Everyone is a bit wise: how to give gifts to residents of orphanages and boarding schools

Charitable foundations that support orphanages, boarding schools, hospices and other social inpatient institutions have different attitudes towards people's desire to make gifts to their wards for the New Year. Some people think that this is wrong — the benefits are distributed too unevenly — and urge to provide assistance in a different way; other foundations have entire donation programs, especially since the desires of many residents of boarding schools are surprising in their simplicity. Izvestia understands in which cases gifts are really needed, and when it is better to help in another way.

People who are waiting for a miracle

When it comes to wanting to make a New Year's gift for a ward of a social institution, it is most often an orphanage that is presented. However, children's institutions, as a rule, are already "caressed" by the attention of people from the outside. It is quite another matter for adult recipients of social services, that is, residents of nursing homes, neuropsychiatric boarding schools, etc.

Holidays in adult boarding schools, as a rule, do not differ much from other days, Ekaterina Kantinova, director of the ANO Service for the Protection of Rights, tells Izvestia.

— All the same scheduled meals, watching TV in the common hall, and occasional walks are available only to those who can move around on their own. Of course, the staff, together with the residents of the boarding school, organize small festive concerts, but they are also attended mainly by those who are able to get to the assembly hall. And it is impossible to pay attention to everyone: no institution has the resources for this," the Izvestia interlocutor states.

There are completely different people living in such PNIs: graduates of boarding schools, grandparents with dementia, people with Down syndrome, ASD, etc. Most of them are single - very few have relatives and friends with whom they manage to communicate and spend holidays together, says Ekaterina Kantinova.

These are the ones who really need attention. Of course, it's better if this attention is constant — and for this you can become a volunteer, make a donation, and tell them about the foundations that help them. Such constant help is the most important. To understand how to do this, you can visit the Care Navigator page.

But holidays are also necessary.

So, the volunteer organization "Care Service", together with the Popular Front project "Region of Care", annually organizes the New Year's action "Cart of Joy", when real holidays are held in boarding schools: with guests, treats, gifts, and sincere communication. The latter is perhaps the most important thing for residents of boarding schools.

What do residents of boarding schools dream about?

This year, the Care Service launched the "Holiday as a Holiday" campaign, when everyone can help give individual gifts to thousands of people from Nizhny Novgorod villages. It turned out that most of them need very simple things. Here are a few wishes of the people who live in the Reshetikhinsky boarding school.

53-year-old Olga Erokhina dreams of a set of acrylic paints in tubes, a palette and brushes. She is a very athletic person: she runs, skis, and plays table tennis. He also loves to paint. Coloring books at the boarding school can be printed out for her, but all the materials are shared in the workshop.

36-year-old Alla Shishkina lives in the same boarding school, and she is also engaged in painting. She dreams that her works will be seen, and so her family will be found. And for the New Year, she wants a black hat with rhinestones.

Valentina Kabanets is 75 years old. She is very kind, and everyone comes to her to talk or consult. She is afraid of losing her cognitive abilities, so she solves a lot of keywords and keywords. And for the New Year I asked for such a collection.

Other stories can be found on the website of the Holiday as a Holiday project. For example, Yulia from Avtozavodsky PSNI in Nizhny Novgorod dreams of blue warm tights for the New Year — "like in childhood." Julia loved these tights very much, but they were stolen from the orphanage where she lived. And Tatiana Ivanovna dreams of a bag of "Dunka's joy" — that's what people called candy pads.

A real miracle

The Old Age in Joy Foundation does not support specific social institutions, but rather elderly people in general, who have no one else to help them, and it does not matter whether they live in boarding schools or in their own home.

— The gifts are symbolic, because the fund responds to the urgent needs of the elderly all year round, without waiting for the holidays. But they are extremely important for the elderly," says Alexandra Kuzmicheva, the foundation's public relations coordinator. — When Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden appear on the doorstep of a village house instead of a social worker, elderly people experience much more vivid emotions than children. After all, children are already used to being congratulated by everyone, but for the elderly this is a real miracle.

Unfortunately, there are not enough funds for gifts, so everyone can make their own New Year's gift on the foundation's website — ng.starikam.org . It's worth a look there, if only to receive a sincere and kind video greeting from the foundation's ward, which can be found behind every window.

— One of the wards wishes for a new lens as the chimes strike, someone for dentures, someone for glasses or a medical bed. And some people want to find a pen pal from among the volunteers in the New Year," says Alexandra Kuzmicheva.

You can also visit the elderly in person: volunteers organize trips to the foundation's wards all year round.

Give a holiday while there is an opportunity

Gifts for each New Year are also collected for hospice patients — seriously ill adults and children. Marina Vlasova, director of the House with a Lighthouse charitable foundation, says that they try to congratulate not only the patient himself, but also his brother or sister, so that the children also feel attention to themselves.

The list of gifts is compiled by the hospice team based on their work experience.: These are board games, sweet New Year gifts, soft toys, etc. They are given by volunteers — sometimes they come in Santa Claus clothes to a hospice patient's home, sometimes they are on Christmas trees organized by the House with a Lighthouse.

Now the House with a Lighthouse has already finished collecting gifts for the New Year, but the charity foundation has a project "Dreams come true" all year round. There, the guys fill out applications for their dream.

— Quite recently, for example, I received an application for the purchase of a game console from a boy from the Moscow region with cancer. And one philanthropist responded to this request within just a couple of hours. The family was absolutely happy," Marina Vlasova said. — It seems to me that the upcoming holiday played an important role. On New Year's Eve, more people want to do a good deed.

