The volunteer headquarters of the action “We are Together” and the hotline 8-800-200-3411 were launched on March 21. The All-Russian Popular Front has become the infrastructure platform for the "Medical Volunteers" and the Association of Volunteer Centers. First, headquarters were deployed in the regions, and then local volunteer organizations began to join them.
During the operation of the hotline, it received almost 1.8 million calls. “The peak load was more than 300 thousand calls per day. Now we don’t have to do it once, but we are holding somewhere at the average daily level of 30-50 thousand, ”Dmitry Polikanov, deputy director of the executive committee of the All-Russian Popular Front, told RT.
Daria Kurbatova - one of the employees of the district headquarters in Moscow. The girl studies as a primary school teacher, and devotes all her free time from seminars and preparation for the session to volunteer activities.
“In 2017, I found out about Mosvolonor and joined the project,” she told RT. - Now I am fulfilling applications for food and medicine for the elderly, and at the headquarters I conduct briefings, process applications, and issue personal protective equipment to volunteers. Sometimes during applications there are additional situations requiring assistance. For example, I bought medicine at a pharmacy, and an elderly visitor became ill. I helped him get up, called an ambulance. It was amazing that there were three more visitors in the pharmacy, and they didn’t react at all to the fact that my grandfather clutched his heart. ”
According to Daria, her relatives react to the fact that she works under the conditions of a coronavirus in different ways: “Someone is worried, granny admires me, but not only me, but all the volunteers. Younger sisters try on my badges and say, they say, when we ourselves will become such. ”
Extend a paw of help
The volunteer headquarters began by accepting applications from elderly and people with limited mobility, those who were self-insulated and could not go to the store or the pharmacy. But almost immediately a flurry of calls and other questions hit the call center. The organizers had to add a redirect to the Rospotrebnadzor hotline with information about the coronavirus, the Sberbank line, because there were many questions about the payment of pensions, and to agree with the Ministry of Emergencies on connecting their psychological support service. The “legal aid” section has also been launched - for entrepreneurs who do not understand the complex and rapidly changing regulatory framework, and for people who are unfairly dismissed or harassed at their place of work.
“Spiritual help has become a separate button - since April 17, Orthodox priests, representatives of the Muslim and Jewish communities have joined,” says Polikanov. “Now we pay a lot of attention to helping doctors, we collect the needs of medical institutions: somewhere it is necessary to provide people with hot meals, somewhere personal protective equipment, somewhere to settle the doctors in a hotel near the hospital so that they can normally wash and relax.”
The main virtual platform of the project is the site we together2020.rf. There you can enroll in volunteers or help those in need in a different form.
You can buy a grocery set for an elderly person or give a mask to a needy person. By the way, masks are sewn including retirees, families with children with disabilities, large families for whom such a donation is an additional addition to their modest income.
There is also a special section on the site that talks about discounts, concerts, free educational and entertainment programs.
During the month of the hotline, nearly 9 thousand companies and individuals offered assistance of all kinds. Someone bakes bread and is ready to give it to those in need, while someone is setting up accounting programs and wants to supply them for non-profit organizations for free. Someone gives cars and fuel cards for volunteers, SIM cards, and someone provides hay and feed for small zoos and hippotherapy centers, which due to the lack of visitors do not receive income and can not buy food for animals.
Elena Milto is the head of the department for the development of public initiatives of the ONF executive committee and the volunteer of the Four Paws project. It started two weeks ago, after it became known about the story of the pony Manny from Orel. The pony volunteer came under the windows to the children who were on isolation, and congratulated them on their birthday. But the owners no longer had enough money for food, and Manny's “work” was in jeopardy.
“We help various organizations: private zoos, hippotherapy centers, dolphin therapy. These are social projects, they either do not receive compensation from the authorities, or they are not enough. We have two thousand wards from 23 regions: there is a tiger cub, hares, geese, lemurs. In peacetime, they all help people, including children with disabilities. And now it's time to help them, ”she told RT.
Volunteers do not interact directly with animals - there is no urgent need to help with care. Project participants either raise funds for food, or interact with those who are ready to provide food directly and bring it to animals. For example, farmers took up patronage over the House of the Hare suburban Moscow, where wild hares are rehabilitated. “At the moment when we were passing food, two little hares were born there. We decided to make them a symbol of the project, ”says the volunteer.
According to Elena, her family is sympathetic to the fact that she devotes a lot of time to volunteering: “Sons are very fond of animals, we watch photos and videos that I make on trips every night. When the quarantine is over, we plan to ride horses together. ”
Volunteer nannies
Another area of the action of mutual assistance is “carts of good”. Shops install special carts or boxes for collecting products. Visitors, in turn, can buy something not only to themselves, but also to an unfamiliar senior citizen. In addition, a number of retail chains provide discounts on the volunteer badge.
