Volunteers

Clarins is a socially responsible company that has been pursuing social projects around the world for many years. The subject of children is one of the most important for us, that is why we chose St. Sophia’s Social House as our partner. We believe that every child deserves respect, happiness, good attitude and an opportunity to live and develop in the best possible conditions. “The Domik” is a wonderful project that helps children with special needs to live in a warm atmosphere of support and love. At Clarins, we see the great work of The Domik’s staff and volunteers: the small and young inhabitants of “The Domik” are surrounded by care and attention; they find real friends and mentors here. And that is why we are happy to help and take part in joint projects with St. Sophia’s Social House.

My name is Alina. My story with The Domik started a few years ago at the White flower festival. I came to help around the fair being sure that it was just another “one-time” help and I was feeling happy about that. Then, I got acquainted with Valeria, the head of The Domik’s charity projects. 

You know, I've been in charity for many years and I can tell you one thing: in case like this much depends on a Person. I don't mean materialized solutions, but the reason why some people come to charity and start changing their own lives and the lives of other people. 

Lera turned out to be that very type of Person. I remember that day of spring, when we were talking at the White flower festival about lots of things and she invited me to visit The Domik and told me about their projects, the kind of help they needed. I had peace of mind, my heart was high. I felt curious determination and agreed to help with some projects. 

We met in The Domik a few days after and then started to meet over and over again. That's how this wonderful place came into my life. Since then I've been helping with everything I can – writing and editing texts, participating in advertising activities. This year I ran the Moscow Marathon for the first time as a "charity runner" within the project “Mercy on the run" (@miloserdienabegu). I was so happy, because I had been participating in the marathon as a volunteer for the last three years, but this year I decided to run the distance. In a crazy rhythm of Moscow, The Domik is probably the only thing that makes me stop and feel my inner Person. I'm so grateful I have such a possibility. 

The story of my acquaintance with The Domik is quite ordinary. My friend, an actress, called me and asked to take part in making a charity video. They wanted to tell the whole world about the children with special needs. I agreed on the dotted line of course. I really enjoy participating in such projects. So I came over, we recorded the video and after that I had some time to meet with the children. 

I was impressed by the atmosphere of care, coziness and love. The climate was kind and friendly. This is a great merit of tutors and volunteers. I thought, I would also like to be of some help for those little people from time to time. 

Next time I came to The Domik with my friends. We were drinking tea, chatting, recording videos, watching crafts the children made. 

“The Domik” is the place where you really want to return to: simply to talk, hug, laugh together and get a piece of pure love in return. After such meetings you feel somehow purer. 

I started to tell my friends about St. Sophia's Social House both in social media and in person. Now I can see some of them among visitors of The Domik. Soon I'm going to visit this wonderful place with my daughter and I will try to make our visits more frequent! Because this is the place where one can meet absolute love!

Help more often, share the benefits with people around you - and perhaps you will have a chance to become a more worthy and brighter person in the future life! If not, then at least it’s a chance to make the life of a child, who’s less fortunate than you in this life, happier, at least for a moment.

Are these two factors not enough to become engaged in charity and support The Domik?! 

For me personally, that is well over... For this reason, I help The Domik, but I do it not often and not always very effectively, for which I am ashamed. I promise to improve and do more in the new 2020.

My first visit to The Domik was quite accidental. It was on its Name day not long ago. I didn’t have a chance to communicate with The Domik’s fosterlings then, but the general atmosphere of the place couldn't but touch my heart. And I thought I should come back by all means. The next time I got to that place was also occasional, and the occasion was my friend's birthday!

I’m so grateful to Misha for inviting us to his birthday party to The Domik where he is working as a tutor! We celebrated in a homelike and cozy atmosphere - singing together “Many happy returns!”, eating cakes and even dancing. Such an unexpected joy! 

Each fosterling of The Domik is an entire world… fascinating and mysterious, full of dreams and smiles. I wish such amazing unexpected meetings would happen over and over again... Who knows? But one thing I know for sure: The Domik is in our hearts.

There are such places in the world that you believe in with all your heart, that you're constantly searching for and trying to “deserve” such a blessing. You cannot clearly imagine where such place is and what’s in there. You just know inside that your heart is longing and looking for a small world where you feel peace, coziness and joy like a child. The place where you don’t have to analyze, fabricate or complicate anything in your life, where you can just breathe, love and be grateful. The place where you bring small piece of kindness and care and get so much more in return - peace and grace. The place that proves that little things make you happy, that you don't need to create special conditions to deserve your happiness. And one day you happen to get to that place. Suddenly you realize with all your heart that your life will never be the same. You will never be the same again!

