In the forest of Stupino, some one-hundred kilometres south of Moscow, approximately sixty men and women of all ages living in the streets of the capital have recently spent a week in a camping site surrounded by nature. “You are not alone”: is the name given to this initiative launched last year by Merci House, a Protestant residential home that accommodates 34 children, and by Caritas Moscow, united by th common wish to help the homeless. Some sixty volunteers guaranteed food services and daily management, including the “technical” aspects and the coordination of the programs.
Nature, friendship and prayer. The tents planted between the trees, outdoor kitchen under a gazebo with tables and benches to eat or to be protected in case of rainfall; in a clearing, a large tent for meetings and prayer. Organizers also distribute second-hand garments. The daily timetable is marked by spiritual gatherings, coordinated by the volunteers of the Merci House, who have at heart “that people may start believing in God, that they may convert and change their lives”, Nadezhda Klyueva, Orthodox Christian, told SIR. She is in charge of projects for the homeless promoted by Caritas Moscow. The tasks of Caritas
“focus on providing assistance and helping people recover their own social dimension.”
“At the camping site we proposed activities in five specific areas: relationships and social bonds; the home and personal belongings; health; interior dimension understood as the relationship with God and as the rediscovery of the meaning of life; and finally, employment.” Special –non-camping – guests attended the events, such as Orthodox Father Aleksander Borisov, “renowned in Moscow for his open, ecumenical vision”, or the Sisters of Mother Theresa. Also the person responsible for public services for the homeless in Moscow came to visit the site.
“An act of courage”. Those who participated are the same people that Nadezhda and her colleagues meet in the streets during their activity. “We repeatedly invited them when distributing food or during our Solidarity Festival, held June 7. We also asked partner organizations and rehabilitation centres to spread the news. Some came to know about it by others who had taken part in the camping initiative in 2016.” On June 22, when the bus was about to leave, “many of those who had registered did not show up.” It had rained for days “and some were concerned about the cold temperatures. Others probably were afraid that it could be one of many cases of enslavement reported in Russia: people allured with a job proposal are eventually turned into slaves. So for some of them trusting our proposal is an act of courage.” Those who had registered were asked to shower before leaving and have a medical examination to rule out skin diseases and tuberculosis. “The service worked very well, and also this year everyone was clean.” “We registered also an improvement in the attitude towards others, in terms of the respect for individual choices. Last year those who participated somehow felt the pressure of eventually having to undertake a path of faith. This year it didn’t happen.”
A new course. Since I returned from Stupino “every day I run into, or happen to talk on the phone to someone who was at the camping and who began a new course of life. They went a week without drinking even though there were no limits or walls, and it was a miracle. Now they intend to continue along that path.” Four men were welcomed into the Merci House. They started cultivating a strip of land they were given to manage for themselves. Other five or six entered a rehabilitation centre after the camping experience, some of them resumed contacts with their families. A man in particular, a staunch homeless person in love with his freedom, after the first camping went back to living in the streets. But this year he wanted to show the pictures of the camping site to his brother and stay with him for a while. Once back in Moscow he decided to ask for help to change his life. “As it often happens, I received no news about some of the people in the camp.”
The key to people’s leaving a life on the streets is to find someone who believes in them.
Rebuilding self-confidence. There were 160 thousand homeless in Moscow in 2016, according to official statistics. They number 30 thousand according to Caritas. Most of them are men in difficult situations because of unemployment or for a break-up in family relations. Very often “they live a situation of impotence and are unable to handle difficulties. At the camp we try to make them understand that it’s never to late to take a decision and to change. And in those days, without the pressure of daily life, having to find food and a place where to sleep, they had the peace of mind to face the situation, rebuild self-confidence and opt for change.”
Ecumenical dimension. Stupino is also developing into an ecumenical workshop. In fact, the initiative and the majority of volunteers are Protestant; Catholics are few, but the numbers are increasing. Nadezhda believes that next year the initiative will include members of the Orthodox Church: after her return from the camp she was asked to share her experience with a group of Orthodox volunteers. Indeed, “some things will have to be changed in the prayers, but already this year, given a large Catholic presence, there was greater focus on respecting the confessional dimension
