Sponsor's update letter from Astana

19 Nov 2008

Child sponsorship update from Summer 2008 from the SOS Children's Village Astana, Kazakhstan

With great pleasure we would like to share with you the latest happening and recent developments that have taken place in SOS Children`s Village Astana during the last 6 months. Our village is looking good due to the blooming flowers and green trees. We are taking care of our home and we are happy that it looks like a picture from a fairy-tale.

There are 14 SOS families taken care of 102 children at the age from 6 up to 21 years old. There were no admissions of new children within this period. 18 youngsters are already ready to move to Youth Facility. Due to some obstacles, the Youth Facility is planned to start up only this autumn instead of spring period. All children and village workers are looking forward to this event and preparing presents for the coming celebrations.

We are helping our youths in all fields, preparing them to independent life. Unfortunately, due to unstable economical situation and increasing of unemployment level in our country, it is rather difficult for the youth to get a good job or start own business. Though our youths and we do the best to find temporary job for them during summer time.

The existing situation has led to the increase of families in need. In this connection, our Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) is doing a great job. Under the care of FSP coordinators there are 130 children and grown-ups from 75 families. They are provided with medical assistance, psychological consultation, food packages, and second hand cloths. Everything is done to help such families to overcome temporary difficulties, to manage their lives independently, to build the ability to self-organize themselves and their responsibility for the well-being of their children.

Child development

We are trying to bring up our children in the proper way, including all spheres of personal and interpersonal development. Surely, their health condition is of the great importance. They are provided with annual medical examination and necessary treatment at the best medical centers of the city. Every summer our children go to summer health centers in Almaty, Shymkent cities, Borovoye resort area. Last year, when 6-years old Anton was firstly brought to the Village from one of suburban orphanages, he was very thin and only big grey eyes were shining on his freckled face. Now he is a lovely boy, very active and vivid, always eager to fight with somebody, to jump or run somewhere. He likes his SOS -mother Mariya and says that her ‘pirozhki’ with potato (a kind of fried or baked buns with filing inside) is the greatest thing in the world.
Children’s physical development is also paid a great attention. We are proud of our football team, which participate in all possible competitions and win first awards. Ten boys attend Karate club and achieve good results in this field. Dancing of all kinds is popular among girls. Our dancers are constant participators at all concerts and they are really beautiful, dancing our traditional Kazakh or Spanish or hip-hop dances.
Concerning the education of our children, they register considerable learning progress and, on the whole, are doing well. Our tutors are in close correlation with the school pedagogues and carefully follow children’s study. In case some problems arise with any subjects, children are provided with extra-classes on it while they improve their studying. In general, 50% of our children finished school year with good and excellent marks. 8 teenagers graduated the secondary school and now are preparing for college exams. Meetings on career counseling helped them to decide and make a choice concerning their future profession. We are proud of one boy, Orken, who graduated this year from a college and got a profession of the chief-cook. He is already invited to work to one of the most famous restaurants of Astana city. It was his desire and we are sure that it is really his cup of tea.

Events for the children

To make children’s life more interesting and variable, and to promote their development, a lot of activities and events are organized within as well as out of the Village. On the 1st June, the International Children’s Day was celebrated all over the Village. Five of our children participated in Republican Musical Competition ‘Tan Sholpan’ (translated as Morning Star), which was organized by the Local Department on Children’s Rights protection. All participants were given presents for participation. On 21st-23d of June the Sport Competitions within all three Children’s Villages of Kazakhstan took place in Astana. Three teams from ‘SOS Children’s Village Almaty’, ‘SOS Children’s Village Temirtau’ and ‘SOS Children’s Village Astana’ competed on running, weight lifting, soccer playing, etc. We are full of pride for our boys, who honestly won the first award of the so-called ‘Olympic Games of SOS Villages’. The prizes, which were provided by our friends and local sponsors, made the participants very happy. They were glad to get a digital camera (it was the prize for the first place), DVD player, cool earphones, and many other small and big presents.
Thanks to local sponsors, our Village is becoming more and more beautiful. Children were presented a wonderful Children’s Yard with colorful slides, stairs and so on. City authorities helped to decorate it with flowers and bushes. One of the local banks donated 40 trees which will surely become a green island in the center of our Village.
As you know, we have SOS Kindergarten on the territory of SOS Children’s Village Astana and we would like to share a piece of information about it with you. Originally, all children of our Village attended this Kindergarten, but now, as far as all of them became older and there is only one girl from the Village attends it, the Kindergarten provides its services for city children from families with low living conditions. It is a center for children development with highly-experienced specialists and excellent material base.

We hope you are pleased with the information we are sharing with you. Being one of our best friends, you are making invaluable contribution into the future of our children and children of the entire world. On behalf of all children and the whole SOS organization we would like to express our gratitude for your help and support.

On behalf of our children and mothers,
Kairat Akhmet, Village Director and Markhabat Omarova, National Sponsorship Coordinator

Relevant Countries: Kazakhstan.