The Domik turned out to be exactly the place for me. I can hardly put in a few sentences all my emotions and reflections I get every time I visit this “wonder island”. The Domik is the place of power for me. The place of power for my teachers – still young, but so brave. The place of my own power, the power of the universe, the power of spirit, faith and love. It’s all about purity of a child’s look full of light, about weightless, gentle hugs of a child’s arms, so warm and overwhelming, after which I’m not afraid to come back to my world. It’s about how to remain grateful, positive and never look back despite any difficulties. 

The Domik is an absolute triumph of joy, smiles and laughter often without any reason, because there is no other way, and the “other way” wouldn’t be right. The Domik is two magic pills called “mutual support” and “responsibility”. 

You take the first one and you feel so good inside at the end of the day spent with the children, feel your soul singing, and you believe your song is louder then theirs. It’s because things they share with you are hundred times more significant than things you’re honestly and sincerely trying to give them. 

As for the second pill - here you learn to be responsible much faster and more willingly than outside of The Domik. The children wouldn’t judge you if you were busy and couldn’t come. They will certainly wait and will be happy to see you as usual. They won’t ask for excuses. They won’t be offended. It makes you feel ashamed to miss the visit next time. 

Participation in the life of The Domik's is a real workshop of not being lonely and not being sad. It may sound trivial, but within these walls I really experience a half twist inside of me over and over again. I feel that I NEED TO MOVE ON against all odds, how FULL my life can be despite of any technically limiting factors, BOUNDLESS beyond these “four walls”, and how much LOVE every beating heart, and in particular mine, want to give. Because I am a human being seeing in front of me just the same human being. And we are both beautiful. And we are two sides of the same coin, we are connected, we are equal in the face of the Almighty, we deserve love and happiness. They don't know such notions as disunity, loneliness, isolation. No one here is better or worse. Everybody is a unique Soul, amazing and beautiful in its own way, imminently valuable to God. 

The Domik is a school of silent participation and trust. Unlike your ordinary life there is no need to look for a subject of conversation or a reason to approach first. Simple care and kind look are worth their weight in gold. Basically kindness must be precious everywhere. But in this place you feel it more keenly and deeper, you open up to new feeling. That's why you don't need any words. You don't need them when sitting with a child in silence and watching pictures in a book or walking quietly hand in hand around the yard. It's incredible to find joy in such simple things as taking away a child's plate empty of just finished soup and bringing pasta and a cutlet on a clean one. And a glass of compote of course! 

You feel so clearly that life is fragile and at the same time totally infinite in its fragility. You don't need to "look like", "behave like", "match somebody or something"; they expect only one thing from themselves and each other – TO LIVE. To live purely, truly, trusting, respecting, showing empathy and sincerity. The Domik has opened its doors for me and let me discover the great world of magic, gratitude and hope, and that I can always see the best part in people, myself and in Life. And every time my heart misses a beat of gratefulness and happiness for these children not being deprived of love at all. This excessively loving wonderful tutors (God bless them!) give them love in full, which lets me understand that everything is so relative in our lives. 

Yes, these dear inhabitants of The Domik, these nice girls and boys, live here without moms and dads, but they're given tenderness, love, kindness, care, concern and warmth as much as in many real families and sometimes even more. Some of my prejudices and expectations which actually don't correspond with the reality were dispelled on my very first visit. First you think once you enter the door you’ll just burst into tears of pity. I must confess when I came to meet with the children for the first time, I was overwhelmed with anxiety and doubt if I could treat and communicate with them properly. But in reality it was HAPPINESS, at least for me. This place is joy. This place is love. This place is a triumph of life. This place is the Light.

The youngest volunteer of The Domik. So, everybody, please, meet Rita! Rita was less than 4 years old when she came here for the first time, and The Domik had just opened. Taking everything seriously she came up to Nastia, who was lying during the walk and asked bluntly: “Why is she lying? She’d better do some exercises!” At that time Rita's mom was a volunteer, then she was hired as a tutor for the Academics group. Rita started to come regularly to see the children her mother was teaching. At first she was simply watching, playing with toys, walking and gradually other children started to gather around her. That's how their friendship started. 

Now Rita is 7 and she says she will work in The Domik when she grows up. She loves visiting the place and helping around. Rita says she is Tosha’s friend, because it's funny to play with him, but she is a volunteer for Natasha, because she helps her. Moreover, thanks to making friends with Rita, Tosha learned to overcome his fears! Once the group had an adaptive trip outside, and the children were riding a pony. At first Tosha was only watching Rita’s riding and then agreed to get on the pony and rode two laps. Such amazing volunteers come to our The Domik! 

