of the Murmansk Diocese.
In his youth, Alexander tried illegal substances and found himself on the street more than once. In 2007, due to this lifestyle, Alexander was admitted to the intensive care unit with blood poisoning. The doctors told his parents that he would die in a few days. Alexander survived, but his arm had to be amputated. After that, he began to help addicts, entered the Russian Orthodox University of St. John the Theologian at the Faculty of Psychology. Currently, he is studying at the graduate school of the Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy named after F.M. Dostoevsky at the Faculty of Theology.
"I understand addicted people, I understand homeless people — I was like that myself. I understand cripples—I don't have an arm. It's easier for us to understand each other, that's why I do what I do. The story of my life was not simple, but now I am married, I have four children, I am completely happy. I want to help people who suffer from the same ailments that I once suffered from," Alexander Apanasenko said.
The award was established in 2013 by the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service in memory of Nadezhda Monetova, a young woman who, after living on the street, was able to return to society and start helping homeless people. Nadezhda Monetova was an employee of the Orthodox movement "Kursky Railway Station. Homeless people, children." She tragically died on the night of March 20, 2012.
The purpose of the competition is to identify the best social workers who help the homeless, as well as to draw public attention to the problems of people who find themselves on the street for one reason or another. The winner received a prize of 100,000 rubles, a certificate of honor and a badge.
The award was presented by Archpriest Mikhail Potokin, Acting Chairman of the Synodal Department of Charity, on October 2, 2024 at the plenary session of the XV Interregional Conference on Social Service. It takes place in Gatchina and Pushkin on October 1-3 with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Among the participants of the conference are heads of charitable organizations, representatives of federal and regional authorities, heads of sisterhoods of mercy, heads of social departments of dioceses located in the Northwestern Federal District.
In Russia, 103 shelters for the homeless have been opened with the participation of the Church, and 23 mercy buses — mobile help points for the homeless - are operating.

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