MOSCOW — Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, crowds have grown at the Martha and Mary Convent in central Moscow.
The white-walled women’s monastery houses one of Russia’s best known charities that gives out free food parcels, among other projects.
“Before the pandemic we had around 30 to 40 people a day,” Yelena Timoshchuk, a social worker at Miloserdie (Mercy) told AFP, leaning against a table loaded with bottles of sunflower oil.
“Now we get about 50 to 60 people daily. It’s a heavy workload.”
Many of the visitors who queue for packages containing buckwheat, sugar, and tea are retired but there are also those who have lost their jobs or had their salaries cut…
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