What does charity mean for you?

For me, charity is, first of all, the ability to feel someone else’s pain. It is the ability to share someone else’s pain. It is a systematic fight against systemic problems. It means openness and, of course, commitment to delivering results.

Why did you start a charity?

I have always been engaged in charitable giving. I have never been indifferent to someone else’s pain, helping others as much as I could.

However, the stages of my path in charity were different. In the beginning, I simply took money out of my pocket, quietly, to help those in need. I think that a situation like that is familiar to many: say, you know a person who is in distress and who needs help. You help that person, and that’s wonderful! Then, at some point, you realise that unfortunately, there are another million people suffering the same misfortune, which means that we are talking about systemic problems. Only a consistent approach can help us overcome these problems.

That was how I arrived at my second stage of charity, the stage of corporate social responsibility. As a result, SCM established the Foundation for Development of Ukraine in 2005.

Presently, I am at the third stage of charity, the stage of personal responsibility, as I know that I will never stop charity work and helping others.

What do you need to feel or start doing to be engaged in charitable giving?

I think that the decision to do charitable work comes only from the bottom of your heart. Therefore, there is only one thing you need to feel – a huge desire to help people. A huge desire not to leave people in need to fend for themselves. If you want with all your heart to help, if you cannot stay indifferent to someone else’s suffering, then charity is your path and your destiny.

What area of charitable activity is especially important for you?

I think that it is not the right thing to think about what’s more important when we are talking about the most painful matters for our society. What’s more important: defeating cancer or tuberculosis? What’s more important: helping lonely old people or helping orphans? What’s more important: developing education or culture and helping museums? I cannot choose between these things, and therefore, I will tell you this: all areas of the Foundation’s activities are important for us.

Yet, there is one area, which I want to focus on. We all know that a great tragedy came to Donbas in 2014. People found themselves overcome by the suffering of war. This tragedy spared no one – neither children nor the elderly. So, if we do not think about children, what kind of parents are we then? And if we do not think about how to help our old folks, what kind of children are we then? At that time, every one of us was thinking about what to do and how to help the weak and defenceless: pensioners, the disabled, children, and single mothers. That’s why I decided to establish the Humanitarian Center and tasked it with saving human lives. To make our help more effective, we brought together everyone who has a big heart and who is not indifferent to this woe and to the fate of civilians in Donbas. We consolidated the efforts and resources of SCM companies, Shakhtar Football Club, and our Foundation. And I would like to thank the Humanitarian Center’s staff and volunteers who work with great dedication 24 hours a day to help those in need. Even in the worst nightmare, I could not imagine that we would have to save our compatriots from death by starvation.

There is another thing I want to say: until lasting peace comes to our land, we will leave no one in need. We have been helping, and will continue to help, as long as our help is needed.