Youth and beauty 

Russian crisis centers for women. Crisis centers for women in Russian regions

There are three state centers for helping women in difficult life situations in Moscow. The paradox is that there are rarely all the places filled. Because only women with a passport, a Moscow residence permit and a “good past” are accepted. This means that if a girl was conditionally convicted or her documents were stolen from her, she cannot apply there. And this is what usually makes the situation “difficult”.

"House for Mom" ​​is one of the charity projects of the Orthodox help service "Mercy". The head of the service is Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuevsky. The service was founded in 1991, and 30,000 people in need receive one-time assistance a year. In total, the service has twenty-seven assistance projects: for lonely old people, the disabled, pregnant women who find themselves without a roof over their heads, orphans, the homeless, and HIV-infected.

Pregnant women on the verge of abortion, young mothers who do not have housing, who have lost their jobs and livelihoods turn to the "House for Mom".

Maria Studenikina, the head of the House for Mom, came to Mercy as a volunteer, later she managed the humanitarian aid center of the service, and for the last six years she has been the head of the Home for Mom. “The most important thing for us is that the girl wants to get out and do something for this. When she comes to us, we have the first conversation and immediately ask the question - how do you see life after the orphanage. This is the main thing. We are ready to pull up any resources to help, solve any problem, but a person must want to fight, work, move on. Not everyone stays on such conditions - compulsory home work, girls collect travel kits of thread, sew sheets, learn different professions. We can't just sit and do nothing. But they all help each other, look after the children in turn, cook for everyone on duty.”

Mom's Home is a counseling center and shelter. At the counseling centre, women can get help from a lawyer, psychologist or social worker. Here you can also get children's clothes, medicines, strollers, cribs and other necessary things that are distributed from the humanitarian aid center of the "Mercy" service.

Up to ten women with children live in the shelter at the same time, but sometimes it is necessary to put cots and extra beds. The Center provides assistance to women regardless of their age, citizenship, nationality, religion, documents and past. Among themselves, employees and mothers affectionately call the shelter - "house". Among those who were helped at the center were citizens of Ukraine, Moldova, Tajikistan, Venezuela and the Congo.

The center has existed since February 2012, for six years 223 mothers and 227 children lived here, 500 women received social and psychological support. Tickets were purchased for the homeland of 270 women. Any family in need can apply for humanitarian assistance to Mercy. During its existence, the service has helped eight thousand families throughout Russia.

"House for Mom" ​​- a very small building in the Tagansky district of Moscow, two residential floors, a large kitchen, a basement in which there is a workshop where girls do homework; a small studio where master classes in hairdressing and manicure are held. Here, next to the mirrors and hair dryers, there are baby cots. Everywhere soft toys, rattles, cradles. It seems that the whole house is one big children's room. Now seven mothers live here, here are some of their stories.

Marina, 21 years old

I got into the "House for Mom" ​​in the ninth month. The owner of the apartment I was renting found out that I was pregnant and kicked me out. He said that it was impossible with a child and that I vacate the living space at the end of the paid period. There were two weeks left. It so happened that I had no other living space in Moscow, and there was nowhere to go. I am a stateless person, I still do not have a passport. My parents are from the former Soviet republics, they were fine with the documents, but for some reason they did not bother to make them for me. My mother is from Moldova, and my father is from Uzbekistan. I was born and lived all my life in Moscow, I never even left, but I had no documents. The father of my daughter, Diana, lives with his mother, who is against our relationship and does not let me on the doorstep. And I wouldn't go there myself. I found information about the crisis center on the Internet and came here. Diana was born, I began to take home work, took courses for a manicure and nail service master. With the help of the management of the center, I am restoring my documents, although, however, there is no passport yet. But I have already completed the necessary certificates, and most importantly, I received all of Diana's documents. And in April, another girl and I will start renting an apartment together and work in shifts. For example, one works, the second sits with two children. Mom's House helps us raise money for the first time.