I’ve been helping “Miloserdie” as a volunteer for a long time, I’ve heard a lot about The Domik, but didn’t known the project well enough. A month and a half ago I came there for the first time. Those who really surprised me were people - so much effort and love they put into the common cause. Now I can offer more intellectual and organizational support. Unfortunately, due to my busy schedule it’s hard to be a full-time tutor for the children, that’s why I’ve chosen another kind of support. I'm already familiar with all kids’ stories, their interests, and classes. Once I managed to organize a master class for them in a very short time. 

I came to The Domik when my friend, Vlada, asked me to participate in a charity fair. After the event she invited me to watch the inner life of The Domik. That’s how I met and communicated with children. Some of them spoke alternative languages and greeted us by saying “Christ has risen!” (one of the tutors explained to us). I felt the atmosphere of home coziness and warmth. I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in acts of mercy and always happy to help as much as I can. 

It was The Domik’s birthday, when I first came there. I happened to see a welcoming invitation to a party and just came there. I was overexcited since I didn’t know anybody there, didn’t understand what to do. After all it was my first experience of communication with special children. But once the kids and the tutors came in, I felt a kind of plunging into the sea of love I’d never experienced before. They met all guests as dear friends. Frankly speaking you can feel such warm atmosphere at every event in The Domik.

When I came back home after that wonderful evening I asked myself why I hadn’t heard about that different world before or hadn’t wanted to know… Why others didn’t know anything either? I realized I couldn’t live without The Domik; I needed that place more than it needed me! 

Since that time I’ve been coming here to help around or just stay with children. It’s a magical place! I feel so great looking after the children, and I don’t want to leave it every time. If I ask myself why I visit this place, first that comes to my mind is “to do good things” and support children. But there are professionals, who are better in this. May be I want to be a specialist in communication with children, but I don’t need to visit a foster house for that. I think the right answer is just to HAVE A HEART. We’re constantly striving to be better in something, dominate over something. But perfection is not always about material wealth. It’s about inner struggle, inner work that you’re doing. To be better, to be more perfect means to be kind and merciful. Now I can say for sure volunteering gives you a great life experience and makes you really needed and sometimes useful.

To tell the truth, when I first came to The Domik to teach a master class, I was very scared! The first person I met was Feruza. Rather it was she who came up to me! She confidently asked my name, grabbed my hand and didn’t want to let me go for some time! She told me: “Marina, please, sit with me!” Feruza warms up everyone’s hands, that’s how she meets everybody coming in from outside! She is very caring, sociable and friendly. 

Then they carefully started rolling out the children in their wheelchairs. I was shocked. I felt very sorry for them. I was on the verge of tears and felt a lump in the throat. I could hardly stand it. And I could barely imagine how I would be teaching the master class… Then we came around The Domik, we saw the church on the second floor, where services were held each Sunday, the rooms where they lived. We looked at those children’s life from inside. We learnt their stories. I felt relieved; I realized they were normal, just like others. Pity is out of place here! We must treat them the same way as ordinary children! So everything ran smoothly! You get used to them quickly. They are all so kind and pretty, they are like angels. They understand you, they are always happy to see you, its great energy exchange. You feel your heart filling with love and warmth! The Domik has won my heart forever!

I’ve heard about The Domik from my friends who invited me to communicate with Tosha. I remember I was immediately taken by the idea of recording a video and joined the action. I was really worried about my interaction with Tosha, if I was doing everything right, since in ordinary life we don’t learn special language. I really wanted to do everything properly. 

Later I had a chance to share my work with other children, and I was the happiest person in the world that day! They got acquainted with folklore of different regions of Russia, listened to a fairy tale in my performance and even tried to play a balalaika. Gelya was standing by my side for a little while and singing a rhyme! "Balalaechka is playing, balalaechka is singing! Make it go, let it go!”

I'm Evgeniy. My story as a volunteer started spontaneously. Just at some point my inner voice told me that I had to help people, to be near the ones who need attention and care. That's how I happened to be in St. Sophia’s Social House. 

Now the moment of truth.

Before I started to participate in the life of The Domik I didn’t have any experience in dealing with people having physical disabilities, especially with children. Frankly speaking that's why I felt ill at ease at the very beginning. "They are so different from us" – I thought. But over the time I got acquainted with all the children and realized they were absolutely the same as we were, they also needed communication and attention, fun and games, love and friends, kindness. I overcame that barrier, you know, as if it had never existed. The most important thing here is kindness in relations between people. That’s what I felt when dealing with children. As a result, we’ve made friends! We usually play, chat, joke, and enjoy ourselves.

