On Easter, the Church organizes greetings for families with many children, the homeless, hospital patients, residents of nursing homes and neuropsychiatric boarding schools, the seriously ill and lonely elderly at home.
In Mariupol and Donetsk, church volunteers will visit lonely elderly and people with disabilities, bring them food for the festive table, and help them clean up before Easter. Throughout the Bright Week, volunteers will distribute Easter gifts to children at church aid centers in Donbas.
You can help refugees and injured civilians in the conflict zone on the Help for Help website.Russian Federation. The elderly, people with disabilities, and single mothers with children need medicines and groceries, and they also need to purchase tickets for church volunteers who go to help in the conflict zone.
The head of the special humanitarian center of the Crimean Metropolis, Archpriest Dimitry Krotkov, took 3,000 gifts to the shelled areas of the Kherson region. These are sweets and toys that will be distributed to children in parishes on Easter Day. On the "Let's Help" platform, you can buy Easter gifts for children from cities in the conflict zone. Immediately after Easter, Orthodox volunteers will once again take sweets and toys to the children in Donbass, which will be purchased with the donations collected.
Volunteers of the Mercy-on-Don service paint eggs, bake cakes, gingerbread and pies to distribute in hospitals in the Rostov region and the conflict zone, in palliative wards and rehabilitation centers.
In Belgorod and Kursk, volunteers from the church's resettlement assistance centers will distribute cakes to everyone who seeks help, and they will carry gifts to children with disabilities at temporary accommodation centers. Orthodox volunteers will also visit residents of the Kursk boarding School for war and Labor veterans.
Repair volunteers and social volunteers from the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service will rebuild homes in Yasinovataya, Donetsk and Mariupol, provide humanitarian aid, and help in hospitals and hospitals, including during Holy Week. The operators of the church's help hotline, 8 (800) 70-70-222, will also work around the clock.
The patients of St. Alexy's Church Hospital in Moscow, Shuya, Pereslavl-Zalessky and Zhukovsky will be congratulated by sisters of mercy. Treats will be distributed to everyone. Easter hymns will be performed in the chambers.
For the 14th year in a row, the Orthodox relief service Mercy in Moscow has been organizing the charity event "Give Joy for Easter" to help lonely elderly people, adults and children with serious illnesses, refugees and hospital patients. The campaign runs throughout Lent and Holy Week — from March 3 to April 27. Sisters of mercy and volunteers bring Easter cakes to the wards of the service, and they buy necessary household items for the wounded. This year, it is planned to distribute 25,000 cakes. There is also an opportunity to join the campaign, and you can leave a donation on the service's website.
Cultural events are also held as part of the "Give Joy for Easter" campaign. On April 21, pianist Sergei Tarasov will perform works by Sergei Rachmaninoff in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. All proceeds will be transferred to the Mercy Assistance service.
The Church organizes festive dinners for the homeless in Omsk, Saratov, Chelyabinsk and other cities across the country. In Moscow, such dinners will be held at the Church of Saints Florus and Laurus on Zatsep and at the Salvation Hangar of the Orthodox Mercy Service.
The Russian Orthodox Church also organizes assistance to those in need abroad. For example, on Easter Day, poor people will be fed in several cities of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, and gifts and food packages will be distributed to children and families.