Simferopol, Crimea and Anuchino, Primorsky Krai, Russia, November 26, 2019
Photo: diaconia.ru
The Russian Orthodox Church has opened 71 shelters for pregnant women and mothers in crisis situations, including 13 over the past year. The two newest shelters were recently opened in Simferopol in Crimea and in the village of Anuchino in Primorsky Krai.
The shelter in Simferopol is the first such center run by the Church in Crimea, reports the Synodal Department for Charity and Social Services.
The shelter in Crimea will provide free accommodation for up to 6 mothers with children under 10 years old. In Anuchino, the shelter is designed for 10 people. The wards of the shelters will receive not only housing and food, but will also have access to volunteers and social workers who will help them to resolve various administrative issues and get their official documents in order.
Photo: diaconia.ru
“The task of our project is to support women in a difficult situation. We will provide them not only with temporary free housing, but also with the help of qualified specialists—social, legal, psychological and, of course, spiritual assistance to return a person to a normal independent life,” said the creator of the shelter Fr. Dionysiy Volkov.
The shelter in Crimea is supported by specialists of the Crimean Republican Center for Social Services for Families, Children, and Youth.
In Anuchino, the shelter will provide various workshops for children. There are also plans to eventually build a large garage for boys to learn to repair cars and bicycles.
Photo: diaconia.ru
“Even when I was studying in seminary, I constantly came across people who lived on the street, having got into a difficult life situation. We helped them with food and clothes, but often they simply had nowhere to spend the night,” said the head of the shelter Hieromonk Barsanuphius (Ryzhov).
“And now there is an opportunity to help people fully. This is very important: Sometimes a person simply cannot survive if he is not sheltered anywhere. And human life is priceless,” Fr. Barsanuphius said.
Three more shelters are planned for the near future, in Orenburg, Nizhny Tagil, and Bratsk.
