OREANDA-NEWS. DIXY neighborhood stores have supported seven charitable funds in Moscow, Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, Smolensk, Novgorod, Yaroslavl and Chelyabinsk within the framework of yet another stage in the "Caring Neighbors" social program. The financial fund to be used for charity was formed by way of deductions from the earnings received from the sales of over 58 million of DIXY's distinctive shopping bags and one million goods from the partners of the project - "Agusha" children's cottage cheese, as well as "Kamis" herbs and spices - sold in neighborhood stores since the start of the year.

The principal participants of the program are those who are customers of the neighborhood stores. By choosing goods with a social component, they help forming the budget of the project. In addition, it is the customers who, by voting on line, choose the charitable foundations that then get the financing.

In some regions, the customers decided to accord priority to assistance to children deprived of parental care. The earnings from the sales of relevant goods have been channeled into arrangements for proper rest and recreation, education, training and adaptation of orphans to social self-sufficiency. For example, employees of the Moscow-based "Maria's Children foundation" have organized a winter camp for orphaned children and taught little kids to ski and ride snowboards. The Volunteers Helping Orphaned Children foundation near Moscow conducted master classes and vocational training courses for orphans.

In Smolensk, the Our Kids fund supported the work of creative and craftsmanship shops for the pupils of the Shatalovsky Children's Home. In St. Petersburg, the "April foundation" helping orphaned children arranged for cross-country hikes for children from orphanages and boarding schools: the kids forded rivers on rafts, negotiated various obstacles and mazes made of ropes. The Iskorka civic movement in Chelyabinsk channeled the earnings into a program to protect the rights of children to medical treatment of oncohematological diseases.

Residents of Yaroslavl and Veliky Novgorod responded to the initiatives of the foundations specializing in support for the aged people and low-income families. The Yaroslavl-based Foundation for Individual Rehabilitation provided single old-age pensioners with hot lunches and assistance from lawyers, drivers and social workers, while the Stellar Port foundation of assistance and support for minors and old-age pensioners in Novgorod financed a project to help numerous large families in the region.

""Caring Neighbors" program was launched nine months ago, and each quarter it is expanded and improved. Starting from the spring of 2015, support will be provided to twelve, not seven charitable foundations. This means that by pooling our efforts at the next stages of the project, we will be able to help more of our neighbors residing in the regions of DIXY presence", says Ekaterina Kumanina, Public relations and government affairs director of DIXY Group.

Within the framework of the annual National Program implemented with the support of the Moscow City Government, "Caring Neighbors" program was awarded a diploma as "The Best Social Project of Russia".