Our recent visit to the orphanage happened to fall on a special day – Defender of the Fatherland Day. Historically this day celebrates people who are or were serving the Russian Armed Forces, military or civilian, male or female. Today it has become the day that celebrates and honors men.

Because of this special day, Allies volunteers prepared for their visit to the orphanages by collecting gifts for all the boys, and passed them out as a celebration of sorts, allowing the children to recognize and appreciate the value of the day and what it means. Also similar to previous visits, kids with birthdays were wished a happy birthday and volunteers specifically took time to get to know them better.

We also took advantage of Defender Day to talk to the children about the concept of defenders—who is a defender, what characteristics should he or she have, who do they defend and how do they defend. This is a great exercise to teach children in orphanages who might not naturally have loyalties to their relationships, to learn how to be a good friend as well as to embrace each other as family. It was also a great opportunity to talk about God, who is our Strong Defender.

While we love blessing the children in the orphanage with gifts, we also understand that it is important to train them to think of others before themselves. During the last half of the visit, we discussed generosity and humility – how to treat each other with kindness and consider others before ourselves.

The boys who received a gift that day were asked to choose a friend and give them a gift, as well as to bless him. It is our hope that simple exercises like these teach them brotherhood, generosity, and solidarity.

The children really enjoyed these exercised and it caused them to see a different perspective on life, relationships and giving.

Yana is a 20-year-old guest volunteer who joined us that day after recently coming to Moscow to visit her brother. Upon learning that there would be a visit to an orphanage, she wanted to join. Yana said, “I liked the trip! I liked how the children were open and how they welcomed us!”

We at Allies thank you for always supporting us, blessing the children with your gifts, and visiting and spending time with them. If you would like to serve these children by volunteering, please visit this link.