St Gregory's Foundation

The work of St Gregory’s Foundation started in 1990 when Russians living in the UK and British well-wishers were able for the first time to provide practical assistance directly in the Soviet Union where food and commodities were rationed and in very short supply. For the first time, the authorities allowed direct aid. We responded by sending second-hand clothes, medical equipment, sewing machines and haberdashery, even ambulances. Altogether we sent about 60 containers of aid to the Former Soviet Union, relieving hardship, creating work, improving health services.

The need in the former Soviet Union never was just financial. Under the Soviet regime, charity work was banned meaning that a culture self-help, of volunteering and charitable giving has had to develop from scratch. Our containers literally forced people to organise themselves and stimulated the creation of co-operatives of the poor, elderly or disabled, since we only had the manpower to distribute via organisations rather than direct to individuals. Now we find ourselves with a variety of partners, from community organisations providing soup kitchens and children’s activities to medical NGOs influencing national health policy. We continue to help the charity sector to develop, encouraging new initiatives, helping organisations to become more effective and to network within their own country.

Hospitals and medical services have suffered particularly in the former Soviet Union: budgets have been slashed, staff are shockingly underpaid, the supply of equipment and essential disposables is erratic. We have provided medical supplies to various hospitals, including a children’s hospital in Ukraine, and most urgently a kidney dialysis ward in St Petersburg, which had totally run out of supplies, putting its patients’ lives at risk.

We were acutely aware of the need for training, specifically in the areas of gynaecology and management of disability.

In the Soviet Union abortion was still the main form of birth control. We wanted to try to prevent the need for abortions and in 1993, in collaboration with the Order of St Lazarus, and with the generous assistance of top British specialists, we started the “Well Mother—Well Baby” project. An intensive programme of visits to the UK was arranged for Russian doctors and midwives working in a well-woman clinic in a poor area of the city; British specialists lectured in St Petersburg. One result was a marked improvement in local sex education, another was the dramatic drop of abortion rate in our district: from 2.6 abortions to one live birth when we started to two babies to one abortion now. Improvements in the care of pregnant mothers has meant healthier babies. We provided training, equipment and supplies and this gave the staff greater confidence and commitment to their work. We were fortunate to receive several grants from major British donors, including the Know How Fund; one of these grants allowed us to publish a Russian version of the “Pregnancy Book” which the NHS issues to every pregnant woman in the UK. 10 000 copies of this, distributed free of charge, are still widely used in the city.

In the 1990s, physiotherapy as we know it did not exist in Russia. With funding from the British government we provided initial training and support in creating a syllabus for teaching the discipline locally. Now fully recognised, the physiotherapists we trained continue to spread their skills across the country, and to work with families and schools to teach children with cerebral palsy to sit, stand and walk.

From these beginnings the work has developed steadily and organically. Our original group of colleagues have introduced us to many of the partners with whom we work today. In the UK we continue to fundraise and to provide advice and training in skills such as planning and budgeting especially to newer organisations. We have one full-time paid member of staff, but largely rely on volunteers to fundraise and attract new members. Our founder generously gives space for the office in her front room, again greatly reducing administrative costs.

In 2007 we began an important new phase in our life as a charity with the foundation of our sister charity in St Petersburg, Pomozhem Drug Drugu or Let's Help Each Other. This organisation brings together the majority of the projects with which we work, and helps them to navigate through the labrynth of Russian charity law. Pomozhem Drug Drugu will also take an active role in monitoring projects, planning for the future and local fundraising. This last will be a challenge since a culture of charitable giving has yet to develop in Russia. However, there are signs of hope and this organisation should be able to pool the experience of the separate projects.

As our name suggests, our founders were Christians. We had good contacts within the Russian Orthodox Church, and had received the blessing of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh (the late head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the UK). This opened doors to us and introduced us to valued colleagues. However, our members and directors come from a variety of religious beliefs and none. Most importantly, we only work with partners who provide aid to those in need irrespective of religious, ethnic or political background. We have particularly sought assurances from our church-based colleagues, who confirm that this is their position. The majority of the children attending the Kondopoga parish Saturday Club are from non-church-going families, and they count several muslim children amongst their number.

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