About Us

Our history

Help Journal was founded in 2004 by a group of volunteers with the goal of improving access to medical care for gravely ill children in former Soviet countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Tajikistan, Kirghizstan, and Turkmenistan). It started out as a blog on Livejournal.com. In record time, Livejournal bloggers donated $11,000 for a prosthesis for our first young patient, Slava Pestikov, who had lost his leg to cancer.

Following this accomplishment, the community grew in size and in scope of it's activities. In 2005, The Help Journal was registered as a US charity and received a 501 (k) status under the IRS guidelines. Presently, we raise money for children and young adults suffering from cancer, cystic fibrosis and other serious diseases requiring costly treatment.

Since it's inception in 2004, The Help Journal has raised money for treatment and rehabilitation of over 60 children and young adults.

How we help

The money raised is used to pay for necessary medical procedures (including but not limited to surgery, chemotherapy, diagnostic imaging, radiation therapy and rehabilitative therapy), medical equipment, medications, as well as for living and travel expenses incurred by patients and their families seeking medical treatment away from home. Funds are transferred directly either to the patients' accounts or to the accounts of hospitals or other medical facilities providing treatment. When the funds are issued to the patients or their families, they are required to keep accurate records of the their use.

Through a network of volunteers, we communicate with young patients, their families and physicians, and assist them in identifying and contacting medical facilities outside their country of residence so that they could receive the kinds of effective treatment that are unavailable in their home countries. Requests for financial assistance are reviewed by our Board of Directors that includes doctors and other medical professionals. While we would like to help as many young patients as possible, preference may be given to applicants who are in extreme financial need and/or who have languished in their country’s medical care system and are in dire need of treatment at a better facility outside their country.

Our partners

With many life-threatening conditions such as cancer, the cost of required treatment is quite substantial, and the treatment is needed urgently. In such cases, we often join efforts with other charitable foundations in order to raise the needed sum as quickly as possible. Our long-term partners include Advita and Grant Life foundations in Russia, and Advita USA foundation in the USA.

However, even when we work in collaboration with other organizations, each patient or his family submit their request for financial assistance directly to the Help Journal, where it is reviewed by our Board of Directors. The financial contribution of the Help Journal is forwarded either to the patients family or transferred directly to the medical facility that is providing the treatment.

 

Some of our Board members and volunteers

Kimberly Reed is an international business lawyer and political consultant in Washington, DC. She consults with presidential candidates around the world to create international campaign organizations, as well as providing legal advice to start-up companies and businesses in the US and emerging markets, particularly in the former Soviet Union. She is a member of the Board of Directors of several nonprofit organizations in the US, Russia and Poland.

 

Luba Zagachin manages a research facility and teaches yoga to patients undergoing cancer treatment in the Boston area. She lives in Boston with her husband and has served as the secretary of the Board of Directors of the Help Journal since its establishment.

 

Marianna Vaidman Stone is an attorney who has worked in government and in private practice. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children. At Help Journal, Marianna serves as a member of the Board of Directors.

 

 

Anna Egorova is a registered nurse and has been a volunteer for the Grant Life Foundation in Russia for several years before she came to the United States. She now lives with her fiancée in New Jersey and works in a community hospital. Anna serves on the Board of Directors as well as a volunteer liaison between Help Journal and families that we help.

 

Lyuba Titova is a researcher at the Department of Physics of University of Alberta. She lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband and two sons. Lyuba is an administrator of the Help Journal website and helps with translating patients' medical records. In the future, she would like to establish a Canadian branch of the Help Journal and is looking for volunteers in Canada who would like to volunteer with us to raise funds for Help Journal patients.

 

Svetlana Kolesnik is a physician by training, and used to work in Body Composition Unit of the Obesity Research Center in St. Luke's Hospital in New York. Currently she is a homemaker. Svetlana lives in New York with her husband, three children and Mom. At Help Journal, she is involved in fundraising and arranging shipments of medical devices and nutritional supplements to Russia for patients in need.

 

Elena Skorokhodova is an economist who used to teach at Charles University in Prague. Nowadays she lives in Sydney. She is a stay-at-home mom and has 2 sons. Elena is a co-founder and volunteer of “Help Journal Australia”.

 

Anna Gritsanova - Born in Moscow, in 2009 moved to Sydney with her family, raises 2 boys, works as an accountant.Volunteer of "Help Journal Australia"

For more information about our foundation, please contact us by e-mail or write to us at The Help Journal, 10 Waterside Plaza, Apt #35D, New York, NY, 10010, USA. To learn about different ways you can help our young patients, please visit How to Help page.