The large-scale all-Russian action of mutual assistance "We are Together", designed to send the forces of volunteers to help people who find themselves in a difficult situation due to the coronavirus pandemic, started in March 2020.
According to the latest data, as part of the campaign, it was possible to collect more than 1.84 billion rubles, which were sent to help doctors and victims of COVID-19.
Over 4.6 million people received targeted assistance.
Tens of thousands of Russians became volunteers - they delivered the necessary food and medicine to elderly neighbors and those who fell ill with coronavirus infection and because of this could not leave their homes.
According to Natalya Vainauskene, a resident of the village of Medvezhy Ozyora in the Moscow region, during the pandemic, people began to care more about each other.
“I myself am a paramedic, but already retired.
I brought food to neighbors who could not leave the house, sometimes they threw parcels over the fence.
One of my neighbors fell ill and ended up in intensive care, spent three months there.
All this time I was feeding his dog - who else would do that?
Now almost all my acquaintances try to help those who need help.
This is a common misfortune, ”the woman tells RT.
A resident of Saratov, Alexander, is also a doctor; during the first wave of the epidemic, he wrote to the RT project "We will continue to act" and offered to deliver food to people who cannot leave the house.
“Then they introduced complete isolation, people were forbidden to leave their apartments.
And I, as a doctor, had a pass, and I offered to deliver food to those who needed it - I was mobile, and the streets were empty.
They began to send me the addresses the same day I wrote in RT, ”Alexander recalls.
Food for doctors
In the past year, health workers needed special support, who were under a huge burden with the onset of the pandemic.
Caring citizens provided all kinds of assistance.
For example, during the first wave of the epidemic, the Moscow Fund "Shop of Joy" began to raise funds to provide doctors with hot meals.
“It turned out that at work, doctors, unlike patients, are not provided with food.
But the doctors working in the "red zone" cannot just go and buy themselves, for example, shawarma in a store.
We realized that this problem needs to be solved, ”says Ekaterina Bermant, head of the foundation.
Several Moscow restaurants were attracted to the action, which agreed to cook food for free - the food was purchased with funds raised by the fund.
Promotion of the cafe "I drink coffee"
© Photo from personal archive
Employees of the Coffee Pew cafe, which participated in the action, told RT that the process of preparing and delivering food had to be carefully thought out.
“It was important to draw up the menu correctly, take into account the cost of dishes, think over everything so that the food would meet all consumer qualities: firstly, in terms of safety, and secondly, in terms of saturation.
Since we delivered food to the hospital grounds, we had to think over how to handle cars and crates, ”explains Ilya Rogozhkin, the head chef of the Coffee Pyu chain.
In total, the restaurants, attracted by the “Shop of Joy” foundation, provided food for doctors in ten metropolitan hospitals.
The head of the fund, Ekaterina Bermant, also noted that with the onset of the pandemic, people in general began to help each other more.
“People helped with joy and enthusiasm because they were fighting against a common enemy.
The common misfortune unites very strongly.
An incredible number of people this year for the first time ever heard about charity - and began to actively participate, "said Bermant.
Students of medical universities also actively help doctors.
Back in late March, senior students began to help in hospitals and clinics.
According to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, as of early December, more than 20 thousand medical students worked in the "red zones".
“3276 people work in the positions of junior medical personnel, 11257 - in middle positions, 3479 work as trainee doctors, and 2700 - as specialist doctors,” the department explained.
On the eve of the New Year, VTsIOM published the results of a survey showing that the majority of Russians (55%) consider doctors to be the heroes of 2020.
It is not surprising, since physicians who save the lives of patients have to work in the most difficult conditions.
"We were taught to save people"
In May, RT released a film about the work of Oleg Shulga, a doctor in an ambulance resuscitation team in Blagoveshchensk.
Now the physician admits that 2020 was a "terrible" year for all healthcare workers.
“The first wave: the beginning of summer, no one really knows what this virus is and how to treat it, the heat, the doctors are boiling alive in special protection suits.
We measured - the temperature in the suit could reach +57 ° C, it's scary.
But we didn't expect it to get worse.
The second wave went, frost came - and again we were in protective suits, but already warmly dressed.
After visits to patients, you have to be processed on the street.
And from you this bleach just freezes and crumbles, ”Shulga says.
© Frame: RT video
When asked what makes doctors continue to work in these difficult conditions, Oleg answers simply: "We were taught to save people."
In addition, according to him, the pandemic has noticeably changed the attitude of patients and ordinary Russians towards employees of medical institutions - and this also helps not to give up.
“Sometimes it hurts in my soul when you go out to a call, walk down the street in a mask and a respirator, and people, passers-by, go towards and simply say:“ Thank you, ”“ Come on, hold on, guys, you are great. ”
Ordinary people organize to support the doctors: they collect money, provide the help they can, ”Shulga says.
Saratov infectious disease doctor Alexander delivered food to those in need in May, joining the RT action.
In June, the man decided to go to work in a hospital for patients with COVID-19.
Alexander admits that since he started treating patients in the "red zone", he has no strength to do anything other than work.
But he is not going to leave - people need to be saved.
“My life has long turned into a solid groundhog day.
I wake up, get ready, go to work.
I don't go anywhere else, I don't do anything - I just come home, recover and go back.
I am limited in communication, emotionally too.
But I have no thoughts to quit.
Maybe it will sound pretentious, but who, if not me, will do this?
Many do not stand up and leave, but someone has to continue, ”explains Alexander.