Marking the fourth session the audience was addressed by Russian writer and member of the Board of Trustees of the “Sozidanie” charity foundation Narine Abgaryan, who talked about the importance of having role models to encourage even the most unwilling to lend a helping hand to others.

The best-selling author’s speech was inspiring and personal. “It’s harder to talk about charity than to actually do good. Generally, writers are not that keen on speaking: we don’t really know how to do it,” she confessed in her opening remarks.

Narine Abgaryan became well-known after the publication of the autobiographical novel “Manyunya”. Later the author wrote a trilogy about the adventures of the little girl as well as several other novels and short stories. In 2016 Narine Abgaryan received the “Yasnaya Polyana” award for her book “Three Apples Fell From the Sky”.

“Due to a number of good reasons people of the former Soviet Union are not exactly known for their openness or trust in charity, and every person willing to promote these things there has to deal with twice the burden: not only do you have to encourage people to give but also to convince them that their donations will be put to good use. How can you achieve that? I’m tempted to say “you can’t” and quite cheerfully call it a day. But I won’t do that, because somehow we do manage to convince people to donate. We do it by our words and deeds, and by the power of personal example,” explained the writer.