Before becoming the First Lady, Mrs. Obama worked as a volunteer in a hospital. The First Lady of America visited the Orthodox Sisterhood in the name of Pious Tsarevich Dimitry

On July 7, 2009 the wife of US President Mrs. Michelle Obama visited the Orthodox Sisterhood in the name of Pious Tsarevich Dimitry.

 

The wife of the American President Michelle Obama arrived at the St. Dimitry Sisterhood.   

 

By the Russian tradition she was met with bread and salt by the rector of the Church of Saint Pious Tsarevich Dimitry, the Sisterhood’s spiritual father, Archpriest Arkady Shatov and the senior nurse of the Sisterhood Tatyana P. Philippova.  Mrs. Obama ate a little piece of the bread.

Mrs. Obama met with children of St. Dimitry School, who organized a concert and gave her presents made with their own hands. 137 children learn at school, a quarter of them are inmates of orphanages, all the rest are the children from large families.  

 

The meeting began from visiting St. Dimitry School where the inmates of St. Sophia Orphanage and St. Dimitry Orphanage, established by the Sisterhood, learn   

 

Priest Alexander Lavruhin, the head of the school, greeted Mrs. Obama and told her about the school

 

Milana, the inmate of St. Dimitry Orphanage, read a poem

 

The children presented gifts made with their own hands to Mrs. Obama

 

Mrs. Obama offered children to ask questions. They asked her why one of her children had been named Natasha. She answered that it’s the favorite name of Barack Obama

 

Fr. Arkady gave Mrs. Obama a brief excursion of the church of St. Pious Tsarevich Dimitry. «This church was visited by three Russian Emperors (Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II ) and four Empresses. Since that time you are the first wife of a head of state to come here», - said Fr. Arkady.

 

Then they stopped next to an icon of St. John, Archbishop of Shanghai and San-Francisco – a saint of Russian extraction, American residence and ministry, honored by the Russian Orthodox Church. "When you were two years old, - said Fr. Arkady to Mrs. Obama, - this great prelate, St. John reposed in America"

Then the First Lady got acquainted with the two generations of nurses in the Sisterhood: students of St. Dimitry Nursing College of Sisters of Mercy and nurses working here for many years. Olga Y. Egorova, the chief nurse of the Home Visiting Service, told Mrs. Obama that one of the focus areas of the Sisterhood was care after HIV infected people and work with HIV infected children in orphanages; she also told her that the Sisterhood supported by US Agency for International Development and UNO program had worked out projects for learning care after such patients and family support, which had already been realized in ten Russian cities.   

 

Sisters of Mercy met Mrs. Obama in St. Dimitry Nursing College of Sisters of Mercy  

 

Fr. Arkady told Mrs. Obama about the ministry of Sisters of Mercy.

 

Olga Y. Egorova, the chief nurse of the Home Visiting Service, told Mrs. Obama that one of the focus areas of the Sisterhood was care after HIV infected people and work with HIV infected children in orphanages. Polina Yupherova, a participant of the volunteer movement, also described her experience of volunteer work

 

In its turn, Mrs. Obama shared her experience of being a volunteer in a hospital before she’d become the First Lady. She was also responsible for PR and dealt with volunteers, that’s why     this kind of activity is familiar to her. «The main point I realized working in the hospital, - said Michelle Obama to the Sisters, - is that a hospital can’t function properly without nurses. Thus, it’s great you’ve chosen this profession»

 

At the end of the meeting the Sisters complemented Mrs. Obama with nesting dolls, the biggest of them wore the Russian national costume, the other nine  - Sisters’ of Mercy clothes.  

 

Mrs. Obama shook all the Sisters of Mercy by the hand, embraced and kissed the chief nurse of the St. Dimitry Sisterhood, Tatyana P. Philippova 

 

Mrs. Obama left an autograph on the poster, depicting the mission field of the Sisterhood. «Thank you for your work, thank you for caring of these children. They have wonderful souls. We’ll be praying for you and for them and we hope you’ll be prying for us. I say it on behalf of my country», - said Mrs. Obama at parting

 

After visiting the Sisterhood, Mrs. Obama together with the First Lady of Russia Svetlana Medvedeva went to the Theatre in the name of Stanislavsky. They were sitting in the stalls instead of using any of the boxes the theatre abounds in.  Mainly the auditorium consisted of children, inmates of orphanages, including St. Dimitry Orphanage and St. Sophia Orphanage, and Moscow pupils

 

The performance of the dance group of ensemble «Beryozka»

 

Nadezhda Babkina with her group «Russian song»

 

State academic ensemble of the Russian national dance named after Igor Moiseev, and other groups