A famous person who did a good deed. Ten famous people worthy of emulation

GR continues a series of articles in support of the largest charity event in Russia called “Soulful Bazar”.

“Soulful Bazar” is a project aimed at popularizing charity among city residents, which talks about the activities of various non-profit organizations, shows options for participating in charity and offers each of us to choose a convenient and pleasant way to help.

Today we're highlighting powerful and touching acts of kindness performed by famous people around the world.

Robert Downey Jr. gave a disabled child a prosthetic arm in the shape of Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr. supported a University of Florida student's project called Limbitless Solutions, which creates low-cost bionic prosthetics for young children. This is not the first time the film actor has done good deeds: in 2014, he specially dressed up in his famous Iron Man suit to bring joy to a little boy.

Johnny Depp came as his favorite hero to the hospital to visit sick children



While filming the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, the actor took time out from filming to visit sick children in a hospital in Brisbane, Australia. The actor's unexpected visit caused a real pleasant shock among the young patients at the hospital, which treats newborns and children under the age of 16. According to eyewitnesses, the 52-year-old actor handed out engraved coins to children and tried to devote at least a little of his time to each child.

This is not the first time Johnny Depp has come to the hospital as the pirate Jack Sparrow. According to him, he never warns anyone about his arrival in order to give the children a surprise.

Will.i.am donated $750,000 children from disadvantaged families





The popular singer donated his entire fee for participating in the show “The Voice” to the Prince’s Foundation, a charity dedicated to providing education to children from low-income families in the UK.

Chulpan Khamatova helpschildren with oncological and hematological diseases


In 2006, the actress became a co-founder of the “ Gift a life". Thanks to her foundation, withToday in Russia they have learned to help 85-90% of children with this terrible diagnosis. IN 2014 magazine " Ogonyok" placed Chulpan in 14th place in the ranking« 100 most influential women in Russia."


The Konstantin Khabensky Charitable Foundation helps children with complex illnesses




During the first five-year plan, the foundation managed to save 130 children's lives. IN interview with the publication« Moscow News” he told why he decided to do this: “I just remember those eyes. Not the eyes of a child, because he is not afraid of death yet - he has not acquired anything yet, to be afraid of losing it. I remember my mother's eyes, especially when there has been a complete transition from negative to positive. At such moments, something settles in you and your colleagues. Something so important appears, that stays with you forever."


Gosha Kutsenko Foundationhelps children diagnosed with cerebral palsy


« Step Together" was founded in 2011, since then the fundorganizes charity concerts and auctions twice a year, where he invites friends for support. Fundprovides legal assistance, advises families, where children with the diagnosis grow up, purchases medical equipment and medicines.

Natalia Vodianova and her"Naked Hearts"

True stories from the lives of people with different destinies, lives and worldviews, but united by one big heart.

1. Dima is a teenager, no different from other guys like him. Nothing but kindness and sensitivity to complete strangers. One day he needed to visit the military registration and enlistment office. He didn’t have money for the bus, so he had to walk. It was in February. Having walked quite a bit from the house, from a distance he saw a woman lying in the snow. At first Dima thought that she was drunk, but when he approached her, he saw an elderly woman. Although there were many passers-by on the street, no one except Dima paid attention to her. The teenager came up and slowly picked her up. She said she was walking to church when she slipped and fell. Dima brought the woman home, although he had to deviate from the given route by two stops. As a sign of gratitude, she tried to give the guy money for travel. But Dima refused - that’s not why he helped her.

2. Love for animals can be limitless. Steve Craig, an accountant from Denver, knows this firsthand. A month after the death of his beloved dog, he began to feel depressed. Then Steve decided to take old, sick dogs from the shelter, who are unlikely to attract anyone's attention and whose fate, alas, is predictable. First, he adopted a twelve-year-old Chihuahua with a heart murmur and painful joints. Now he has 10 elderly dogs living at home. “I’m very happy that I was able to make these animals happy,” says Steve.

3. It’s no secret what exotic food they eat in South Korea. At their meat market you can find any animal, including dogs. Two-year-old dog Chi-Chi, hanging upside down in a dark room, was constantly beaten to make her meat more tender. However, for unknown reasons, it did not become another delicacy on someone’s table. She was simply left to die in a garbage bag. Fortunately, Chi-Chi was saved, but all of her legs had to be amputated. And after two months at the veterinary clinic, the dog found a family in Phoenix, Arizona.

4. Dreams tend to come true. It also came true for twelve-year-old Emily Tammen, who suffers from autism, attention deficit disorder and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. The girl's joints suffer due to this disease. Emily came to the concert of her favorite singer Adele with a poster “My dream is to sing with Adele.” The singer noticed this ad and invited the girl to the stage, offering to perform the hit “Someone Like You.”

