Christmas Charity Drives

Christmas Charity Drives This year, The International School of Moscow joined hands to support disadvantaged children in our community by organising our traditional The Giving Tree event.

This year, The International School of Moscow joined hands to support disadvantaged children in our community by organising our traditional The Giving Tree event. 

Students from across our school bought presents for children who really need and appreciate them at this special time of year. Our students also made personalised Christmas cards to accompany the presents. All these activities help our students understand their responsibility towards society and learn about being empathetic towards others.

Krylatskoe Lower Campus collaborated with the ‘Who Else But Me’ foundation to support various charitable organisations, including: 

• Zdravushka, an organisation working with children who have tuberculosis.
• Polotnyano-Zavodskoy Orphanage, which supports children with learning difficulties.
• Kashirskaya Special Boarding School, which helps children from disadvantaged families.

Our students brought in presents for their assigned child across these three organisations.

Ms Nishi, our UNICEF and Charity Coordinator at Krylatskoe Lower Campus, launched an extra fun charity feature called The Hungry Snowman. Students fed their dear snowman Christmas sweets, which became an additional gift for the children in the orphanages.

Krylatskoe Upper Campus have also been running a range of initiatives this year, with a special focus on supporting students to take the initiative when raising money for our chosen causes.

Students in Year 5 to 8 will be donating presents to ‘Gift for Life’, intended for children around Moscow who are spending the holidays on cancer wards, and Years 9 and 10 are raising money to buy seasonal gift-cards for children in the ‘Sputnik’ orphanages. Lastly, our students in Year 11 to 13 are collaborating with parent groups to raise money for ‘Step Up’, an educational organisation providing resources such as books and computers for orphans and children in psycho-neurological institutions. Our Social Impact student ambassadors will be running a range of fundraising initiatives during the Christmas period, including Christmas markets, sale of homemade tree decorations, a Christmas raffle, and more.

Rosinka Campus has also been spreading the spirit of giving this Christmas, collaborating with the foundation ‘Who Else But Me’ foundation to provide 250 children in the Kaluga region of Russia with a personalised Christmas gift. Firstly, the students took part in an assembly on children in need and the Giving Tree event, where, as a school, we discussed the problems facing vulnerable children around the world today and brainstormed ideas about what we can do as a community to help. After this assembly, the students picked a tag with a name and a wish, and were inspired to help make those wishes come true. 

The local organisations we worked with were:

• Sosenskaya School - A school which provides a specialised educational programme and events for children with disabilities.
• Betlitsa Orphanage - An orphanage which provides vulnerable children with shelter, education, emotional support and opportunities to succeed.
• Meshchovskaya School - A special needs school which cares for blind and visually impaired children.

Written by Nishi Bhagchandani, Benjamin Johnson-Morris, Sarah Lloyd, Anna Proskurnya, ISM Charity Coordinators