The company “Ariadne” traditionally celebrates the feast of all Christians, the Day of St. George the Victorious. In the last decade of November, the team annually organizes a gala dinner in honor of the patron saint of all men, a saint who personifies the victory of Good over Evil. The image of the Great Martyr George has long gone beyond the limits of Christian religious and canonical ideas – it is a world symbol of universal values, equally revered by all great religions, but also a powerful symbol of the victoriousness of Good in the secular world.
But not only festive – of course, quite strict and restrained – feast we celebrate this day.
For many years, on the feast of St. George the Victorious, a car with solid food packages for low-income families has been sent from the Ariadne shift camp to the city of Kulsary. Our team, not by any opportunistic trends, but by the movement of hearts and souls, tries to support veterans, disabled people and families deprived of normal income. This is not a one-time “action” – “Ariadna” provides assistance to socially vulnerable categories of residents of the Zhylyoi district regularly, keeping them in the field of its attention all year round.
“Today we will visit seven families in the district center,” says Aigul Dzhumagalieva, head of the human resources and labor relations department of the company, as the purpose of the trip. – Our department works in close cooperation with the district Employment Center, we take into account the problem of employment in the district and, based on the needs of the company, we try to hire residents of Zhylyoya in the first place. But we also have very good cooperation with the district social welfare department. Its specialists help us identify families especially in need of social support. On Victory Day and other major public holidays, we visit such families – of course, not empty-handed. And St. George’s Day is already our, so to speak, home tradition.
But it is not only with a set of products that guests from Ariadne knock on the doors of families in need of support. A. Dzhumagaliyeva and a group of employees already visited these apartments three weeks ago. The word “needy”, as well as its numerous synonyms, unfortunately, is very capacious and in each specific situation has a different meaning. Everyone we visited on November 24 were poor people. And poverty is always multifaceted. Zulfiya Murzagaliyeva is a widow and has four minor children. After the death of her husband, she got a job as a newspaper peddler. Do they read a lot now? She carries newspapers only by organizations, there are practically no individual subscribers. I don’t want to talk about the salary. They barely have enough money to feed their children, they have no clothes or shoes for the winter, and they go to school in worn uniforms. The family needs almost everything, including some tolerable repairs in the house …
In a high-rise building in the second microdistrict, the door on the fifth floor was opened to us by a man on crutches. Bolat Dauletbayev lost his leg due to varicose veins. Due to poverty, he launched the disease, there were no funds for treatment. When I went to the doctors, it was too late, it was not possible to save my leg. Bolat worked in Tengiz at the beginning of the development of the field. I learned both the difficulties of field life in trailers, when both water and food were imported, and the deprivations of crisis years, when it happened that there was no water, no food, not even heat. In those years, his health was undermined. Now a 56-year-old disabled person of the 2nd group lives alone, the apartment is not his own – he rents for 15 thousand a month. Bolat cannot work – life is very difficult for him, he lives on a small disability allowance, barely makes ends meet …
You don’t even need to knock on 91-year-old Nagima Smagulova, the door to her apartment is open, there is no lock. The door is held in the opening by a piece of rag tied around the handles. Next – a piece of polyethylene nailed somehow – in order to keep the heat from the gas burners in the kitchen at least a little. From the days of burning gas in the room, heavy air, saturated with steam and other combustion products. Among other things, it is extremely explosive. But what if the heating does not work for years? The old lady is lonely, she sees poorly and is almost inaudible, she walks hard, she cannot take care of herself …
But the example is exactly the opposite. Kamshat Suleimenova is only 33 years old. But this young woman is the mother of six children. The youngest is only a few months old. The family was quite prosperous. My husband and I were building a house, the family had a car. But her husband died suddenly, and Kamshat was left alone against all the problems that arose. Her house is clean, tidy and … Very quiet. You can’t hear children’s voices, let alone laughter. The family has not yet moved away from the loss of the father-breadwinner.
“How am I going to finish the house now? The woman sighs in contrition. – As Allah would ask you, if you can, help with heating. Only in the hall it is a little warm, in the rest of the rooms the batteries are cold, the system does not work “…
Seven addresses are seven difficult human destinies. Circumstances have made some orphans, others disabled, others lonely and infirm. But they try to hold on, live, or rather survive, despite the difficulties and vicissitudes of fate. Some are completely desperate, where can they expect help and support, even if their relatives did not need them?
Today, we, strangers, came to them, brought the most necessary things – meat, cereals, milk, butter, sweets for children. Someone cried, someone embarrassedly thanked, one granny knelt and prayed to the Almighty for a long time in front of us. But the help from Ariadne will not be limited to food packages for them. According to the decision of the company’s management, they will be helped in the most urgent and necessary – with the repair of heating systems, internal repairs of apartments, etc. A. M. Dzhumagaliyeva has already prepared a corresponding request, now specific needs for materials and volumes of work are being determined.
The fact that such support from “Ariadne” coincided with the day of the Christian saint is, in general, an accident. Although this accident is very natural. It is fully consistent with the essence and spirit of the holiday. And the unwritten internal laws of our team.
Anna PECHORINA.