5. You don't need to be a superhero to save lives. At one of the baseball games, player Andrew McCutcheon from the Pirates team slipped his bat. It flew straight into the boy's forehead. An unknown “superhero” wearing glasses deflected the blow of the bat by putting up his hand. Having flown around the boy's head, the bat still hit him on the back of the head. But this was not at all the blow that the unfortunate guy could have received.

6. Friendship between a penguin and a human is possible. In 2001, a pensioner saved a tiny penguin. He lay dying on the rocks, covered in oil. The man picked up the poor animal, cleaned its feathers of oil and fed it fish every day until the penguin gained strength. This was the beginning of their long and strong friendship.

7. There are firefighters among dogs. Burnt puppy Jake, rescued from a fire by Bill Linder, became a firefighter. Baby Jake was just a few weeks old when he found himself in a burning barn. He received burns on 75% of his body, which forced his owners to abandon him. Then Bill's family decided to take him for themselves. Now Jake, together with his owner, conducts fire safety lessons in schools.

8. “You can’t see the most important things with your eyes,” said Exupery. Mr. Kuroki, a Japanese dairy farmer, spent two years trying to lift his blind wife out of depression. Having planted a giant flower bed, he pulled her outside, thereby making her smile.

9. Sometimes even a fire can end a wedding. A firefighter rescued a girl from a burning house. Unfortunately, he suffered a leg injury; doctors said that the man would no longer be able to walk normally. But 28 years later, he walked their daughter down the aisle.

10. “Five years ago I adopted a dog from a shelter that was about to be euthanized. Now this dog saves my life every day. I suffer from a neurological condition that causes seizures. My dog ​​knows in advance about the next attack and warns me about it.”

Maria Ryzhova
Photo: avivas.ru, dailymail.co.uk, mediaLeaks.ru, blognews.am, 4tololo.ru

It is unlikely that anyone will argue that faith, hope and love are the basis of human life. Even the most hardened and degraded criminal has at least one of these feelings alive somewhere in the depths of his soul: hope. For forgiveness, for a better life, for pardon, for reconciliation with oneself and God. And there, you see, it’s not far from faith and love.

Sofia is a special matter. Wisdom is not easy to come by, and not everyone needs it; many find it much easier without this burdensome phenomenon. However, in the history of real women, martyrs of Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia, this connection cannot be broken; these saints are always together.

Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia. Icon from Vatopedi Monastery

Their life is a story that is accepted with incredible difficulty by consciousness. And the point is not at all that our time somehow overvalues ​​human life? or is too skeptical about such a phenomenon as the Christian faith, or puts more material than spiritual values ​​at the forefront. No, the description of such a short, but such a bright life of three holy girls chills the blood precisely with this combination: a life short in duration and bright in content. Only now the content was martyrdom, with the sophisticated imagination of the torturers and the immeasurable, inconceivable human understanding and courage of the mother...

In the 2nd century AD, from 117 to 138, Emperor Hadrian ruled Rome, known not only for his state services, but also for the fact that his lover was the young man Antinous, who drowned in the Nile River and was not only deified by Hadrian, but became the last god of the departing ancient pantheon. It was to this emperor that a denunciation arrived from the Italian governor Antiochus that the pious widow Sophia from Milan professed the Christian faith and was raising her three daughters according to Christian commandments. The emperor was angry and summoned the family to Rome, making little secret of the final purpose of their journey.

Mother and daughters arrived at their destination - and all three girls, despite the fact that the youngest of them, Lyubov, was only 9 years old, and the eldest, Vera, had reached the age of 12, understood perfectly well where they had arrived and what awaited them . At first, Emperor Hadrian was quite kind and simply invited the arriving family to bow and pay homage to the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, dear to his heart. After a decisive refusal on the part of Sophia and her daughters, he offered rich gifts in exchange for this worship, but this did not bring success - however, it must be said, the emperor did not particularly count on consent. An attempt was made to separate the children from the mother and her influence - Faith, Hope and Love, on the orders of Adrian, were sent to a noble and famous pagan woman, who tried to persuade the girls to renounce Christ, either by persuasion, or caresses, or threats, or even religious disputes . Everything was unsuccessful: the young women firmly stood their ground, their faith was deep and sincere and did not depend on whether their mother was next to them or not.

