Christmas Campaign ‘Mercy to Prisoners’
From 24 December 2010 to 12 January 2011, the Christmas campaign ‘Mercy to Prisoners’ took place in Simferopol, organised by the public organisation ‘Aibolit’.
Purpose of the campaign: to demonstrate an example of mercy and kindness to people held in places of detention.
During the campaign, hygiene supplies were collected: soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, towels, as well as socks, warm hats, and scarves. From all the collected items, volunteers from the ‘Aibolit’ NGO prepared 150 gift packages. In addition to hygiene supplies, the gifts included sweets, greeting cards, children’s drawings, an information flyer about the organisation, and the newspaper ‘Road Home’.
On 12 January 2011, volunteers from the ‘Aibolit’ NGO held a Christmas concert at the Simferopol Correctional Colony No. 102. Both the organisation’s volunteers and the inmates themselves took part in the concert, having prepared poems and songs about Christmas. In addition to the musical performances, members of our organisation shared personal testimonies about how God had changed their lives. And by doing so, they offered hope that the miracle of change can always occur in anyone’s life. After all, this is precisely why Jesus came to this earth...
Despite the fact that the concert took place in the cold hall of the SIC-102 club, the room was filled with warmth and light. This festive event concluded with the distribution of gifts. 130 gifts were received by inmates who attended the concert in the club, and 20 were given to those in the medical unit.
During the concert, we saw how the expressions on the faces of those who attended changed (some men even shed tears while listening to songs about life). One would like to believe that, along with their expressions, their hearts were also changing at that moment. Upon receiving a gift, each of the men expressed words of gratitude to the people who had made them. We join in their words and say THANK YOU to everyone who did not remain indifferent and took part in the Christmas campaign ‘Mercy to Prisoners’.
