Gleb Trukhin: "A volunteer’s most important asset is being passionate about one’s life work"

28 april 2025

Our April issue of the About People and Good Deeds column features Gleb Trukhin, a lead engineer at Neftekhimiya, discussing his volunteering beginnings, how he discovered his calling in being a volunteer, and sharing what inspires him to do good with some personal stories to illustrate.

Could you tell us about your journey as a volunteer: when and how it all started?
Since my younger days, I have been gravitating to taking an active stance in life. Even back when I was still a university student, I volunteered at a shelter for stray animals and donated used items I no longer needed by taking them to specialized collection points. This is why one of the key criteria I was guided by in picking my future place of employment was whether my prospective employer was able to offer me opportunities for having an active social life. That’s how I decided to start a career at SIBUR as I saw that here I would be able to fulfill myself not only as a professional, but also as a volunteer. The first step I took as a volunteer was becoming involved in caring for stray animals, an endeavor that was particularly after my heart.

How did you learn about SIBUR's People Changing the World volunteering program, and what prompted you to get involved?
I had been monitoring the company's news on social media on a regular basis, and as soon as I came across the piece on the company’s volunteering programs, I immediately grew interested. In fact, I had heard about the People Changing the World program even before I became employed by SIBUR. Unfortunately, because of my shift-based work schedule I was initially unable to get started right away. But as soon as I was able to make time, I decided to try my hand at doing this. My very first experience involved participating in a visit to the Nekrasovka shelter in February 2024. Since then, I have been visiting the shelter on a regular basis. Through social media, I had been learning about other initiatives, which I also ended up joining. The strongest incentive to keep on volunteering was the atmosphere and a warm, friendly and inspiring team of like-minded individuals.

What inspires you to volunteer and take part in various volunteering initiatives?
The most important thing that volunteering gives me is a sense of self-fulfillment. You are able to see the result of your efforts and understand the impact of what you do. Frankly speaking, I had not experienced so many sincere and positive emotions prior to my joining the volunteering movement. Children’s smiles, the cheerful wagging of the tails of the shelter’s residents - all this fills your soul with a warm and fuzzy feeling. The realization that your actions change someone's life for the better, help them cope with challenges, or just bring others joy is my most important source of inspiration.

You have been repeatedly involved in helping homeless animals as part of the company-wide Big Help for Little Friends campaign. You even got rewarded for your help to the animals at the 5th Forum of SIBUR’s Corporate Volunteers in the Animal Volunteering category. Why did helping animals become such a priority for you?
Helping animals is such a priority for me because homeless and stray animals are one of modern society’s pressing challenges. One can’t solve it by acting alone, but each individual can make a feasible contribution to the cause by searching for lost animals, providing them with veterinary care, helping get them socialized, outfitting shelters and, of course, by looking for new adoptive owners for them. Since childhood, I have been fond of dogs, so for me handling them is easy and fun. It is not without challenges, however: I myself own a somewhat anxious dog my work with whom is still ongoing. But in general, my interactions with animals fill me with energy, help me relax and provide me with a lot of positivity. I think this is exactly what determined my choice of things to focus on.

In your opinion, what is the most important aspect of helping stray animals?
It is very hard to single out just one particular aspect as all aspects are interconnected. It is equally important to provide proper care, provide timely veterinary care when needed, help the dog become socialized, and find a new home for it. But, come think about it, getting the dog adopted is perhaps the most important thing. This is the number one objective for an animal welfare volunteer, because shelters are overcrowded, and every animal needs a chance to have a home. True, this is not an easy process: some dogs end up staying in a shelter for months or years even. But I believe that everyone has a chance. The key thing is not to stop trying and keep on helping.

