Deitsky SOS Program in FSU Addresses Urgent Needs of Children

At 15, Eugenie already knows of life's trials. After his parents divorced, he lost his mother to a drowning accident, leaving him and his seven-year-old sister, Katya, to be cared for by their grandmother in her tiny apartment in Rostov-on-Don, capital of Russia's depressed, troubled southern border region. Then another blow: Eugenie developed stress-induced diabetes.

Somehow their grandmother Anna, 65 years old and battling her own poor health, managed to keep the children fed, and provide Eugenie with insulin, all on her small pension. As winter approached though she knew she would not be able to afford warm boots and clothing to replace those Eugenie and Katya had outgrown. There was but one address she could turn to for help – the city's Hesed center.

"A year ago, helping these children would have been a real problem for us," says Tanya, the Hesed director. "But the new D-SOS program [for urgent one-time purchases for children] enables us to pay for the new boots and pants and coats they need. I'm so happy that we can."

Tanya isn't the only happy one. "The children have so little," says Anna. "Now at least they can go outside, and not get cold and wet. It's such a small pleasure, but I'm so grateful they have it."

The D-SOS (Deitsky or children's SOS) program ensures that Jewish children, through their local Hesed receive "non-routine" essentials their impoverished families cannot afford: surgery, eyeglasses or a wheelchair; new winter boots, clothes or blankets. Like its counterpart for the elderly, D-SOS is administered by local Heseds that evaluate assistance requests individually according to eligibility criteria that reflect living conditions in the Hesed's republic and city.