In most countries of the world, December 5 is celebrated as a holiday with a long name - International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development. More often this Day of gratitude to people, who are rendering selfless assistance, is called Volunteer Day.

The Jewish charity is based on three pillars - community, traditions, and volunteering. Hesed Polina and Jewish Center Rimon are in close cooperation with volunteers from the first day of their work. Volunteers are the major support of the community.

Medical Program is proud of its volunteers. Highly qualified doctors, professors, and associate professors - Elena Pritsker, Sima Kaplun, Olga Andreyeva, Galina Shubina, Tatyana Borodina, Boris Kogan, Natalya Popova, Yulia Golanskaya, Tamara Ilyina, Nelly Grafchenko, Igor Libman, Angelina Burova, Valentina Tsvetunkova, and others meet with clients in Hesed, receive the clients at their clinics, visit at homes. Lyudmila Eidelman participates in the work of the Rehabilitation Equipment Program.

Nutrition Assistance Program - is a large part of the Hesed work. Volunteers assemble food and household packages, winter assistance, fill out forms, work in the cafeteria, assist in food cooking. Flagships of the volunteers program are Ideya Panova, Svetlana Gershgorina, Anna Lyskovskaya, Bella Kvitko.

The Children Initiative Program, which helps socially unprotected families, is not able to function without volunteer assistance. Volunteers are involved in compiling packages, repair works, and work with children. Our remarkable hardworking community members - Yulia Lushova, Tatyana Chapova, Mariya Treskunova, Vladimir Korzhikov, Irina Musayeva, Natalya Trohimchuk, and others.

Moked la-kashish - Assistance Service for elderly people with limited mobility. It is difficult or impossible for old people to leave their apartments. Electricians, plumbers, barbers, and tailors do their work as volunteers.

The Republican Jewish Library is also rich with volunteers - Lyubov Koretskaya, Svetlana Nezhinskaya, Arkadiy Plotkin, Yevgeniya Genkina, Lidiya Shparberg, Olga Ryzhova, Emiliya Slivko. The service library readers, conduct presentations, literary and musical salons, bind books.

The volunteer of Davar Newspaper is Valentina Kadochnikova. She delivers the newspaper at 20 addresses in our city.

The Jewish Community Center is always full of activities. It is quiet only on Saturdays here. In other days it is always full of people - children, youngsters, and people of the older generation. There is a lot of work and we never reject volunteers’ help. We are indebted to Natalya Trohimchuk, Galina Lipker, Sara and Alexander Dotsenkos, Svetlana and Gennadiy Nezhinskiys, and many others. As you know, in the spring this year, the Center building was flooded. Volunteers were the first to help - Eduard Kaukin, Arkadiy Plotkin, Leonid Hanukayev, Tatyana and Alexander Chapovs, Svetlana Dorozhenko, Alexander Aniskovich, Larisa Sudakova, Maria Russu, and Irina Musayeva. Director of the Family Club Sara Dotsenko noted that her work could not be done without these volunteers: Director of Shalom Orchestra Yuriy Galushkin, Victor Raisman, Natalya Butenko, Maina Kabirova, Yelena Sidorenko, Sofya Onishenko, Margarita Plotkina, and Gulaim Musina.

There is a Hesed program with a proud name "Volunteers". In total 225 people devote their time, skills, and kindness. Their role is of greatest importance for our community life and for all divisions of our work. We pronounce their names with gratitude and celebrate the Volunteer Day every year. Its purpose is to convey to the public the importance of volunteer work and its valuable contribution to the development of our organization.

It is impossible to name all volunteers but we would like to thank everybody. Hesed Director Inesa Chugainova expresses gratitude to all the altruists for their help, care, and understanding.

Lyudmila Starodubova