“We send a car to each location reported to be in need of help,
collect information and then organize help” – explains a coordinator in
the Russian Orthodox Church Department for Charity. For the last week,
it has been the most actively functioning place – volunteers are
collecting clothes, raising money, gathering information, and sending
fire fighting equipment to the burning regions.
The hottest
weather ever and absence of previous fire preventing work has resulted
in a real collapse in Russia. State forest districts have been abolished
for several years already, emergency services lack fire engines, fire
helicopters are hard to get and there is lack of even the simplest
equipment including spades . At the same time websites of state
purchases tell us that emergency services bought a number of luxury
cars, each of them worth at least one fire engine.
It is the Church and volunteers who are most actively fighting fire and helping people today.
On
July 30, when mass media still kept informing us that everything was
under control, a 20-year old Moscow University graduate Liza Oleskina
posted in her blog the information that a village got burnt and people
there needed clothes, food, and medicine. The response was quick. The
following day many Muscovites came to Liza’s house bringing all the
listed stuff, many of the volunteers, mostly teenagers and young
people, stayed for the whole day in the heat to sort and pack the goods.
The
next day came the address of the Patriarch. He has basically called for
national mobilization in the face of disaster, ordering all the
parishes to raise money and collect all the necessary things for those
who suffered.
“I give my blessing on organizing special
fund-raising campaigns on the next three Sundays in all the churches of
the Russian Orthodox Church. In each diocese where there are homeless
victims of fires or threats of fire a cleric or lay person or better a
group of persons should be appointed as responsible for the fund-raising
and aid organization to the victims. In cooperation with the Emergency
Situations Ministry, we should see to it that designated aid reaches
every victim. In Moscow the fund-raising and collection of things is
organized by the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social
Service. It has published a special account number to which those who
wish to help can send money. Every one of us, in helping the victims of
the fire rage, serves our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. A testimony to this
is the Gospel’s word: ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these
brothers of mine, you did for me’ (Mt. 25:40). But helping the homeless
victims of fires, each one also serves oneself because any one of us may
find oneself in a similar situation when everything perishes and one’s
health is undermined and there is no one else to help but God, neighbors
and the Church. That is why we cannot help participating most actively
in giving aid to those who have been affected by fire”, – said the
Patriarch
He was also the first person in Russia who addressed
the corruption problem. He has specially stressed that the money given
by the state to the fire vicrims is “holy money” and stealing it is a
great sin.
That Patriarch would call money ‘holy’ could seem
rather strange. But this statement was highly important – the following
day the authorities have suggested to use web cameras so that people
could control expenditure of money themselves. The State is unable to
secure the money provided for the burnt down from being fiddled away.
Russian
Orthodox Church has immediately started mass collection of the
necessary – during the first 3 days all the necessary clothes has been
collected and around $150,000 in donations was amassed only in Moscow.
It was at that time that the central Russian bank, Sberbank, has refused
to open a centralized account for the burnt-down in a typical show of
indifference to people’s sufferings and needs.
At the moment the most essential are fire extinction things – spades, clothes – and food for the firefighters.
There
are lots of volunteers working hard in spite of the grave ecological
situation in the affected areas. There are lots of heroic people who are
fighting fires, and tragically, some of them died.
There are
many people making lots of money on selling air conditioners,
respirators and trips??? at triple than usual prices or even more.
Strangely, no one calls it foray here.
The Russians are praying for the rain and the Church Department for Charity continues its much needed work.
A photoreport from the ROC Depatment for Charity by Sergei Muhamedov
No more clothes please!
All the thing are sorted into plastic bags
Source: The Fund for Assistance to ROCOR
FFA raises funds for forest fire victims in Russia
The Fund for Assistance to ROCOR opened a campaign to help the victims of forest fires in Russia.
“St. Apostle Paul tells us: ‘Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ’. Our Fund decided that it is important to lend our support to the Russian people at this difficult time“, said Archpriest Victor Potapov, Executive Director of the Fund.
On Sunday, His Holiness Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and all Russia appealed to all Orthodox people to help the victims of forest fires in Russia, and pray for rain.
“We call upon the flock of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, whatever nationality they may be, to help us collect funds and respond to His Holiness’s worthy appeal“, said Fr. Victor.
Protracted abnormal heat, dry weather and high winds have lead to wide-spread forest fires all over Russia. According to the Russian Emergency Ministry, forest fires have covered more than 121,000 hectares all over the country.
“People have died, hundreds have lost homes, thousands remain without a source of income”, said Patriarch Kyrill. “Many of the victims are older people, who have lived off their land their whole life. There are also many children, because whole villages have been destroyed”.
The Patriarch has issued an ukase for holding a special plate collections all over Russia for the next three Sundays to benefit the victims.
To make a donation now, click here .
Please make out checks to the Fund for Assistance to ROCOR, memo “Victims of wild fires” and send to
Fund for Assistance to ROCOR
75 E 93 St
New York, NY 10128
God bless you!
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