Give me your hand...

Christmas is a holiday when all your wishes come true, my friend. It is a miracle day for every little kid all over the world. And this season is a good time to start thinking about helping other people. This includes providing food, clothing and toys for families to enable them to experience the joy of the Christmas Season. Giving warmth, love and hope. That’s what Christmas should be all about. A time to share our good fortune with our neighbours in need across the world.
And who are those who initiate arranging and organizing the public concern and help to those who are in need directly. The answer is simple: charity fund and donations. And for all charity funds Christmas Eve is a special period of time that needs a lot of preparations and attention. Furthermore in US and Europe it is a historically formed practice of allocating money not only from the government budget but mostly from citizens of the country for charity demands. These big sums of money are aimed at kids, single parents who can’t afford this luxurious atmosphere that Christmas imbues in our houses, prisoners and others in need. To my opinion, each of us can take their place in any moment, because it is in Gods hands what will happen tomorrow. For this reason we should feel in our heart and memorize in our minds that we are concerned of with those who are in need.
Nowadays, Christmas charity events have become a part of US and Europe culture and are made public in all kinds of mass media. And it is impolite and unpopular for the mass media to ignore these events, because one of the most important goals of Christmas charity arrangements is to create a public awareness and reinforce the peculiarity and magical spell of Christmas Eve.
There are thousands of international charity organisations but I have picked up most interesting to my mind:
ANGEL TREE: Angel Tree is a ministry of Prison Fellowship, delivering love in the form of Christmas gifts and a message of hope to children of prisoners(www.angeltree.org)
CHRISTMAS WISH PROGRAMS: CWP is a non-profit organization run 100% by volunteers and donations. CWP is designed that way to let the public share in the joy of giving and the opportunity to help build a brighter future for local children. (www.christmaswishprogram.org)
TOYS FOR TOTS: Donate a new toy or give a donation to help make Christmas a little brighter for a needy child in your community
(www.toysfortots.org)
Russian Charity Tradition
The first Russian benefactor known from the chronicles was Vladimir “Krasnoe Solnishko”. Everyone could come to his palace and find their food and shelter. For those who couldn’t come, his servants delivered goods on carts. Giving charities for people in need who asked in Christ’s name and on holidays was a tradition. Christmas night was a charity night. On the holy night constumed men went from door to door for alms. And all knew that they will come and for that purpose were providently prepared coins, food and clothes and organised special corners with table plenty of food.
What is happening nowadays in our country? To my mind we didn’t lose the roots of charity that were historically put in our mentality and they are impossible to lose but we are beginning to forget the main principles of charity. Unfortunately the mass media in Russia are very passive in publishing Christmas donations and charity events and don’t develop public awareness. According to the statistics, 55% of publications are sideswipes and the readers don’t pay attention to them. The mass media attitude towards charities is also disappointing: 67% of mass media feel neutral to issues concerning charity. These statistics makes me really worry and determined that legislation concerning mass media needs further reforms and amendments.
We have a lot of funds and donations in Russia but not everyone knows that they exist. Here are some of them:
• Charity Fund “Anastasious”
(www.anastasios.ru)
• Russian Kids Fund
(www.detfond.org)
• Kind People
(www.ludidobra.ru)