Shortly before New Year's Eve, VDNH lent support to a meaningful social initiative, Project Pomosch, which raises aid packages for elderly people. The façade of Pavilion No. 1 Tsentralny was decorated with the project's light installations, making VDNH visitors aware of the project campaign and the hardships faced by lonely elderly people in need of community's care.
The idea of the philanthropic campaign is to secure the engagement of as many caring people as possible. The light installations, designed by Sila Sveta, projected graphic images of the project curators' faces and the animated inscriptions 'Help is the norm', 'We take responsibility', 'We are one', informed VDNH visitors of the existence of the Pomosch digital platform and its capabilities.
Pomosch is the world's first mobile application designed to deliver personalised, transparent aid to senior citizens across Russia with the aim of improving their quality of life.
With this application, any person can render assistance to someone who needs it. The willing user is to find on the city map a care recipient he or she wishes to support. The user then selects a specific need and periodicity of financial aid: once-only or by monthly subscription. The project partners will organise the delivery of food baskets, whereupon the user's personal account will be furnished with an aid status update and a report complete with the delivery list and a photo of the handing over of the food basket.
Anyone can apply to have a person added to the list of aid beneficiaries by contacting one of the partner foundations, which will send a needs assessment team. The potential aid beneficiary has to be a low-income individual over the age of 60 to qualify. More specific requirements are defined by the foundations. The project team will conduct a repeat audit of the verified aid beneficiary by visiting their household.
Pomosch is currently partners with the philanthropic foundations Yarkaya Zhizn, Dolgo i Schastlivo, Artist, Dari Nadezhdu, Podari Podarok, Dobrodomik, Yedineniye and Solomon.Charity. The project delivers aid in Moscow, Moscow Oblast, St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast. But the project's geography is expanding.
Among the project's curators are renowned Russian film and theatre directors and actors, entertainers, athletes and public figures such as Irina Gorbacheva, Alexander Gudkov, Alexander Pal, Manizha, Haski, Chulpan Khamatova, Veniamin Smekhov, Leonid Parfyonov, Satyr, Zhenya Medvedeva, Anton Lapenko and Ekaterina Rybakova.
The project was initiated by a Gogol Centre lead actor, creator of the projects Kind Machine and Kind Box.
Read more:
- Project website: https://pomosch.app/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/pomosch.app/
- VKontakte: https://vk.com/pomoschapp
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/pomoschapp