Guests of the forum “Good Kazan” were shown the city charity projects

(KZN.RU, November 30, Ksenia Shvetsova). Today, Sergey Novikov, the head of the Presidential Office for Public Projects, and Anna Kuznetsova, the Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of the RF, arrived to participate in the All-Russian Forum “Good Kazan. Charity: the experience of the regions”. Together with Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of the capital of Tatarstan, they inspected the exhibition of the most interesting charitable city projects in the Kazan City Hall.

Their attention was drawn to the yellow box, which is used for the action “Paper for the good” by the charity fund “Alpari”. Representatives of the fund said that residents collect waste paper in such boxes, installed in residential buildings in the Sovetsky district, and the proceeds from it are sent to help sick children in need of expensive medicines.

The next “item” of the charity projects’ exhibition was a book of fairy tales, written by children living in the house of Ronald McDonald. “Their dreams help overcome disease. The illustrations in the book were created by children together with famous people of the city, the book will be sold for donations, these funds will be used to develop the family hotel”, said the project activists.

The guests especially appreciated the project “Velodobro” for the collection of old bicycles. They restore old bicycles in a free social workshop and transfer them to children from families in difficult life situations. In just six months of the project, about 700 elements of bicycle equipment were collected and 322 bicycles were given to children. They plan to distribute at least a thousand bicycles. Sergey Novikov noted that in order to develop the project, it is necessary to inform as many residents as possible.

Anna Kuznetsova noted that such a project helps not only children from low-income families to purchase bicycles, but also solves the problem of employment in some way. “Bicycles can be assembled and repaired by those who are difficult to employ. This is not just help, but also an occupation for those categories of citizens who have problems in finding a job”, believes A. Kuznetsova.

Next, the guests were shown specialized bicycles for children with disabilities. This is another project by the fund “Alpari” that allows children with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, non-walking children and others to ride bicycles. Natalya Gilazeva, the director of the fund, said that when a bicycle becomes too small for a child, it is given to other children, and another bicycle, a little bigger one is collected for an older child.

The project “Med Clowns” was presented at the exhibition among others. Clowns work mainly in the Children's Republican Clinical Hospital, as well as in homes for the disabled and the elderly. This movement is over 40 years old. Clowns are part of the hospital staff in many countries, said one of the activists of the project. Today, it unites 10 clowns working in 20 departments of the Children's Republican Clinical Hospital. “It is necessary to solve the problem with the constant financing of the project”, noted A. Kuznetsova.

At the end, the guests were introduced to first-graders Sophia and Bulat that told about the Diary of Good Deeds, one of the most important projects of the “Good Kazan”. “We were given these diaries when we came to school. I liked it immediately, it is bright and has pictures”, said Sofia.

Anna Kuznetsova noted that the Diary of Good Deeds should be brought to the federal level. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, added that the children liked the project very much. Good lessons are regularly held in the capital of Tatarstan, in which schoolchildren share their impressions and the results of diaries.

The III All-Russian Forum “Good Kazan. Charity: the experience of the regions”, started yesterday. The leaders of non-profit organizations and charitable foundations from all over the country take part in it. For two days, they will discuss ways to develop the activities of non-profit organizations and share experiences.