The Give Life charity foundation is perhaps the most famous foundation in Russia that helps children with oncological and hematological diseases. And the merit of such successful work is that a wonderful team of caring people gathered in the fund.
Foundation today
Forbes Magazine, publishing an annual report on non-profit organizations that have been successful and can be trusted, has repeatedly included the Give Life fund on its list. And indeed, it is one of the largest funds in terms of the amount of charitable donations received and in terms of the amount of assistance sold. Give Life is an example of work for many foundations and volunteer movements. On the account of NPOs thousands of saved children's lives. The main focus of the fund is to help seriously ill children with cancer and oncohematological diseases. And help is not only in medical manipulations and the purchase of necessary medicines.
The Fund takes part in legislative processes, influencing decisions made at the state level. So, in particular, the fund has made changes to the practice of prohibiting relatives from visiting the patient in the intensive care unit. Such a ban was contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but, nevertheless, parents were not allowed into the intensive care ward, even to the smallest children. The issue put forward by the fund for discussion in the government received a positive response. Yes, some hospitals are still trying to insist on the old rules. But parents already had the opportunity to legally resolve contentious issues.
The Fund defends the law in yet another difficult issue - the import of drugs unregistered in the Russian Federation. The draft “On Circulation of Medicines” was sent to the Duma, the adoption of which will facilitate the transport of unregistered imported drugs to Russia. I must say that small steps have already been taken for this: the customs duty has been abolished, a new system for issuing permits has been launched, a scheme for the legal import of drugs by a single operator has been developed.
The Foundation took an active part in the discussion of the most resonant problem of recent years - the availability of timely pain relief for seriously ill people. In our country, the situation with available narcotic analgesics is extremely difficult. And most often we are talking not only about the lack of drugs, but also about the lack of informing the public and medical personnel. Several charitable foundations joined together to rectify the situation in palliative care for terminally ill people. After several years of struggle against bureaucracy, non-profit movements managed to draw the attention of the Ministry of Health to the problem. In 2016, relevant amendments to the current legislation were adopted to facilitate the patient receiving painkillers. Of course, there are still many problems. But if it were not for the attention and perseverance of the funds, nothing would have changed for the better.
How it all began
But to achieve such success did not work right away. After all, until there was a fund, all the work lay on the shoulders of ordinary volunteers. Indeed, as often happens, the Give Life charity foundation grew out of routine volunteer work. Back in 2003, volunteers Anna Egorova and Ekaterina Chistyakova donated blood for one of the patients of the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital in Moscow. And on the spot it turned out that not only one girl needed blood, but donors were sorely lacking. Trying to attract more and more people to this issue, the girls organized the Donors to Children initiative group. The group held large-scale campaigns to draw attention to the problem, campaigned for blood donations, and sought funds for the treatment of sick children. Over time, more and more people began to connect, including famous ones. At this time, the actress Chulpan Khamatova joined the movement, giving her first charity concert in favor of the Federal Scientific and Clinical Center for Pediatric Hematology. But conducting such actions on an ongoing basis was difficult, since the movement did not have a legal status, and collecting large amounts of money on an ongoing basis was not possible.
In 2006, around Chulpan Khamatova and, a little later, the joined actress Dina Korzun, such a close-knit group of like-minded people formed that it was time to open their own charity fund. In 2006, on the initiative of the future director of the foundation, Galina Chalikova, the Give Life charity foundation was registered (by the way, there is the Life foundation, whose history began long before the foundation of the Chulpan Khamatova foundation. Moreover, the Life foundation also helps children with cancer). The founders of the fund are Chulpan Khamatova and Dina Korzun.
Victory Fund
The first leader of the fund was Galina Chalikova, a well-known volunteer who began helping children back in 1989 after the earthquake in Spitak. So gradually, Galina began to work with medical institutions, in particular with the Republican Children's Clinical Hospital, and highlight the problems of modern treatment of children. Unfortunately, in 2011, Galina Chalikova died. At the moment, the post of director of the fund is occupied by journalist Ekaterina Shergova.
The foundation won its first real victory in 2008, when the construction of the Center for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology began, which has no analogues in Russia yet. Of course, such a large-scale project would not have been possible without state support. The starting point for the assistance was the absolutely amazing story of the boy Dima Rogachev. The seriously ill Dima had a cherished dream - to meet with President Vladimir Putin, about which he wrote a letter to him. And the President responded. The meeting took place, it was possible to attract the attention of Vladimir Putin to the health problem. And the result was the construction of a specialized center. Subsequently, the center was named after Dmitry Rogachev, who died in 2007. Today, the Hematology Center is one of the largest in Russia, where children from all over the country can come for treatment.
