Round Table "Charity in Today’s Russia: Experience and New Challenges"

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The International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (The Gorbachev Foundation) together with Donors Forum, Russia, and with participation of SAMU Social Moskva charitable foundation held on October 1 a Round Table, dedicated to the experience and new agenda of the charity sector in today’s Russia. The Round Table was commemorated to Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva (1932 - 1999) and  timed to coincide with the European Day of Foundations and Donors.

For decades, charity had been a forgotten and forbidden word in Russia, a concept that had lost its original meaning – people’s help and support for other people, a manifestation of societal solidarity. It was in this meaning that the tradition of charity was revived in this country in the late 1980s, in the years of Perestroika. Raisa Gorbachev played a key role in this revival. It was under her patronage and with her personal involvement that museums and cultural heritage sites were being restored across Russia and efforts were taken to return Russia’s cultural property. She put her heart and effort into launching first charitable funds providing money for treatment of children with serious health problems. The Raisa Maximovna Club she established in the late 1990s initiated a public debate on the problems of the charity sector, seeing charity as an open, public activity. It is only logical that charitable programmes have always been high on the Gorbachev Foundation’s priority list since its very inception in 1992. Today, the Foundation provides an independent forum for discussion and analysis of the more important social issues, including by all means charity.

Speakers:

The Round Table was moderated by  Natalia Kaminarskaya (Donors Forum) and Yelena Topoleva-Soldunova (Agency for Social Information).