Can you share with us the most memorable case from your experience of helping animals?
In my two years of being an active volunteer, there have been several memorable incidents, but two cases stand out. The first of them happened on January 2, 2025. I was contacted by some dog enthusiasts that I know, the ones with whom we often walk our dogs in the local community parkette together. They told me that they had found a young German Wirehaired Pointer. The dog had most likely gotten lost after the New Year holidays or had been deliberately let go. Not being able to keep the dog and knowing that I had been helping animals, they decided to turn to me. They, of course, did not know how things are at animal shelters, but it was a good thing that of all people they had chosen to turn to me. I took the dog in to look after it temporarily. Fortunately, it was calm and got along well with my own dogs. We spent a month trying to find the dog’s past owners by posting ads on Avito and on social networks. However, no one responded to our ads. As I did not want to move the dog to the shelter, I decided to look for a new adoptive family for it. Just a week later, the German Wirehaired Pointer found a new home: it is now kept by a caring owner in a house in a rural area. It was particularly gratifying to see other dog lovers from the area getting involved in this affair: they helped with dog food, medicines, and supported me otherwise. The second case is related to the Nekrasovka shelter, which I had started to visit on a regular basis at some point. There I took an immediate liking to one unusual dog called Malysh, an active, mischievous and a little clumsy character. Despite its restlessness, it was quite friendly. From our first encounter, it became a favorite of mine, and I started going there just to take walks with it. The puppy quickly grew used to me: it was happy to see me, it got upset if I picked someone else to go for a walk with. Over time, true friendship developed between us. Six months later, I realized that I couldn't imagine him living at someone else’s place. In February 2025, I adopted Malysh as my own pet. Its behavior after the move came as a pleasant surprise: it calmed down, behaved impeccably at home, obeyed all my commands, was perfectly behaved during our walks without showing unnecessary attention to either people or other dogs and not left my sight even for a second. In addition, he got along really well with the other members of my family.

As part of the company-wide From Heart to Heart campaign, you provide regular assistance to patients of the Elizavetinsky Children's Hospice. Why do you think it is so important to support terminally ill children?
I think that the main value of such support is in that children, despite their dreadful diagnoses, would not feel isolated from society. Like everyone else, they deserve to feel joyful, to enjoy others’ attention and emotional support. We try to provide them with positive emotions, help relieve their psychological stress, prevent them from getting withdrawn. Our palliative care extends not only to the children themselves but to their parents as well, as psychological support for families in situations like that is especially important. The main goal is to help these kids maintain a sense of leading a normal life that is filled with warmth, communication and simple everyday joys.

You took part in the Donorship Day. In your opinion, why donating blood is such an important aspect of volunteering?
The Donorship Day is a great opportunity to make a blood donation in an organized and convenient way, a donation that can really help save someone else's life. Hospitals often lack stocks of blood of certain types, and the need for blood donations is constant. Blood donorship is perhaps one of the most direct and tangible ways of helping. It is important to remember that sometimes even one step, one action can be decisive for saving someone's life. That’s why I find that participating in such events is not only important but indispensable.

What kinds of things do you do as an eco-volunteer?
My work as an eco-volunteer includes collecting and sorting waste, sending plastic waste over for recycling, as well as proper disposal of electrical equipment, rechargeable and disposable batteries. I regularly participate in clean-up campaigns and try to motivate people in my inner circle to donate the stuff they no longer need to shelters or hand these things over to those who need them. In addition, I consume resources in a conscious manner: I try to save water and electricity, I mostly use public transport to commute, I try to buy seasonal fruits and vegetables and avoid impulsive buying.

How has your volunteering experience transformed you as a person?
I guess it would be hard for me to be objective in judging how exactly volunteering may have affected my personal traits. An outside observer would be better positioned to point something like that out. However, I can tell you for sure that my involvement in socially useful initiatives has changed my life dramatically. One of the most noticeable changes has been my expanding social network. I started interacting with people from very diverse walks of life, which helps me to gain new experience and share my own. If, say, I go to another city to take part in a local race, I try to find the time to contribute to sports volunteering there as well, helping with setting up friendly park runs. In addition, my interactions with the shelters’ animals also give me a boost of energy lasting me for the work week.

What qualities does one need to have to be a successful volunteer?
To my mind, a volunteer’s most important asset is being passionate about one’s life work. There are many ways to volunteer such as helping others with the use of one’s professional skills, supporting shelters, participating in providing palliative care, organizing sports events, donating blood or bone marrow, collecting clothes, or sorting waste. Each of them takes certain skills and personality traits, but there is always one thing at the core, a sincere desire to help.

What are your future plans for volunteering?
In the future, I would like to expand the geography of my volunteering activities and improve my skills to be able to help more effectively. I have a few brand new ideas. This includes, for example, teaching master classes at a hospice. I also want to apply for a permanent pass to access the Nekrasovka shelter and, possibly, take one of the dogs under my wing to monitor its state and help it find a new owner. Going forward, I hope to be able to launch my own volunteering project aimed at helping animals.

You can find out more about upcoming kind activities in the SIBUR volunteers' group on VKontakte and on Telegram.

In case you missed our past issues:

Warm Hearts Despite the Weather: SIBUR Volunteers Support the "Nekrasovka" Shelter

Moscow, 5 March

Over 3,000 residents of Nizhnekamsk visited the "The Age of Plastic" exhibition

Nizhnekamsk, 2 March

Results of the "Good Deed Parcel" Campaign at ZapSibNeftekhim

Tobolsk, 20 February