Request from Russia

[Valentin]

Dear Friend, 

Please excuse me for any inconvience caused by this message. I sent you this 
message from a library of our small city and I pray for your help.
 
My name is Valentin. I'm a student and I live with my mother in the city of 
Kaluga, Russia, that is 200km south from Moscow. My mother is invalid. She 
cannot see and she receives pension from the government very rare which is not 
enough even for medications.

I work very hard to be able to buy the necessary medications for my mother, but 
my salary is very small, because my studies still not finished.

Due to the crisis our authorities stoped gas in our district and now we cannot 
heat our home. I don't know what to do, because the weather is very cold here 
already (minus 12 degrees Celsius) and the temperature in the street can be 
lower than minus 30 degrees Celsius. I'm very afraid that the temperature 
inside our home can be very cold and we will not be able to survive.

Thanks to the internet access at our library I was able to find several e-mail 
addresses and I decided to appeal to you with a prayer in my heart for a small 
help. 

If you have any old electric heater, warm clothes, electric water-boiler, 
high-calories canned food, vitamins, medicines from cold weather, any 
hygiene-products, I will be very grateful to you if you could send it to our 
postal address which is:

Valentin Mihailyn,
Ryleeva Ulitsa, 6-45.
Kaluga. 248030,
Russia.

If you think that it would be better or easier for you to help with some money, 
please write me back and I will give you details for sending it safely if you 
agree. This way to help is very good because in this case I will be able to buy 
a portable stove and heat our home during the winter.

I hope to hear from you very soon and I pray that you will be able to help us 
to survive this winter. I also hope very much that this hard situation will get 
better very soon in our country.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2005. I'm sending to you many 
thanks in advance for your kind understanding. Please excuse me, once more, for 
any inconvience I could cause you by sending this message.
 
God Bless You,
 
Valentin and my mother Elena.
Kaluga. Russia.