Elena, 41 years old


Photo from personal archive I got married at 38 and converted to Islam. At first everything was fine, we had twins, two daughters. But then Marfa was diagnosed -​ epilepsy and West syndrome. Children with this diagnosis develop in the opposite direction -​ they stop walking, holding their heads, communicating ... We tried to be treated, at that time our son was born. And the husband suddenly quit his job, began to sit on the Internet until four in the morning, sleep until three in the afternoon. There was no money at all, it got to the point that I had to steal milk for children in the store. He mocked us, beat me. Once it became dangerous for children. There was a scandal, we hid from him in the kitchen, locked the door, and he beat with a mop, broke through the door and almost hit my daughter. Then I realized that I had to run. It was not easy to leave my husband, you understand. I secretly looked for hotline numbers on the Internet, called, they gave me the address of the “House for Mom” there. And we ran away. We lived here for more than three months while looking for a way to return to my home in Kiev. Here I baptized the children, and Martha began to recover. When we were planned to be in the hospital, after baptism, the doctors did not believe our diagnosis. The doctor thought he had made the wrong room. But Marfa managed to stop epilepsy attacks, she runs again, communicates. We returned to Kiev to my family, we come here for examinations and always go to the "House for Mom" ​​to say thank you.

Anna, 32 years


Photo: Victoria Odissonova / Novaya I was born in Murom, my mother died when I was 18 years old. She drank heavily. I came to work in Moscow, at a toy factory, I rented a room. When the owner found out that I was pregnant, I was asked to leave. In Murom, I still have an apartment, but there is stove heating. While I was working in Moscow, I asked my friend to come and heat the stove in winter so that everything would not get damp. It somehow didn’t heat like that, in general, the stove is now out of order, and there was also a fire. Not strong, but there was no one at home, so firefighters broke through the roof to get into the apartment. There's a hole in the ceiling now, and the stove doesn't work. The local administration says that standing in line for an apartment is​ It's at least five more years. But they promised to help fix the heating. I would go there myself, but with a child it is impossible yet. That's why we live here. But soon we will return to Murom, probably, we will shoot something there while we are repairing our house. In the "House for Mom" ​​they help us with things, with documents -​ yes, with everything, really.

You can help the project here:

https://miloserdie.help/krizisnyy-tsentr-dom-dlya-mamy. Support "House for Mom" you can send an SMS with the word "crisis" and the amount of the donation to a short number 3434 (e.g. "crisis 100").

Requisites:
Crisis Center "House for Mom"
R/s: 40703810238110001411
Bank: PJSC Sberbank of Russia, Moscow
K/s: 30101810400000000225
BIC: 044525225
Purpose of payment: Donation for Mom's Home


First floor: administrative premises. Here is the duty station, which registers everyone who comes or leaves the center. The offices of the head of the crisis center, a lawyer and a social worker are also located here. A large room is reserved for a room for joint prayers. It also hosts all holidays, such as birthdays. On the ground floor there is a kitchen, which is used by mothers. There is also a meeting room where interviews are held with potential wards, as well as weekly consultations for each mother who lives in the center.



Second floor: living quarters. Here, mothers with children live in 5 bright and comfortable rooms. Each has everything you need: comfortable beds for mothers and cradles for babies, lockers and changing tables. There is even enough space for games: it happens that a woman with a 3-year-old child gets into the "House for Mom" ​​- for example, if she is pregnant with her second baby. In the corridor next to the rooms there is a corner with a bottle sterilizer and a kettle - so that mothers can quickly prepare formula for the baby even at night.




Third floor: common dining room, an auxiliary kitchen where food can be heated, and an additional living room. This room is used to be called the “isolation room” - here the newly arrived mother lives in quarantine before they receive all the test results in the “House for Mom” and make sure that she is not a carrier of diseases dangerous to other wards and children. Also, mothers who, for example, have a cold, etc., can live in this room.



Basement: recently equipped as a classroom for all women to undergo occupational therapy. Here it is possible to make travel sets of threads - so mothers can earn some money. In addition, the classroom is equipped with several training places for hairdressing and sewing courses. You can understand that this is not a simple class of a technical school by looking at the cradles that stand near the training places: mothers can come to classes directly with their kids. There is a laundry room in the basement where moms do their laundry. Every day, one of the mothers is responsible for the laundry. A separate room in the basement is set aside for receiving and storing humanitarian and clothing aid, which is brought here by caring Muscovites. In the "House for Mom" ​​you are always welcome with baby clothes, cribs and strollers, hygiene products for newborns, diapers and diapers, as well as dry mixes and baby food.