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VORONOVO, Moscow Region / The Moscow Times / June 10, 2009
Alexander Nepryakhin telling student volunteer Kamilla Buryak at the Voronovo nursing home about when he worked at a sewing machine plant.
Natalya Krainova / MT
By Natalya Krainova / The Moscow Times
The stench of urine and despair hangs in the air in the decrepit state-run nursing home in this village 30 kilometers south of Moscow.
Most of the elderly people living here are partially or fully paralyzed. They lie silently in their beds, sleeping or staring emptily at nothing in particular.
But when a noisy group of young women began filtering into one room after another, shouting greetings and distributing cookies and candy, the nursing home residents perked up.
The young women are part of a volunteer group founded by Moscow students and called Starost v Radost, or Old Age for Joy.
The group was created two years ago after philology student Liza Oleskina visited a regional nursing home to research Russian folk traditions for a university assignment.
Volunteer Maria Krenyova presenting some treats to Galina Antonova.
Natalya Krainova / MT
"What they need most is attention," said Oleskina, a fourth-year student at Moscow State University. "It doesn't take much to come and talk to them for a while. Anyone can do it."
Living conditions at state nursing homes are notoriously shoddy, and Oleskina said she invited several friends to form the volunteer group to help the elderly residents with cleaning and finances — and just to be their friends. The volunteers collect donations for adult diapers, mattresses, beds, wheelchairs, stretchers and occasionally a refrigerator and furniture, Oleskina said.
Gradually, more people joined after learning about the group from their friends.
Old Age for Joy volunteers also act as pen pals to mitigate the often-lonely lives led by nursing home residents.
Vladimir Yaroslavtsev, the chief doctor at the Voronovo nursing home, praised the group, saying the attention alone lifts the residents' spirits.
A student volunteer giving candy to a resident. "What they need most is attention," one volunteer explained. Natalya Krainova / MT
"The elderly are happy with any form of attention," Yaroslavtsev said. "It's a change of pace."
The Voronovo home houses 25 people, most of whom never receive visits from relatives. Among the visitors on a recent trip to the Voronovo home was Maria Krenyova, 22, who is a pen pal with resident Galina Antonova, 63. "I feel that these people are not to blame for their bad relatives who have abandoned them," Krenyova said, adding that both of her grandmothers had died. "I want to make them smile."
Antonova, a youngish-looking sexagenarian, declined to give details about her own life, but she said volunteers were the only people who visit her. She said she feels "joy" to see the guests. "After all, it is conversation," she said. "And they sing songs."
Another volunteer, Marina Usachyova, 38, said she forced her 10-year-old daughter to visit nursing homes so she would learn the importance of caring for elderly parents.
"I can already see by her behavior that she won't leave me if I am not able to take care of myself when I am old," Usachyova said.
In September, the group created a web site, Starikam.ru, to attract more volunteers and sponsors. The web site announces the dates of nursing home visits and posts pictures and information about elderly residents in need of a friend or pen pal. The group includes several dozen volunteers visiting homes in various regions and several hundred others participating in the pen-pal program.
Kamilla Buryak, 19, an economics student, said she started volunteering after seeing a television report about the group and felt a desire to help.
On a recent afternoon, Buryak listened attentively as Alexander Nepryakhin, 74, told her about his former work at a sewing machine plant. Every once in a while, Nepryakhin stopped talking and began to weep.
"I am crying because I am happy that you have come," he said of the volunteers. "You are so good."
© Copyright 2007. The Moscow Times.
Alexander Nepryakhin telling student volunteer Kamilla Buryak at the Voronovo nursing home about when he worked at a sewing machine plant.
Natalya Krainova / MT
By Natalya Krainova / The Moscow Times
The stench of urine and despair hangs in the air in the decrepit state-run nursing home in this village 30 kilometers south of Moscow.
Most of the elderly people living here are partially or fully paralyzed. They lie silently in their beds, sleeping or staring emptily at nothing in particular.
But when a noisy group of young women began filtering into one room after another, shouting greetings and distributing cookies and candy, the nursing home residents perked up.
The young women are part of a volunteer group founded by Moscow students and called Starost v Radost, or Old Age for Joy.
The group was created two years ago after philology student Liza Oleskina visited a regional nursing home to research Russian folk traditions for a university assignment.
Volunteer Maria Krenyova presenting some treats to Galina Antonova.
Natalya Krainova / MT
"What they need most is attention," said Oleskina, a fourth-year student at Moscow State University. "It doesn't take much to come and talk to them for a while. Anyone can do it."
Living conditions at state nursing homes are notoriously shoddy, and Oleskina said she invited several friends to form the volunteer group to help the elderly residents with cleaning and finances — and just to be their friends. The volunteers collect donations for adult diapers, mattresses, beds, wheelchairs, stretchers and occasionally a refrigerator and furniture, Oleskina said.
Gradually, more people joined after learning about the group from their friends.
Old Age for Joy volunteers also act as pen pals to mitigate the often-lonely lives led by nursing home residents.
Vladimir Yaroslavtsev, the chief doctor at the Voronovo nursing home, praised the group, saying the attention alone lifts the residents' spirits.
A student volunteer giving candy to a resident. "What they need most is attention," one volunteer explained. Natalya Krainova / MT
"The elderly are happy with any form of attention," Yaroslavtsev said. "It's a change of pace."
The Voronovo home houses 25 people, most of whom never receive visits from relatives. Among the visitors on a recent trip to the Voronovo home was Maria Krenyova, 22, who is a pen pal with resident Galina Antonova, 63. "I feel that these people are not to blame for their bad relatives who have abandoned them," Krenyova said, adding that both of her grandmothers had died. "I want to make them smile."
Antonova, a youngish-looking sexagenarian, declined to give details about her own life, but she said volunteers were the only people who visit her. She said she feels "joy" to see the guests. "After all, it is conversation," she said. "And they sing songs."
Another volunteer, Marina Usachyova, 38, said she forced her 10-year-old daughter to visit nursing homes so she would learn the importance of caring for elderly parents.
"I can already see by her behavior that she won't leave me if I am not able to take care of myself when I am old," Usachyova said.
In September, the group created a web site, Starikam.ru, to attract more volunteers and sponsors. The web site announces the dates of nursing home visits and posts pictures and information about elderly residents in need of a friend or pen pal. The group includes several dozen volunteers visiting homes in various regions and several hundred others participating in the pen-pal program.
Kamilla Buryak, 19, an economics student, said she started volunteering after seeing a television report about the group and felt a desire to help.
On a recent afternoon, Buryak listened attentively as Alexander Nepryakhin, 74, told her about his former work at a sewing machine plant. Every once in a while, Nepryakhin stopped talking and began to weep.
"I am crying because I am happy that you have come," he said of the volunteers. "You are so good."
© Copyright 2007. The Moscow Times.
