Help Starts with a Ticket: Project's First Year
On July 21, 2026, the Pomoshch charity fund from St. Petersburg summed up the first year of the Help on the Way project. This initiative was created to organize trips for people with limited mobility—adults and children—to medical and social institutions: hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, and sanatoriums.
The project«s uniqueness lies in its comprehensive approach. Help on the Way simultaneously covers three areas of transport assistance: air travel, rail transport, and taxi. The fund fully covers all travel expenses. Over the year, 131 people received support, with total assistance amounting to about three million rubles (about $34,000 USD at current rates).
The project solves a specific problem: when medical necessity meets financial impossibility. For some, it is a plane ticket to a cancer center; for others, payment for a compartment for a child with developmental disabilities who finds it difficult to travel in a general carriage; for still others, a safe taxi ride for a person with near-total vision loss.
«When we launched the project, it was simultaneously exciting, scary, and very responsible. We worried whether we would have enough resources, whether we could handle the number of applications, whether we could find funds to buy tickets. But the strongest feeling comes today when you see real results—131 people were able to get treatment on time. Behind each figure is a separate story, a separate family, and enormous trust in us. Very often, after a positive decision, I receive voice messages from beneficiaries with tears of relief. At that moment, the person understands: «I have been heard. I will be helped. We are not alone.» It is for these moments that the Help on the Way project exists. We do not just help buy a ticket—we help a person not to be left alone with their trouble,» said Olga Mukha, project manager.
In its first year, the project supported dozens of people with serious diagnoses: cancer patients, children with disabilities, families in crisis, and those who regularly come for treatment. In the first half of 2026 alone, 89 beneficiaries received assistance totaling 1,612,412.30 rubles (about $18,000 USD at current rates).
The project exists thanks to donations from caring people and socially responsible businesses. The bulk of funds comes from private donors through the fund«s website. They are joined by companies and partners, and the taxi direction is implemented through a grant from the Pomoshch Ryadom charity fund.
One of the most inspiring stories is that of 15-year-old Ivan Zaznobin from Arzamas (Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia). A year ago, he saved a little girl by pushing her away from an oncoming car. The teenager himself suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and ended up in intensive care. During recovery, painful bone growths appeared on his legs, requiring complex surgery in St. Petersburg. The Help on the Way project twice paid for train tickets for Vanya and his mother—first for an examination, then for the surgery. The surgical treatment was successful, and the family is now continuing rehabilitation with the fund«s support.
Another story is that of Matvey Novikov. The project helped organize his trip to the place of treatment and return home. The family focused all their resources on fighting the child«s cancer, and transport costs could have forced a delay in treatment. Timely purchased plane and train tickets allowed them to go through the necessary stages without additional financial trials.
Despite the results achieved, the need for transport assistance remains high. Most applications meet the criteria, but the fund«s capabilities are limited by the amount of funds raised. Currently, the Kryzhanovsky family is waiting for support. Yuri is undergoing cancer treatment; after therapy, he is very weak, suffers from dizziness, and cannot travel without his wife Victoria. One of the funds was ready to pay for tickets for Yuri but not for his companion. After a stroke, Yuri»s condition deteriorated. The Help on the Way project found a way to organize a joint trip for the couple. Now Yuri faces new courses of therapy, and help will be needed again.
You can support the Help on the Way project on the fund«s website: https://bf-pomosch.ru/proekt_pomoshh-v-puti.
«Every donation is an opportunity to help a person get to where treatment and hope await them on time. Sometimes help starts with the simplest thing—a ticket that becomes the first step on the road to recovery,» the fund says.
The Pomoshch charity fund has been supporting children and adults in difficult life situations, people with disabilities, serious illnesses, and their families since 2017. The fund works systematically: it not only provides targeted assistance but also partners with state medical and social institutions, equips hospitals and orphanages with equipment, trains staff, and helps meet needs that cannot be quickly solved with budget funds. Among the fund«s projects are »Bolshaya Pomoshch« (Big Help), »Dom v Pomoshch« (Home as Help), and »Pomoshch v Puti« (Help on the Way). Thanks to them, beneficiaries receive treatment, rehabilitation, quality care, free accommodation near treatment sites, transport support, and rights protection. The fund»s goal is to turn assistance into a sustainable system where the state, the fund, and donors work together.