We together have small special projects. “For example, in 20 regions we collect computers for large families - because if you have five boys and girls at home who need to study remotely now, then you need equipment for this,” says Polikanov. “Or the project“ Grandmother.Online ”- we have connected nursing homes to the Internet and organize communication for old people, creative meetings with interesting people, and online concerts.”
In addition, a project has been launched in which certified nanny volunteers look after children in families where parents are forced to leave, for example, to hospitals - for work or treatment.
So, a resident of Cherepovets Tatyana, raising a daughter Polina with Down syndrome, had to lie down for surgery for two weeks. The woman was in shock: she never left her daughter for so long. Of the relatives, she has only a father who works in shifts of 12 hours. During his absence, the girl in turn was a social worker or social nanny who prepared special meals, gave medicines on the clock, played and studied with the child.
Mom called up daily with assistants, and those, in turn, sent photos of the girl and arranged video calls so that the separation of Polina from her family member was not so difficult.
Mary lives in the same city. She brings up two children, both girls have severe developmental disorders. The eldest daughter, Milan, needed urgent hospitalization in a clinic in St. Petersburg. The youngest, Anastasia, could not be taken with her: the girl is afraid of loud noises, strangers, unusual surroundings. Mary's sister, a nanny, a social worker and a volunteer came to the rescue. The sister bought food, prepared food, did the cleaning, and when she could not be with her niece, the assistants fed the girl, washed her, walked and played, laid them to bed.
Aigul Safarova lives in Ufa. Before the pandemic, she worked in a teenage club, and last year she underwent special training and volunteer courses. While there are no orders for babysitting services in the city, she delivers products to the elderly.
“The social nanny does the same as the usual one, only free for families where parents are required to work in a coronavirus. We deal with children from zero to school age, we know how to deal with healthy children, and with special ones, we can also rehabilitate children with cerebral palsy, ”she told RT.
“Forbidden to hug”
In total, over 90 thousand people signed up for volunteers during the campaign. You can register on the site "We are together", or directly on dobro.rf. After that comes a link to the video course, which contains basic information about assistance and security measures. Next, you need to go through a face-to-face briefing at the headquarters, fill out documents, get a badge - and you can go on assignments.
“Many criticize us that the system is complex and the procedures are long. But this allows us to leave exactly those who really came to volunteer, and not just get a pass to move around the city, ”says Dmitry Polikanov.
The conversion, according to him, is not bad - about 30% of those who register, go through all stages and reach the stage of volunteering: “We try to provide children with masks, gloves, antiseptics. For them, all headquarters organized free meals. We monitor security - the volunteer and the applicant know the secret code that they exchange when completing the order. ”
The headquarters is a “boiling cauldron almost around the clock,” says Dmitry Polikanov. Call center stafffill out an application, indicate what products and medicines are needed. Further, this application is sent to the general chat of volunteers who work in the districts. There is also another chat - “quick response group”, where they work with emergency situations.
The volunteer receives an application, calls up with an elderly person and then they already specify in the store by phone - which buckwheat or pasta you need to buy, what fat buttermilk, whether the price is suitable. If we are talking about medicines, then the volunteer can go get a prescription, and then go to the pharmacy. Money is returned upon delivery.
Delivery is made to the door, volunteers are not allowed to enter the apartment, but they can visually assess the physical condition of the person - suddenly you need to call an ambulance. “We prohibit the guys from hugging with the applicants, accepting gifts, and stop by for tea. Although sometimes you feel like it - you can see how old people in self-isolation missed communication, ”says Polikanov.
Volunteers accept people from 18 to 50 years old. According to Polikanov, various people are recorded: “Recently, the writer Dmitry Bykov was one of our car volunteers in Moscow. Many students, including foreigners, even one John F. Kennedy is. ”
36-year-old resident of Moscow Maria Kitaeva is a civil servant on maternity leave and the mother of three children. When the coronovirus epidemic began to gain momentum, she decided to volunteer. To help others, Kitaeva had to isolate herself from her own family.
"I have three children. Now they live in the country, on self-isolation. I had to sacrifice personal communication with them so as not to put them at risk, ”she told RT. “But we talk by video every day.” And I understand perfectly well that in order to return to them, I will again have to serve a two-week quarantine. They understand what mom does, I tell them everything. “I would like the children to grow up with the awareness that they need to help others, that there are situations where priorities are shifted - from personal to general.”
According to Maria Kitaeva, the pandemic showed how many people in the country have a good heart. Dmitry Polikanov says the same thing: “We see some incredible impulse of civic solidarity. It is often said that there are more good people than evil ones, they simply are worse organized. Here is a case that shows that with proper organization, waves of good can be caused. In addition, if we draw analogies with the war, then people feel the need to be at the front, and not sit out in the rear. "