Russia is the largest country in the world. Larger than most continents. Two communities of the Slovak province operate in the Asian part of Russia - in Siberia, quite far from each other. In the Urals, Nizny Tagil is an industrial city with a large center of heavy industry, consisting of 380 000 inhabitants . Omsk is a regional city in southwestern Siberia with more than a million inhabitants, a small percentage of whom are practicing Christians. Since its inception, Omsk has served as a place of exile for many convicts sent to labor camps. Russia has used Siberia for centuries as a large prison without bars.

Two communities are also present in Ukraine where the situation is very difficult for many people and families due to great poverty.

The Daughters of Charity of the province have several missions:

• Social and medical assistance to homeless people and people suffering from tuberculosis
• Workshops and school support for children
• Assistance to disadvantaged children
• Family development center and mediation
• Rehabilitation assistance for former prisoners
• Pastoral work and catechesis for children and youth

The sisters pay special attention to children who live in difficult conditions because they come from single-parent families or even without parents at all.

In Russia and Ukraine, they work with schools and parish communities. They have created a system of cooperation so that the work with the children can be followed up and ensured in the best possible way: they help them with their homework after school or during parish meetings. Thanks to the support of benefactors, they sometimes organize vacation camps and excursions for them, accompanied by volunteers and animators.

They have at heart to educate these children in need of guidance while introducing them to human, Christian and Vincentian values, while respecting their freedom.

The project: creation of coloring books with stories of the lives of saints to participate in the education of children in Russia and Ukraine

"If we want to attract the attention of children and in the same way make them grow, we need quality materials. These educational booklets will offer the possibility to get to know these models of saints in a creative way and thus instill in children from an early age beautiful values that can help them in life. It is also a very appropriate teaching material that will allow them to learn a rich and diverse vocabulary that they do not often have access to."

Sr. Kaja Hečková

The booklet in question now exists in Slovak, it is now necessary to pay the author's fees, to translate the publication into Russian and Ukrainian, to pay for the printing of the documents and finally to send these booklets to Russia and Ukraine.

The schedule will be as follows:

1. Translation of the booklets: 2-4 weeks
2. Proofreading: 2-3 weeks
3. Printing for Russia will take place in Russia
4. Printing for Ukraine will take place in Slovakia
5. Shipping to Ukraine: 1-2 weeks

These educational materials will be used for various activities throughout the year and during the vacations, the idea being to have enough copies to use them for several years.

The beneficiaries

The beneficiaries of the project will be children between the ages of 6 and 10 in the communities of Russia and Ukraine. Since the activities of the Sisters working with these groups are very diverse, this project will involve a large number of children.

These booklets will be used at every opportunity so that children can discover the joy of learning through quality material on subjects that uplift them.

A big THANK YOU for your support!

With them, thanks to you