Kiknur, Russia, July 31, 2019
Photo: diaconia.ru
In the small town of Kiknur, in the Kirov Province, construction is beginning on a church crisis center and shelter for women and children called “A Home for Moms,” as the Synodal Department for Charity and Social Services of the Russian Church reports.
It can support and house up to 16 pregnant women, and women with children in difficult situations at the same time. Psychologists, lawyers, and social workers will be available to help women get out of their crises. Financial support is still needed to complete construction.
Fr. Mikhail Kryukov, head of the Social Department of the Yaransk Diocese noted that as they were counseling pregnant women in crisis and helping large families, they realized that while spiritual and psychological support was incredibly important, women needed broader help.
This is a very real social issue. If a woman is in danger of considering abortion, it certainly is important to warn her of the catastrophic spiritual, emotional, and psychological dangers associated with it, but simply talking to a young mother in poverty, and telling her to be strong won’t feed her children. It’s one matter to offer someone words of Christian love, but it’s an entirely different level of love to give them shelter and critical material support which could literally save lives.
This is why Fr. Mikhail and those working on this project resolved to open a center where women can receive all the necessary assistance to get them out of crisis situations and back on their feet.
The “Home for Moms” will contain eight rooms for people to live in, offices for psychologists, lawyers, and medical and social staff, as well as playrooms for children. The shelter will also be equipped with educational classes to help those who wish to learn a specialty or trade.
All needed humanitarian aid is to be provided by church centers in the cities of Yaransk, Kiknur, and Kotelnich. All of these centers were opened at the expense of a grant from the Synodal Department for Charity and Social Services, aimed at the prevention of abortion.
Over the past 8 years, the Russian Church has opened 63 shelters for women in crisis situations and over 100 new humanitarian aid centers over the past three years. Today there are 64 shelters for mothers created with the participation of the Church, and more than 180 Church humanitarian centers.
In early June, OrthoChristian reported that the Church had opened three shelters for mothers and a children’s hospice in various locations in Russia within the span of a week.
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Matfey Shaheen
