Road of Kindness: HSE University Students to Hold Charity Run in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod
On September 4, the Road of Kindness charity run will take place in Gorky Park. The event is timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of HSE University, and was organised by the university’s students in cooperation with the Student Initiative Support Centre and the Centre for Leadership and Volunteer Work. The event is also being held in Nizhny Novgorod.
One of the students behind the charity run is second-year Business Informatics student Maxim Sokolov. He is an avid runner who has taken part in various competitions. ‘While on a run, I realised that I really wanted to organise a charity run. I immediately wrote to the Student Initiative Support Centre. We met the next day and discussed how to organise it,’ he explains.
Maxim Sokolov
The main goal of the event is to unite the HSE University student and academic community and encourage its members to get involved in charity to help children with cancer and haematological disorders. ‘Cancer is a very sensitive topic in today’s society,’ says Maxim Sokolov. ‘People prefer to turn a blind eye to it, so this run is very important in drawing attention to the issue and highlighting its urgency.’
Anfisa Dmitrieva
The event is open to students and staff of HSE University and other universities, as well as to anyone in Moscow or Nizhny Novgorod who is interested. ‘This event brings together sport lovers and people who want to help the beneficiaries of the Konstantin Khabensky Charity Foundation. These are children with cancer and other serious cerebrospinal conditions,’ explains Anfisa Dmitrieva, Director of the Centre for Leadership and Volunteer Work at HSE University.
Darya Pashkova
‘University charity runs do not happen very often, and we tried to engage as much of HSE University as possible. We’ve invited everyone, from professors to students of the Lyceum,’ says Darya Pashkova, first-year student of the Master’s in Communications in the Public Sector and NGOs at HSE University and project manager of the Road of Kindness charity run. ‘We came up with a cool design for the event and the merchandise in order to attract even more people, make charity more appealing, and create positive associations.’
The event is free to register and participate in. Those who would like to make a donation for people with cancer can send the following amounts to the Khabensky Foundation:
3300 rubles (participants will receive a bracelet, sticker, and participation medal)
700 rubles (participants will receive a bracelet, sticker, participation medal, and tote bag)
1,000 rubles (participants will receive a bracelet, sticker, participation medal, tote bag, and t-shirt)
Those who wish can donate more than 1,000 rubles. Gifts are guaranteed to the first 300 people in Moscow who donate.
Those interested in both taking part in the charity run and donating must register on the Khabensky Foundation websites for the Moscow or Nizhny Novgorod events (links in Russian) and provide their personal information. Those wishing to participate without making a donation must send a message to the Road of Kindness VK group (link in Russian). If you want to hide the amount of your donation but still want to receive a gift, take a screenshot confirming your donation and send it in a message to the VK group.
‘When registering for the run, you can make a donation using a dedicated form on the Khabensky Foundation website. There you can see how much money has been raised so far. The money is sent to the Foundation automatically, and the organisers can view the statistics. We will report on the final sum we manage to raise,’ says Anfisa Dmitrieva.
‘Everyone in the HSE University family should take part in this race—at the very least to get an active start on the new academic and working year. But the main thing is to reinforce the image of an HSE person as someone who is active and willing to help those who need it,’ says Maxim Sokolov. He believes that similar charity events should be held twice a year, in spring and autumn. Darya Pashkova stresses that the organisers have no plans to stop at the Road of Kindness: ‘If everything works out, we would like to organise bigger and more varied charity and sporting events in the future.’
The HSE University student organisers have received support in launching the project from the university’s Student Initiative Support Centre. ‘We consult on organisational matters, help communicate with contractors, provide information support, and teach them how to run the project using established practices in this field,’ explains Anfisa Dmitrieva. ‘After projects like this, the students have experience of bringing their idea to life and gain skills that will stay with them in their adult professional lives.’
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