An Orthodox center for social aid to expectant mothers opens in Tyumen

Dedicated to the Holy Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, this center will give psychological and material aid to expectant mothers, said the charity’s director Andrey Yakunin. ‘A woman can sometimes hesitate whether to have the baby or to have an abortion. Our psychologists can help her to decide. If she does not want to have the baby for herself, we can offer her to stay at an Orthodox parish before the delivery and then to give the baby away for adoption’, he said.

The charity funds and donations from parishioners are used to buy children’s clothes, perambulators, toys and cots for low-income mothers. ‘We have placed an announcement in parishes that the center accepts spare children’s things. Many people have appeared already today to give help they can give’, he noted.

It is planned to organize a farm at one of the rehabilitation centers for the homeless to grow vegetables some of which will go to low-income mothers and their babies.

The charity was founded by the regional healthcare department, the Tobolsk diocese and several medical institutions.

Interfax