The Podari Zhizn charitable foundation is perhaps the most famous foundation in Russia, helping children with oncological and hematological diseases. And the merit of such successful work is that a wonderful team of caring people has gathered in the fund.
Fund today
Forbes magazine, publishing an annual report on non-profit organizations that have achieved success and which can be trusted, has repeatedly included the Podari Zhizn Foundation on its list. Indeed, this is one of the largest foundations in terms of the amount of charitable donations received and the amount of aid provided. "Give Life" is an example of work for many foundations and volunteer movements. NCOs account for thousands of saved children's lives. The main direction of the foundation's work is helping seriously ill children with oncological and oncohematological diseases. Moreover, the help lies not only in medical procedures and the purchase of the necessary drugs.
The Foundation takes part in legislative processes, influencing decisions made at the state level. So, in particular, the fund has made changes in the practice of banning visits by relatives of the patient in the intensive care unit. Such a ban was contrary to the convention on the rights of the child, but, nevertheless, parents were not allowed into the intensive care unit, even to the smallest children. The problem brought up by the foundation for discussion in the government received a positive response. Yes, some hospitals are still trying to insist on the old rules. But the parents have already had the opportunity to legally settle disputes.
The Fund defends the right in another difficult issue - the import of drugs unregistered in the Russian Federation. A draft "On the Circulation of Medicines" has been sent to the Duma, the adoption of which will facilitate the transportation of unregistered imported drugs to Russia. I must say that small steps have already been taken for this: the customs duty has been abolished, a new system for issuing permits has been launched, and a scheme has been developed for the legal import of drugs by a single operator.
The Foundation also took an active part in the discussion of the most resonant problem of recent years - the availability of timely pain relief for seriously ill people. In our country, the situation with available narcotic analgesics is extremely difficult. And most often we are talking not only about the shortage of drugs, but also about the lack of informing the population and medical personnel. Several charitable foundations have joined together to rectify the situation in palliative care for terminally ill people. After years of struggling with bureaucracy, non-profit movements managed to draw the attention of the Ministry of Health to the problem. In 2016, relevant amendments to the current legislation were adopted to make it easier for the patient to receive pain relievers. Of course, there are still many problems. But if not for the attention and persistence of the funds, nothing has changed for the better at all.
How it all began
But it took some time to achieve such success. After all, while there was no fund, all the work lay on the shoulders of ordinary volunteers. After all, as often happens, the Podari Zhizn charitable foundation grew out of routine volunteer work. Back in 2003, volunteers Anna Egorova and Yekaterina Chistyakova donated blood for one of the patients of the RCCH in Moscow. And on the spot it turned out that not only one girl needs blood, but there is a sorely lack of donors. Trying to attract more and more people to this issue, the girls organized an initiative group “Donors to Children”. The group held large-scale campaigns to draw attention to the problem, agitated people to donate blood, and looked for funds to treat sick children. Over time, more and more people, including famous ones, began to connect. At this time, the movement was joined by the actress Chulpan Khamatova, who gave her first charity concert in favor of the Federal Scientific and Clinical Center for Pediatric Hematology. But it was difficult to carry out such actions on an ongoing basis, since the movement did not have a legal status, and it was not possible to collect large sums of money on an ongoing basis.
In 2006, around Chulpan Khamatova and, a little later, actress Dina Korzun, who joined, formed such a close-knit team of like-minded people that it was time to open their own charitable foundation. In 2006, on the initiative of the future director of the foundation, Galina Chalikova, the Gift of Life charity foundation was registered (by the way, there is the Life Foundation, whose history began long before the Chulpan Khamatova Foundation was established. Moreover, the Life Foundation is also involved in helping children with cancer). The founders of the fund are Chulpan Khamatova and Dina Korzun.
Foundation victories
The first head of the fund was Galina Chalikova, a well-known volunteer who began helping children back in 1989 after the earthquake in Spitak. So gradually Galina began to work with medical institutions, in particular with the RCCH, and cover the problems of modern treatment of children. Unfortunately, in 2011 Galina Chalikova passed away. At the moment, journalist Ekaterina Shergova is taking the place of the fund's director.
The foundation won its first real victory in 2008, when the construction of the Center for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology began, which has no analogues in Russia yet. Of course, such a large-scale project would have been impossible to implement without the support of the state. The starting point for assistance was the absolutely amazing story of the boy Dima Rogachev. The seriously ill Dima had a cherished dream - to meet with President Vladimir Putin, about which he wrote him a letter. And the President responded. The meeting took place and it was possible to draw the attention of Vladimir Putin to the health problem. And the result was the construction of a specialized center. Subsequently, the center was named after Dmitry Rogachev, who died in 2007. Today, the Hematology Center is one of the largest in Russia, where children from all over the country can come for treatment.
Such different help
But the work of the foundation is not limited only to the current treatment. The fund's employees supervise each child who undergoes treatment until his full recovery. Few people know what difficulties a family with a seriously ill child has to face. This is the refusal of the necessary treatment due to the lack of quotas and necessary drugs, treatment in another city or country, the management and observation of the patient after recovery, the lack of a worthy palliative. Each family with a seriously ill child goes through a huge number of tests, which are often impossible to cope with alone, for example, to buy a medicine that is not available in our country or to rent and pay for housing so that the whole family can be together during treatment in another region. A charitable foundation, as a legal entity, has the ability to help in such difficult situations.
All non-profit organizations exist on charitable donations. The Gift of Life Foundation is no exception. Any person who is not indifferent can make a donation, both targeted and for the statutory purposes of the foundation. When making a bank money transfer, it is necessary to indicate in the purpose of the payment that this is a charitable donation. You can enter the first and last name of the specific child you want to help. In this case, the money will go to help him. On the official website of the fund there is a section in which all reports on the funds spent are published, as well as the results of the annual audit, mandatory for all NPOs.
