I. Metshin about the project “Good Kazan”

I believe that not only Kazan people need to be kinder but all of us: residents of Kazan, and, for example, the inhabitants of distant Mongolia or Singapore. Regardless of the income level of the population, the economy or gross product. We have chosen 12 priorities for ourselves for the next 5 years, which we would like to achieve, and one of them is a good Kazan.

First, we started not from an empty place. Charity, patronage, responsiveness, and ability to hear the pain of others have always been in our city. There are different examples, dynasties, history of philanthropy both in pre-revolutionary Kazan and in the modern one, for example, Asgat Galimzyanov. Therefore, we do not start from an empty place.

But we would like it to become not only a large-scale action for the whole city but that it was a daily necessity. Just like how we brush our teeth every day, how we wash our faces, so that we wash our soul. Getting up or going to bed, always thinking “what did I do today?”, “what could I do for others?”. And this is not always a matter of money.

And we decided to start with our children. Because it's hard to change people at our age or younger. But we teach children: sports, ballroom dancing, hockey, football, track and field, languages, and computer literacy. And it is very important that we instill elementary literacy in matters of kindness, responsiveness in children, understanding that they can do something good.

A simple example is a Diary of Good Deeds. Every year on September 1, I, as the Mayor, think what to give to our first-graders, helping them at the beginning of the school road. Once these were encyclopedias, by 2013 we had presented the encyclopedia of the Universiade. This year, we presented a Diary of Good Deeds. Ordinary diary but when you did a good deed you write down and you get a sticker. Mother or father should stick this on for you. And you cannot imagine what positive feedback we received from parents, grandmothers, grandfathers, and class leaders.

I will give a simple example. I drove into a small shop just to buy something along the way. And the saleswoman of my years told me about this diary: “My child is a bit unorganized, and suddenly some book changed him completely. To receive a sticker, he will take out the garbage and wash the dishes. You say, there is nothing special about these pages. But you cannot imagine how the child has changed. He wants to do good deeds”.  A simple example and I received hundreds of such feedback, hundreds of requests, even from those who are in the second and third grade: “Give us this Diary of Good Deeds”. We must instill in our children this desire to help, the desire to hear the needy, to be kinder to each other. The same is about adults.

As for the elderly, we have a whole separate section and direction of our work in the project “Good Kazan”. We called this project “Zhiznelub”. What do our reputable pensioners need? Prosperity and attention. Realizing that the municipality cannot provide prosperity, after all, we do not pay and accrue pensions, we stopped at attention. Older people are very active. They saw a lot, lived a lot, and they are not accustomed to complaining about life. They are more grateful to God and to people. But there is not always attention for them: often the children are not around, moved to another city or are too busy.

So we made a decision for ourselves and organized activities for them in 9 cultural facilities of the city. These points are needed for them to gather, have the opportunity to communicate, learn, sing, and dance. They are very active. We plan to open up to 20 points in Kazan next year, within walking distance, 1-2 bus stops. And our dear veterans, retired people would gather in groups of interests and would envelop in our attention and attention of cultural institutions. This is also a section of the “Good Kazan”. In general, we would very much like to implement this project, so that we all become kinder.