Spreading a little joy with the help of Greenheart
By Alina Gabdrakhmanova, 2011-12 FLEX student and Greenheart Club Member from Russia
Last school year I lived in the US as an exchange student. I earned a scholarship to go there by becoming a finalist of the FLEX program. It is impossible to describe how great my exchange year was. I did so many things that had never done
Volunteering in a library in the host community of Texas.
before in my home country; one of them was volunteering. I was so passionate about it in the US that I won a Greenheart Grant of $500 to do a project in Russia because I was the 2011-2012 exchange student with the most logged volunteer hours.
I had many ideas about what kind of project to use the money on and it was difficult to decide alone. Soon my friends and I decided to bring a little joy to the children living in a local orphanage. The event took place early this month. My fellow FLEX friends and classmates bought snacks and gifts for the kids and organized a small concert with funny scenes, games, and performances. The bright feast was really nice and fun because everybody was happy about making the children’s day so wonderful. With the leftover money, I plan to do another visit to an orphanage in different city and hopefully to make children there just as happy. We will know that orphans are not alone in this world; they have people who care about them and are ready help them.