So, the summary of my short story:

1. Listen to your inner voice, where it’s taking you. That's where you're needed. 
2. Expose yourself to new things, discover this world, it is so great and diverse. (as well as people around)

I give my warmest regards to The Domik, all the people who help and support, and I want to tell volunteers: "You're the people with beautiful souls and the world needs this beauty". 

At that time, I was passing through a very hard period in my life, I though Nobody would help me, and the only thing seemed natural to do was to find a way to help others. At that time I was running my own company, and we had to hold a lot of events and meetings, and my friend Valeria was at one of them. You know, I believe that universe has a plan, and this meeting was very important for my life. The first time I went to The Domik, I felt completely relaxed, free from stress and filled with real love. At that moment I decided to become a volunteer, but trust me, you receive more from kids than you give them. It is like balm for the soul. I can say that The Domik changed my life a lot. I learnt a lot here and I hope to learn even more.

I learnt about The Domik from my close friend, who had been volunteering there for a long time. 

I used to visiting foster houses before, I made a documentary about it, so I willingly agreed to shoot a video for The Domik. 

But what we happened to see there was totally different from what I had seen before. 

First of all, really good living conditions for children and tutors filled with love to the kids. 

I remember our cameraman exclaimed: “How many shining people are here around, everyone is a real prize for the camera!” 

Secondly, the children in The Domik are not ordinary. I mean life in a state foster house would be really hard for them. It wouldn't be a normal life, but a struggle for survival. Unfortunately, I know all that too well. The Domik is a Paradise for the kids. Love, Praying and Joy. You can always hear children's laughter in this wonderful place… 

In general, we had spent three days in the city with them, and then we came to shoot them once again at a summer camp. Smiles, laughter and love… That's my impression of The Domik!

At some point of my life I felt the need of some social activity, but definitely kind, emotional, something for the soul. I wrote to my friend who often volunteered in different activities of charity organizations. She told me about “The Domik”, a unique place, where special children live like in a real family surrounded with love and care, the place where one can see possibilities, not limitations. When I’d read about a psychoneurological care facilities for such children I realized the importance of the very idea of creating such place as The Domik. 

I had much fear and doubts since I hadn't worked as a volunteer before, but visiting The Domik, getting closer to these wonderful boys and girls, their caring tutors made all the doubts go away. That place evokes only warm feelings, brings hope and inspiration. I really want to come back and work here, to be a useful part of something kind.

I'm Alexander. 

I‘ve been a friend of The Domik for over a year now. 

One day I met with Dora in church who helped in The Domik. She asked me to help if it was possible. 

Since then I've been delivering bread to The Domik once a week. 

Sometimes I help with transporting necessary things and souvenirs for fairs and transferring children. I think doing something good is an essential part of our life.

I’ve learnt about The Domik not long ago, in autumn of 2019. During the meeting of volunteers of "Miloserdie" we got to know about St. Sophia’s Social House for special people. This warm story about concern and care couldn't but touch our hearts. 

And when I visited The Domik for the first time it dawned on me why it was called this very way. This is a real HOME, so cozy, clean and dear to heart. This place is filled with LIFE and JOY. 

The children really receive much care: their tutors look after them, educate and train them, support them and always feel happy for their progress and small victories. 

Moreover, The Domik is open to the outside world. They organize different meetings and events. You can take the children for a walk, play with them or just come and have tea together. Last December The Domik launched a flash mob "Talk to Tosha". The thing was that a person from any corner of the world could communicate with a special child. It was easy. It was exciting. It was not scary at all. The Domik erases communication barriers! It's great! 

I'm going to participate in The Domik’s activities more often. As far as possible I keep on walking and playing with the kids, visiting their events and helping with current needs.

I happened to be at the very first volunteers' meeting in this social center. I had much experience of collaboration with regular public orphanages and I expected to meet gloomy children with deep sorrow in their eyes. But The Domik absolutely struck me. I cannot find words to describe the way the children are treated here. Love and care are in the air here. Boys and girls welcomed us with their joyful smiles. The Domik is the place where children are treasured and respected, where they are educated as personalities and treated as ordinary people. To lose both parents is a great sorrow for every child, but The Domik enables each of them to feel like a significant member of a big family! 

Once we received a request to make a landing page in three days. As it turned out later, we received a call from The Domik! In ten minutes the order was already in progress. It was an ordinary deal, but as payment we got something much more valuable than money. Everybody who had been working on the project made this world and themselves much better and kinder. You should have seen the eyes of people who created a small, but still a miracle!