Russian actresses Chulpan Khamatova and Dina Korzun woke up famous after “Land of the Deaf,” a film they both starred in, was released in 1997. Almost 20 years later they continue working together to eradicate indifference and apathy: thanks to their Gift of Life charitable foundation, tens of thousands of children and adults were able to beat cancer.
 

Chulpan is used to having to balance her busy work life, which includes film and theater roles, with taking an active social stand. Russians know Chulpan (which means “star of sunrise” in her native Tatar language) not only by her professional achievements, but also her enormous heart.

G.M.: The Gift of Life foundation has been around for ten years. When did you decide to take a systematic approach to helping others, to go beyond just another charitable event and make it a regular part of your life? 

C.K.: Dina and I met some wonderful people, doctors and volunteers, who know that childhood cancer is curable but who were powerless due to a lack of financial resources needed for drugs and modern equipment. We organized a charitable concert and collected enough money to buy a device for donor blood irradiation. Then we did another concert. And then it became obvious that there are so many problems and issues that one-offs won’t do the trick, that we have to establish a fund and provide doctors and the patients' families with regular assistance. 

G.M.: Most of us commiserate with the plight of others, but few actually go from empathy to helping actively. Why is that?

C.K.: Everyone has his or her reasons. Some people don’t believe that their actions matter. Some people have no time or no information. 

And this is what charitable foundations have to do — they have to make sure that people aren’t afraid to help, that people know that helping is easy and convenient, and that people can always see how their money is spent. 

G.M.: Do you think the extent to which ordinary people are involved in charitable activities depends on the level of the county’s social development?

C.K.: At the start of this year Britain’s Charity Aid Foundation released its annual CAF World Giving Index. It shows that state prosperity has no effect on how much money people donate. Russia, South Korea and India are among the world’s top ten nations by the amount of total private donations as share of the GDP. The goal of charitable foundations is to develop this potential for giving: to inform people about their work and their needs, to report on all activities and funding allocation, to create easy and convenient mechanisms that allow others to help.

G.M.: Do people need outside motivation to donate to charitable causes, or do you think the desire to help should be an innate part of our character? 

C.K.: Right now, helping others is not the norm in Russia, unfortunately. At the same time, almost every American donates $10 a month to some charity; it’s a commonplace practice. There are no convincing arguments and explanations made, no tear-jerking stories of sick children. At the moment, the situation is different in Russia. Our people want to help, but charities have to work on realizing this potential. 

The goal is not to convince people to donate; it’s to convince them that their assistance matters and that their money will be spent on children who need it. We lack the level of trust needed for charity. 

We have to work with people, to enlighten them. I hope that with time, Russians will habitually donate 100 rubles from every salary to some charitable initiative.

G.M.: Should the desire to help be nurtured from a young age?

C.K.: Without a doubt! My friend and colleague Dina Korzun lives in the UK and manages the foundation’s British chapter. She often tells me that charity is such an innate part of public life in Britain that they even collect donations in kindergartens. Her daughters come home from kindergarten and tell her that tomorrow they have to bring £1 to save giraffes that are being hunted by poachers. And this happens in Russia, too. Schoolchildren organize charity fairs, they bake cookies, crochet table napkins, make toys, and then they sell it all and send the money to our fund. This is the right thing to do because this way you learn that helping others is not some heroic feat, it’s a normal part of life. 

G.M.: Your own children are in touch with the little patients of the Moscow Center of Childhood Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, which receives a lot of help from Gift of Life. How does this communication influence them?

C.K.: Doctors actually prohibit children under 18 from visiting hospitals. My daughters meet the children who receive assistance at our events and celebrations. They’ve been involved with our fund’s work for a long time: they help me select videos for charity concerts, they send their toys to children at the hospital. I think this gives them an opportunity to see a different side of life.

G.M.: What should the government do to promote the development of philanthropy in Russia?

C.K.: A lot has been done already. For example, the government repealed the “second help” tax. Before that, parents whose children already received assistance from the foundation during the year had to pay a 13 percent tax on the sum of additional assistance. Also, the government made amendments to the Tax Code, and now a private citizen who donates money to charity can deduct this money from taxable income.

But, of course, we don’t have as much state support as in England, for example, where they have the Gift Aid system: if a donor fills out a special form, the state adds 25 percent to the donation.

G.M.: Gift of Life helps both Russian citizens and children from the former Soviet republics. Why?

C.K.: It’s true that we provide assistance to children from other states, but only if we have the local medics’ certify that treatment options in their own country had been exhausted and that it’s impossible to get the necessary treatment locally. Plus we need our own expert council to conclude that it’s possible and necessary to treat the child in Russia.

Unfortunately, even when these conditions are met we cannot help all foreign children, which is why I’m very happy that since 2009 our namesake, the Gift of Life charity fund, has been operating in Yerevan under the auspices of Armenia’s First Lady Rita Sargsyan. Armenian children with cancer are in the reliable care of this fund. A lot of Armenians are involved in it, and this is wonderful!