Another hospice care foundation, Vera, has launched a series of traditional holiday events to give gifts to seriously ill people and their families. One of them is "The Secret Santa Claus". More than 350 children of the foundation's wards have written their cherished letters of wishes to Santa Claus, and the benefactor can fulfill them, thereby becoming a "Secret Santa Claus."

The desires are very different. For example, Ksenia from Sverdlovsk (LNR) wants a gaming microphone for a PC with RGB backlight. She has type 2 SMA, Ksusha cannot walk, uses a wheelchair, but lives an active life — she studies in a cadet class, studies vocals and playing a synthesizer at a music school, loves to travel and runs her own channel.

Another promotion is gifts and tangerines for hospice patients. The Foundation collects practical and sincere things as a gift for 1,790 patients of hospitals and palliative care services: warm socks, a soft fleece blanket, a New Year's mug, soft sweets and tangerines — a symbol of the New Year. The hospice is being turned into an ordinary house, which also has a holiday.

Marina Vlasova from the House with a Lighthouse believes that any holiday is an important part of social support.

— And especially when we realize that our patients have limited life time — no one knows how long they will live. Therefore, it is important to give a holiday while there is such an opportunity.

Those who live on the street

Homeless people also dream of gifts for the New Year. The Nochlezhka charitable organization has been announcing a collection called "Tangerine and stew" for 15 years in a row.

— From December 1 to December 21 in St. Petersburg and Moscow, people can bring items from the suggested list to several places. Our volunteers sort all these things out, sort them, put them in gift sets, and then distribute them in our projects — in the parking lots of the bus that feeds people, in tents where you can spend the night in the cold, at reception in our inpatient shelters, and so on," Daniil Alexandrov, PR manager of Nochlezhka, told Izvestia.".

Several hundred sets are collected in each city. One gift package includes stew, canned fish, instant lunches, tea bags, coffee, sugar, biscuits, sweets, toothpaste, baby cream, shaving machines, pads, warm socks, hats, nail clippers and thermoses — more than 20 items in total. All this can be brought to charity shops. In Moscow, this is a "Second wind", in St. Petersburg — "Thank you!", the House of Books and libraries named after Lermontov and named after Tolstoy.

— You can also put a postcard or a note with a few warm words in the transfer. When residents of shelters receive such congratulations and wishes for something good in the new year, they gain strength," says Daniil Alexandrov.

But some of the Nochlezhka's wards have special dreams. For example, a girl named Anna has been living in the organization's shelter for several years. It is difficult for her to integrate into ordinary life — her health problems are in the way. But she is very friendly, talented, with a clear gift for the artist. She recently became interested in music and is currently learning to play the guitar. So far, the instrument has been lent to her by a social worker, but it is an old guitar that is difficult to practice on.

Anna doesn't specifically ask for a good guitar, but Nochlezhka is sure that this is her most cherished dream that someone can fulfill for the New Year. To do this, you can write in groups on Nochlezhki social networks or by email to social worker Andrey. achek@homeless.ru .

Children to whom it is better to give the future

Foundations that work with orphaned children look at New Year's gifts in a slightly different way. Nikolay Slabzhanin, executive director of the SOS Children's Villages charity organization, emphasizes that the most valuable gift for a child who has experienced family loss or is in a crisis situation is not a specific thing, but "the confidence and stability of his family." SOS Children's Villages does not encourage the flow of individual targeted gifts. Such an approach, they emphasize, "often makes assistance uneven and puts children in an unequal position."

— He can disrupt the fragile feeling of a normal family life that we create, — said Nikolai Slabzhanin. — In such a family, gifts are part of a personal celebration, not the result of a charity campaign.

If someone wants to give children a gift for the New Year, it is better to support the work of the organization and donate to programs, he continues. However, there are New Year's "options" too, and it's nice to participate in them too.

— On the eve of the New Year, we are holding a charity event "Light a star". The stars in the sky of the charity event will symbolize the support and participation of many people in the lives of children," says Nikolai Slabzhanin.

On the campaign's website, you can make a donation, write a New Year's wish and light your star. The bigger the donation, the brighter the star. Just don't forget the place in the sky where you placed it: it won't be so easy to find it later!

The Volunteers to Help Orphaned Children Foundation also does not support initiatives to give gifts to children in orphanages.

— The orphan status, as the system teaches the child, gives access to material benefits, gifts and assistance from "sponsors". When a random adult, whom the child has never seen, comes into such a context and presents a gift, this gesture does not carry human value for the child, but only strengthens the status of an "orphan" and the idea that it is possible and necessary to receive things from strangers," explained Elena, president of the Volunteers in Aid of Orphaned Children charity foundation. Alshanskaya street.

She notes that gifts in a team environment become an object of exchange and pressure: elders can take them away, expensive things turn into "goods", and in some institutions gifts can be withdrawn by staff. The person who brought the gift and left will never know about it.

She also opposes trips to "give warmth and hugs" — a one-time meeting does not create intimacy, but only destroys the child's understanding of safe communication boundaries.

— At the same time, every child, of course, receives a New Year's gift. Sweet sets and individual gifts are usually included in the budget of the institution, each orphanage has permanent patrons — government agencies, enterprises, businesses, — said Elena Alshanskaya. — There are exceptions, but they relate to cases when the gift is given by the child's mentor, his relative or a permanent donor who knows the situation well and understands the real needs.

The Foundation calls for directing its resources to projects that can really help: support the prevention of social orphanhood, a family placement program, pay for nannies, classes with tutors, or come to an orphanage as a mentor to a teenager, etc. Right now, "Volunteers to help orphaned children" are offering to "give summer to children": collection for the summer holidays in 2026.