Page 51 - Book about Friendship and Future.Stories of Volunteers.

Irina Fedotova

Corporate Culture and Internal Communications Manager
“Amrest”LLC, St. Petersburg

Stories from “Homeless Shelter”

Some time ago, I got acquainted with an employee of the
charity organization “Homeless Shelter”. I knew they had been
operating in St. Pete for a long time helping the homeless. I was
volunteering for long, but helping the homeless was unfamiliar to
me, and I decided to plunge into it.
I went with a bus, which starts every day at 7 p.m. sharp from
“Homeless Shelter” and goes around the city, making certain
stops, distributing hot meals to the homeless. Then, together
with KFC volunteers I visited the shelter, where we distributed
food to people and heard their stories. Here are a few of them.
Eduard comes from Orenburg. He is 22. He studied in St. Pete
in the College of Motor Transport and Electromechanics to be-
come an electrician, then remained in the city, working (in anoth-
er area) as an instructor in a fast-food restaurant, training the new
hires. He rented a bed in a hostel. At the end of June, he went
out to buy some gyros: wanted to pay with a card, but insuf-
ficient money on it, checked the balance, his debt was 500,000
Rubles. The card got seized by the bank. He had no money to pay
for hostel (walked around the city all night long, and someone
advised him to address “The Flophouse”). Here Edik is getting
help. In a trial the guys will try to prove that Edik did not take any
credits.
Peter lived with his mother all his life. She meant everything to
him. They lived poorly but supporting each other. Once his mom
got ill. The diagnosis was distressing and an urgent expensive
operation was needed. They did not have money. Peter decided
to sell the apartment, thinking he would sort this out later on. The
operation was done, but his mother died one week after that.
Then, it was all a blur. No energy, no money. Then “The Flop-
house”, a new start and a first aid, so to say.
Lots of stories and one conclusion: life is very complicated.
People who live in this shelter are like you and me. Each one with
his/her own story. Always tragic and complicated. And these are
always people who are in trouble.