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World Jewish News
Hesed-Rahamim Charity Fund celebrates its 15th anniversary
07.05.2009
Minsk-based Hesed-Rahamim Jewish Charitable Public Organization has celebrated its 15th anniversary.
Everything began 20 years ago, in the spring of 1989, when Sofia Abramova, Riva Shnayder and Anna Gurevich decided to visit 11 lonely Jews in the rest home and congratulate them on Purim. Then they started visiting them every week and
helped these people. In two years, Maya Krapina, Elena Kossovskaya, Frida Brumina, Raisa Goyzenput, Elena Levitas and Liudmila Nayman joined them.
For the three subsequent years, with the assistance of Joint, the volunteer group has become a charitable public organization with a staff of health visitors. From 1995, it has been called the Hesed-Rahamim Charity Fund.
Today, more than 6,000 Minsk pensioners are under the protection of Hesed-Rahamim Charity Fund. Hesed-Rahamim has become the biggest public centre of charity movement in Belarus as well as one of the organizations reviving Jewish life in the republic. During these years, much work has been done. A Day Centre has been created, the Raduga Program (Russian: rainbow) has been successfully working. Such creative teams as Gil Zagav dancing team, Assorti
ensemble, and the drama workshop have been set up.
Hesed-Rahamim today consists of professional employees and over 400 volunteers who help establish friendly relations with Jewish communities of the CIS and far-abroad countries.
Their motto is openness for everybody. Meetings with veterans of the Second World War, ghetto prisoners, the righteous among the Nations, as well as city conferences, experience exchange with municipal social services and many other events take place here.
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