MOSCOW, November 28 /TASS/. The "Giving Tuesday" international charitable initiative will get underway in Russia for the first time on November 29, the organizers stated at a news conference held at TASS on Monday.
Anybody who wants to do something good can join up.
Maria Chertok, Director of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), which initiated Russia’s accession to the "Giving Tuesday" campaign, said that actors, politicians, company employees, representatives of public organizations as well as anybody who is ready to do anything good are ready to join.
According to Chertok, about 600 partners from 100 cities from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka have registered themselves on a special website. They will hold hundreds of charitable events, including exhibitions, concerts and flash mobs, on the last Tuesday in November.
Giving to become life’s norm
A flash mob called "A Week of Confessions" kicked off on social networks a week ahead of the "Giving Tuesday" where the people can share their stories and experience in helping the needy. According to the CAF research, Russia has 52 million charitable, open-hearted people involved in the charity, of whom 43 million never speak about their good deeds.
Yelena Topoleva-Soldunova, Director of the Social Information Agency, stressed the importance of Russia’s getting on board with the "Giving Tuesday" initiative. "We believe that this method of involving people in charity is vitally important. We want charity to stop being a tribute to fashion and turn it into a commonplace activity, in which it is simply shameful not to be involved. The "Giving Tuesday" contributes to making this idea true in my view," Topoleva-Soldunova said.
She also noted that the Social Information Agency had launched "A Week of Media Confessions" along with "A Week of Confessions". "We have also asked journalists to tell us whom they support and who needs help, and many regional outlets have responded to our call," she explained.
Vlada Kalashnikova, the head of charitable programs of the Mercy Orthodox Service, noted that advice by a relative or a loved person was one of the most motivating factors driving people to take up charity. "It is certainly wonderful if a person admits that he or she is doing charity to inspire relatives and family members. This is something, which adds momentum to charitable activities," Kalashnikova stressed.
"It is a wonderful pretext and a remarkable event. It is great that it has arrived in Russia. It is vitally important that our charity becomes daily and routine and is not confined to one-off events held once a year. It is important that the support be systemic and become a norm of our everyday lives," Kalashnikova said.
More than 300,000 people in 75 countries have joined the "Giving Tuesday" initiative since 2012 when the first such campaign took place.