Kondopoga parish

Summary

The last priest in Kondopoga was shot in the 1930's when religion was declared eradicated from Karelia. In 1991 twenty locals succeeded in their petitions for a priest and were sent Father Lev Bolshakov and his wife Mother Julia. Since then an extraordinary community has been created in this deprived town.

Where is Kondopoga?

Kondopoga picture gallery

Children's work

• Each week more than 70 children take part in activities organised by the parish including drama, music, sewing, carpentry and games of all sorts.
• 150 children come to Christmas, pancake and Easter parties at the parish house.
• Around 50 children are given a free holiday at the parish's centre in the countryside.
• 35-40 neglected children receive a hot meal each day during the summer holidays. Read more . . .
• 11 neglected teenagers take part in a volunteering summer camp.

Children often come to the parish with their own problems.  Their parents may be working all hours to make end meet, they may be alcoholics incapable of looking after themselves or their children.  The children may be lonely, neglected or hungry.

What they find is a warm, loving environment, where they are encouraged to make friends, discover new talents, and expand their horizons.  From the youngest age, the children contribute to the group, perhaps by picking berries to be made into jam, perhaps by helping out with chores. 

The parish has helped many children continue their education against the odds.  In one case a St Gregory's donor provided underwear and bed clothes so that a girl would not be ashamed when she went to live in the student hostel.  At home she slept on cardboard boxes.

The habits learnt as children die hard.  Many who have grown up with the parish now help out as volunteers in the town.

Destitute adults

• up to 100 destitute adults and children are fed each day a soup kitchen
• over 400 homeless people, ex-prisoners and alcoholics have been helped to rejoin society by the parish

When poor people come to the parish looking for help, they will be given a meal, but they will also be offered work.  This may be a one-off casual job chopping wood, but it might also be a regular skilled job in one of the parish workshops.

A sawmill, icon workshop, small-holding and sewing workshop all provide regular paid employment.  A parishioner also leads a team of builders who have built the new church in Kondopoga and are now working on a set of small tourist cottages, which, when let out will provide an income for the parish's children's work.  Each one of these builders is a recovering alcoholic.  Read more . . .

St Gregory's role

St Gregory's Foundation has worked with Kondopoga parish since its rebirth in 1991.  With help from generous donor including the Order of St Lazarus and the Koulaieff Foundation we:

•  helped rebuild parish house when it was destroyed by fire,
• established the small holding, build a vegetable store and more recently, an improved greenhouse, and bought two cows
• provided some of the essential equipment for the sawmill, icon workshop and sewing workshop
• built the children's centre on the banks of a local lake, used for camps in summer and winter
• continue to finance salaries for key workers such as the housekeeper and accountant, without whom the social programme could not run
• fund the work with the most deprived children and teenagers, who are referred by social services.
• are helping to finance the creation of a small tourist enterprise, which will provide an ongoing income for the parish's children's work.

Every penny which we give is matched by the generosity of members of the parish, who give their time, talents and energy to the maintain the charitable work. Increasingly, local people are also contributing either gifts in kind, or financial donations to maintain the work. Income from the parish workshops also contributes to funding the many activities of the parish.

How you can help

£13.80 can feed one hot meal a day for a week to a child who would otherwise go hungry during the summer holidays.

£22 will buy a set of stationery for a poor child before the start of the new school year

£180 will send a deprived teenager on summer camp for 2 weeks

Donate now