Raising funds for kids of perished soldiers for Saint Nicholas Day: how to contribute

DIANA KRECHETOVA — MONDAY, 21 NOVEMBER, 2022

Every year, funds are raised for Saint Nicholas Day gifts for those children whose parents were soldiers and died in the war in Ukraine. Anyone can donate and contribute to this fund in order to make the holiday season nicer for these children.

The number of such children is significantly higher than it was before because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as recollected by Oleh Boldyriev, widely known as Martin Brest, a war veteran, writer and project manager at Ukroboronprom [a state military industrial concern].

According to Boldyriev, "Major St Nicholas" follows three rules while delivering gifts to the children who lost their parents in the war.

First, the children will receive exactly the present they have been dreaming of or which they have written about in their letters to Saint Nicholas. These are things that might have been bought for them by their mum or dad, but they died in the war.

Photo: panovka/Depositphotos

"Not some gadgets, not improvement of living conditions, not something necessary for their household, but a present. One that would have been purchased by mum or dad if they had not died in our war. If it is a phone - then it is a phone. If it’s a kigurumi pyjamas, then it’s kigurumi pyjamas, whatever that means," Brest explained.

Secondly, "Major Saint Nicholas" never assesses family situations, nor their wealth particularly.

The Narodnyi Tyl - Reabilitatsiya (People’s Home Front - Rehabilitation) foundation has been raising money for gifts to be presented to orphaned Ukrainian children for five years now.

"Yes, we do not know yet how we are going to cope with this, because the number of children in comparison with December 2017-2021… well, you understand. But Ukrainians have one quality that distinguishes us from the enemy and is probably the main one: we never backtrack. We never lose heart. And never give up," Martin Brest pointed out.

He has also admitted that he managed to raise 12,400 UAH [approximately US$334 – ed.] himself. Anyone can participate in the collecting of funds for Saint Nicholas Day gifts for those children whose mums or dads were killed, defending Ukraine. The foundation’s details can be found via  this link.

Brest says that kids will receive the gifts they have been dreaming of by the New Year.

"We have started getting letters from children and searching for presents, and we will do this until the New Year," he added.

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