The pagan woman lowered her hands, and the girls again appeared before Adrian. Threats were used, but Faith, Hope and Love were adamant in their faith. Realizing that words could achieve nothing, the emperor gave the order that the three girls be brutally tortured in front of their mother. They were burned on a hot grate, lowered into a vat of boiling resin, thrown into a fiery furnace, but all was in vain: the holy girls remained firm in their faith, and the Lord helped them to remain steadfast and miraculously preserved them from death. The perverted fantasy of the torturers extended far - for example, the youngest of the sisters, 9-year-old Lyubov, was tied to a wheel and beaten with sticks until her body became one continuous bloody wound. The mother was forced to watch her daughters suffer, but from her lips only words of support and praise to the Lord were heard. Before Sophia’s eyes, the torturers, tired of their fruitless efforts, beheaded the young women, but the mother’s spiritual joy was incomparable: she understood that her daughters had been awarded the crown of martyrdom and the Kingdom of God.

Emperor Hadrian understood perfectly well that a mother’s heart still suffers, even with the strongest heavenly joy. To prolong the torment of the persistent woman, he ordered his servants to give her the bodies of her daughters, so that she herself would take care of their burial. The suffering Sophia loaded her dead girls into the ark and went with her mournful burden out of the city, where she buried the holy bodies on a hill. After that, she spent two days next to their graves, grieving, rejoicing and praying to the Lord. On the third day He accepted her soul too.

The Church canonized the martyred girls as saints, glorifying their suffering mother along with them on the same day. Since 777, the relics of all four have been kept in the Alsatian church of Escho.

Modern realities change too much in the value system. Signs of the times are very ardent feminism and, most often, unreasonable juvenile justice - something that has no place in this terrible, sometimes cruel, but happy for every understanding Christian history of faith, hope and love - that is, wisdom.

The most terrible, the most godless time did not abandon these three virtues. Yes, faith in God could be replaced by faith in the ruler, love could be given some macabre colors at times, and hope could be placed on a pedestal of such heights that it seemed to replace the two previous feelings. But even the most perverted consciousness understands that faith, hope and love are integral aspirations, needs and abilities of a person - and it is not even so important whether he believes in the presence of a soul or only in the triumph of reason. After all, these are the main virtues.

When republishing materials from the Matrony.ru website, a direct active link to the source text of the material is required.

Since you are here...

...we have a small request. The Matrona portal is actively developing, our audience is growing, but we do not have enough funds for the editorial office. Many topics that we would like to raise and that are of interest to you, our readers, remain uncovered due to financial restrictions. Unlike many media outlets, we deliberately do not make a paid subscription, because we want our materials to be available to everyone.

But. Matrons are daily articles, columns and interviews, translations of the best English-language articles about family and education, editors, hosting and servers. So you can understand why we are asking for your help.

For example, 50 rubles a month - is it a lot or a little? A cup of coffee? Not much for a family budget. For Matrons - a lot.

If everyone who reads Matrona supports us with 50 rubles a month, they will make a huge contribution to the development of the publication and the emergence of new relevant and interesting materials about the life of a woman in the modern world, family, raising children, creative self-realization and spiritual meanings.

3 Comment threads

Tasadean tribe

Are there people on our Earth who know neither wars, nor violence, nor murders? A startling discovery was made by anthropologists. In 1971, on the Philippine Islands, where, it would seem, everything had been explored far and wide, an unknown tribe of people was discovered. It lives separately and does not know that there is a world around it, where there are also others like them. This tribe was called the Tasadei. Tasadao is a mountain above the entrance to a cave on the slope of one of the hills in the wilds of the island of Mindanao. There the Tasadei spend the night.

These people have a very primitive life. Each day they live is not much different from the previous one. Waking up at sunrise, they go down to the stream to wash and have breakfast. Thanks to the rich flora and ponds teeming with tadpoles, small fish and crabs, they always have food at hand and do not need to stock up.

The Tasadays sit down on sun-warmed rocks and begin their meal, feeding each other their prey. At noon, the tribe moves into the shade and spends the rest of the day in peace and quiet.

Only at sunset they go in search of plant food and after a vegetarian dinner (lunch) they take refuge in a cave for the night. Their undisturbed sleep lasts about 12 hours.

Life of the Tasadeans

This is how the life of the Tasadeans passes in peace and harmony. They have neither enemies nor dangers (large predators are not found in the Philippines). These people do not farm or raise domestic animals. Instead of clothing, they wear a bandage made of orchid leaves, which they wear on their hips.

This tribe knows neither quarrels nor enmity. When making any decision, they quickly come to a common opinion, so there is no need to appoint chiefs and elders.

Due to the fact that Tasadeans do not have a very good memory, they do not remember random insults and do not hold grudges against their fellows. Couples are created only for love. One marriage for life. The feeling of jealousy is unknown to these amazing people, since they also do not experience betrayal.

