Heating Points: Sharing Heat and caring

For Sergey, every winter may be the last. With the onset of cold weather, the search for a warm shelter becomes a necessity for him. The heavy smell of rotting flesh, legs swollen from infection ... In this state, Sergey turned for help to a heating station, where mission volunteers helped him, rendered first aid and took him to the hospital. Volunteers of the Christian mission “New Life” have hundreds of such stories, and behind each of these stories is someone’s saved life.

With the onset of cold weather, the New Life Christian Mission is deploying mobile heating points to help everyone who, due to various life situations, is on the street. Here we help prevent hyperthermia of homeless people, and we often save their lives.

Such heating points work on the streets of cities in different countries of the world. Here is how the British edition of Echo writes about this (http://www.echo-news.co.uk):

“Imagine that you spend nights on the porch of a store, the street is cold, you have neither food nor drink. For most people, this far from their reality. But for some, this is the harsh course of their life ... in rain and snow, they cling to the doors of shops, constantly get sick, sometimes beg money from people. However, the situation in this city is not hopeless; here they have someone to help. ”

Homeless people in the city of Odessa also have someone to help. In the tents that the New Life mission sets up, the homeless can warm up, eat and drink.

Heating points are working around the clock with the support of rescue services and police. Mission volunteers are on duty here. If necessary, people who come to the heating points are provided with first aid, and sent to shelters.

The heating points are equipped with electric heaters (UFO), tables, benches and sleeping places, so that everyone who is looking for a shelter in the cold can wait out the weather and get warm. Homeless people can also get warm clothes and shoes here.

One such heating point can take from 50 to 300 people per day. The help they receive here is only a small part of the mission’s care for the needy and homeless, who spend the harsh winter on heating mains and basements. For many homeless people, this is almost the only place where they can receive care and attention, refresh themselves and even save their lives from cold death or frostbite and disability.

Alexey is on duty at the heating points for the second year. According to him, people of different ages come here, each of them has their own story. “Every day I see people who come here in search of warmth. It seems to me that we give not only warm clothes or food, we give human warmth that warms not only the bodies, but also the hearts of those we help, ”said Alexey.

Do not be indifferent to those people who, for whatever reason, find themselves on the street. If you see a person freezing outside in the cold, call our service hotline. With your call you can save human life - the most precious thing we have.