Pledge 1%: Our Reasons to Give a Helping Hand to Others

There is a nice Chinese saying about helping others that goes: “If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.” Sometimes it is important to stop thinking of ourselves and be more empathetic to the people around us. Unfortunately, the truth is that there are always people out there in need of help.

For almost three years, our team is a member of a global movement called Pledge 1%. Atlassian is one of the Pledge 1% Champions that actively diverts 1% of equity, 1% of product, 1% of profit, or 1% of employee time to charitable causes. They encourage Atlassian partners and customers to support this initiative. StiltSoft donates our equity of all the 10-user licenses sales as our pledge to help nonprofit organizations in Gomel, the city our company is located in.

We continue our tradition and share some memorable moments of 2018 that are dear to our hearts. All of us often get too caught up in our work and daily problems to give others the help they need, but we hope that this kind of stories can inspire our readers to help others or maybe even change somebody’s life.

The joint campaign of UNICEF and Priorbank “Together for every child”

Today more than 10,000 children in our country live in residential care facilities. 4,700 boys and girls among them have disabilities and psycho-physical development disorders. Almost 70 percent of these kids have parents that have no opportunity to take care of their own children due to various circumstances or parents deprived of parental rights. Some of them would be glad to live together with their children but they need help and support to do that.

A lot of these children can live at home and study in regular schools to better socialize and enjoy their childhood. This project aims at helping them adapt to the educational system and social environment.

The team of the project does its best to:

• train skilled personnel to work with the children, their families and schools where they can study
• educate people around and help them learn more about this problem
• create children’s homes of family type in Belarus

Our company has contributed to the development of this great project and we do hope that all of these children will receive comprehensive care from psychologists and social workers. This project also aims at giving these children opportunity to get a profession and help them grow in confidence and a “can do” attitude in their future.

Belarus Red Cross

Sisters of mercy of the Red Cross in Gomel

In one of our previous blog posts we’ve already told you about our cooperation with the Belarusian Red Cross. We are happy to help this organization with transparent aims and results. Last year, we sponsored their project for elderly people.

Our state provides sick elderly people with nurses or social workers. However, some of these state employees do their work in a slipshod manner. That is why some of the elderly people who need more care do not receive proper help.

The Red Cross has a great alternative to social workers. The sisters of mercy give injections, change diapers, treat bedsores and they do it professionally. One nurse of mercy helps 8-10 people. A lot of people are asking for this kind of help but the Red Cross does not have enough money to hire more nurses.

We sponsored this project in our city and transferred funds to the Red Cross to meet the annual costs to hire a sister of mercy.

Red Cross crisis center in Gomel

We sponsored one more project launched by the Red Cross in Gomel last year. They worked hard to open a crisis center for people in difficult and sometimes traumatic and life-threatening circumstances:

• victims of violence (including family violence – mother and children)
• victims of human trafficking
• people without a place of residence
• other people who had a tough living situation

The representatives of the Red Cross will help these people to reduce their feeling of stress and emotional pain, socialize, get a job, and more. They will also provide people in need with food and shelter.

Gomel nonprofit organization Children’s Hematology care about their patients

For several years we have been cooperating with this nonprofit organization in Gomel. Employees of this fund organize New Year morning performances for the children with blood diseases in the hospital every year. And 2018 was not an exception.

We helped them buy some nice gifts for the kids to cheer them up and it seems that there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a happy and smiling child!

Thank you!

Once again we want to thank our customers for the opportunity to help people in need. Thanks to you our company can not only reach new business heights but also support nonprofit organizations. Seeing happy eyes of the people who know they matter makes it all worth it.

Knowing that people with no hope can now get support and shelter, some of the kids that live in residential care facilities now can socialize and spend more time with their parents, seriously ill children smiled because they got a gift from Santa makes us feel warm feelings and think that we are doing the right thing.

Pledge 1%: Helping Children Makes Us Happier

Having time to help others is such a luxury in today’s world because sometimes we are too busy to even notice if our closest people need any help or support.

Fortunately, today more and more social movements bring people passionate about making the world a better place together. And a global movement Pledge 1% is not an exception. The main idea is to encourage companies to pledge 1% of their equity, profit, product, and employee time to support nonprofit organizations.

Atlassian is a member of this movement and they inspire Atlassian Partners all over the globe to join. Our company is proud to be a part of Pledge 1% community for almost two years. We donate our income from the sales of all new $10 licenses to local nonprofits, charities, and health institutions.

Earlier we wrote about how our team supported the pediatric hematology department in Gomel. This story got your positive feedback and we sincerely hope that it inspired our readers to do something good to people who really need it.

We decided to continue this blog post series and at the beginning of this year we want to look back on some moments of 2017 that are dear to our hearts.

By posting these short stories, we want to show you that it is so uplifting to make a difference in someone’s life. Helping others can truly bring us much happiness.

Belarus Red Cross project ‘Nannies for children without mothers’

The activity of Belarus Red Cross is aimed at saving lives and changing minds. They launched a project to help hospitalized children who don’t have parents (either orphans or children deprived of parental care). All these kids need not only good treatment but also care, attention, and love they lack. Unfortunately, the medical staff doesn’t have enough time for that.

So the main idea of this project was to hire a nanny who will take care of the children who don’t have parents in a children’s wing of Belarusian hospitals. This way the children will have a nice person who will help them get dressed, read books, play different games, and will support and calm them after some painful procedures.

This project was widely publicized by the local press: two popular online magazines supported it and announced the fundraising campaign. Thousands of concerned people united their efforts to help children and this social project raised even more money than the organizers expected. The sum collected with the help of individuals and companies all over the country was more than $63,000.

We sponsored this project in our city. One of the hospitals is using our contribution to meet the annual costs to hire a nanny. We think that it was our moral duty to help the ill children to feel that they are needed.

New Year festive event organized by Belarus Red Cross

The team of Belarus Red Cross strives to give orphans and children with disabilities a sense of hope and make their lives brighter. This is especially important during the festive season for the orphaned children who have to face the holidays without their parents. These children desperately need to truly experience the atmosphere of New Year.

So Belarus Red Cross invited the children from the Gomel region to a performance in the puppet theater.

StiltSoft donated money to Belarus Red Cross to support this amazing event they organized for the children who have a tough life. It is so rewarding to know that we could help these children feel the magic of New Year.

Gomel nonprofit organization Children’s Hematology event

Gomel nonprofit organization Children’s Hematology also organized a performance on New Year’s Eve. They invited children who were getting treatment or were in recovery from a blood disease. We decided to help them buy some nice gifts for 120 kids to cheer them up.

Unfortunately, some kids had to stay in the hospital for health reasons. So the Russian brother of Santa called Father Frost came to the hospital together with his granddaughter to give some pleasant gifts to all these boys and girls.

We’ve heard so many kind words from the doctors and parents! The good vibes all the kids got from the people who organized this event were so important for them.

Thank you!

We are not only grateful for the business our clients bring us, but also simply thankful for the opportunity to help children in need. We want to thank you because without you it wouldn’t have been possible. Seeing a joyful smile of a kid makes it all worth it.

Just remember that even a small act of kindness can be enough to change someone’s life.