In this group of people everyone is equal. After all, they have no property, and they don’t know what money is.

Another remarkable quality of Tasadays is the absence of bad habits (smoking and drinking alcohol). Scientists believe that these people are good-natured and forgiving from birth.

Svetlana Smirnova, Samogo.Net

Every person should do good deeds, no matter how global they are. Someone will say that these stars did not do anything special and in their situation everyone would have done the same, but not everyone can boast of even such a manifestation of kindness and compassion for their neighbor, because for the most part people think only about themselves.

Keanu Reeves

In recent years, the fact has come to light that Reeves doesn't worry much about money. In fact, he went so far as to give $80 million of his Matrix royalties to the special effects team and costume designers who worked on the trilogy. He explained his action by saying that he believes that the success of the film series is due to these people, and not to him.

Stephen Fry


Stephen Fry has touched not just one life, but countless others with his openness about his mental health struggles. Although many see such problems as a stigma that harms their careers, Fry speaks openly about his problems and has become president of the mental health charity Reason, which raises public awareness of mental illness and is a voice for those suffering from it.

Russell Brand


Brand talked about how he knows what it's like to be at the bottom of his life as a former alcoholic and heroin addict, which is why he spends time with homeless people in his area. He has been photographed and spotted countless times with homeless people - taking them to breakfast and helping them in every possible way.

Will.i.am

Will.i.am recently donated his entire salary from The Voice (around $750,000) to The Prince's Foundation, a charity dedicated to providing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) education to disadvantaged children in the UK. He hopes for the same success that the program has had in his hometown, Los Angeles County, which now has a state-of-the-art STEM center.

Woody Harrelson

While attending a great party in New York, Woody was approached by a homeless woman looking for alms. Instead of turning her down, Woody decided to give the woman $600. According to the Daily News, when the woman recognized the actor, she said, “Thanks Woody! White people can still jump!”

John Cena


This athlete has fulfilled the most wishes for the Make Your Dream charity foundation - he has 400 wishes (100 of which were fulfilled from June 2013 to February 2014).

Ryan Gosling


A British journalist was rescued by an actor when she almost walked onto the road in front of a taxi in New York. She tweeted about the incident, saying she was looking the other way as a lifelong Londoner when Gosling grabbed her arm and pulled her back onto the pavement.

Mila Kunis


When a man who worked in her house collapsed on the floor from an attack, Mila came to his aid. After she supported him until the ambulance arrived, Mila even offered to go with him to the hospital to make sure he was safe.

Lady Gaga


Lady Gaga is known for the fact that she uses her popularity to promote self-belief, despite how different we are from others. After she heard that one of her fans committed suicide because he was taunted about his sexuality, she dedicated her concert to him and had his photo on the screens everywhere - it was an act of unity with fan and other people from all over the world suffering in similar situations.

T.I.


This rapper gave up everything to convince a man not to commit suicide. The police tried to reason with the man to come down from the parapet. He considered it necessary to help, telling the man that everything would be fine and that not everything in the world was as bad as it seemed.

Angelina Jolie


Jolie remains a great philanthropist even after years of success and incredible popularity. She even decided to make In the Land of Blood and Honey as her directorial debut, a film telling the story of women who were subjected to mass rape during the Bosnian war. This choice was clearly not made with the aim of becoming famous, since it was filmed and written in Bosnian.

Zach Galifinakis


Zach saved a homeless woman. Mimi, a woman Zach knew from the local laundromat long before he became famous, found herself on the street. As soon as Zach found out about this, he offered to pay the apartment rent for her. He even took her with him to the premiere of the film Bachelor Party: Part III.

Patrick Dempsey


According to TMZ, the teenager lost control of his Mustang, and after the car flipped several times, it finally stopped in front of the actor's house. Dempsey ran outside to help the young driver and used a crowbar to free the teenager from the car, after which he called emergency services.

Johnny Depp

After 9-year-old Beatrice asked Depp to help her rebel against teachers, the actor came to a London school for precisely this purpose.

Tyler Perry


After hearing that a woman suffering from cerebral palsy had her customized 2000 Chrysler Town & Country stolen from her home in Georgia, director Perry offered to give her another van.

Gary Sinese


Since playing the role of Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, Sinise has been committed to helping disabled veterans and their families. He recently took 50 war-wounded soldiers on an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyland in California.

Tom Cruise


One day, while he was relaxing on his yacht, Cruise saw a sinking, burning sailboat. Instead of waiting for someone to save them, Tom himself swam to the sailboat and helped the victims escape.