People's Radio helps keep families together
08/11/2007
SOS Children Kyrgyzstan's family strengthening projects have operated for only a few years, but have won the trust of people who are dealing with their difficult every-day life.
The project in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek started in March 2007 in a state-run homeless child centre. The program offers, apart from food packages, medical, educational and psychological help. "We also help people to find training so that they can get a new profession or new skills," tells project leader Aliya Imanalieva. "In April we gave out the first food packages and on 1 June we had 20 families with 48 children in our project, but the process of finding new children is an ongoing work."
The target groups of the project in Bishkek are single mothers, families with many children and, surprisingly, also single fathers.
Better relationship helps
Viktor is the legal guardian of his sister's children; the 15- and 16-year-old adolescents are in the project. "It was a problematic family - after the mother died, the father started to drink and died soon, too. We got medical and also legal help - the kids did not have a citizenship. The kids are unhealthy and the project has helped to find doctors," tells Viktor.
The man highlights the work of SOS Children in changing people's attitude. "What is maybe even more important - these people here have helped to change the attitude of relatives and parents towards the children. Better relationships help a lot in bringing up," the uncle knows. "Now, thanks to SOS Children, we have a full life and not only we, the others too. To be honest, I was surprised that we were found."
Single fathers
Through the local social services, the project also found Vladimir, a single father with a seven-year-old boy. He also takes care of his parents, both ill in bed. "The project allows me to educate the boy before school," says Vladimir, who is not exactly jobless, but the income is rather random - sometimes he has a job, sometimes not.
The project is concentrating on people who want to help themselves. Vladimir is a very good cook and takes excellent care of the boy. "He is really trying, he does not drink anymore and we are also trying to show the boy the right direction in life," says Imanalieva.
Vladimir is happy that participating in the project has allowed him to ease a little bit. "My son has been kept busy with excursions and other activities, for example swimming. I have had some easier times," says the man who has been alone with the boy for the last six years.
Imanalieva notes that although they have just started the project, the beginning has been encouraging. "In the first three months we have already experienced some success - we have parents who have stopped drinking. That's a good start."
Difficult situation in the countryside
250 kilometres from Bishkek, in a town called Cholponata, the family strengthening project has operated since April 2006 in close co-operation with the local municipality. "We have rooms in a local school and the rent and transportation is covered by the town. The co-operation with the local municipality is super!" praises the project leader Zareta Nijazalieva. "We help people to develop parental skills, get more knowledge about HIV/AIDS, and we are providing people with medical and legal help."
The target group of the project are children living with a single parent; children living with a parent with a disability; children living in a household with extremely scarce economic resources.
The economic situation in Cholponata (and also in the rest of the country) is different from the one in the capital and more unfavourable. "In Bishkek it's possible to find a job, maybe not very well paid, but it's still a job. Here we don't have work, no industry, only tourism for two months in the summer," tells Nijazalieva. "Here we have really poor people, who instead of tea drink a hot beverage made of potato peelings."
People's radio works
The difficult economic situation means that often children go to work to support the family after just three or four classes at school.
"We give products to the families, but not only. Besides the courses, we have also given clothes - there was a boy who needed clothes because he had nothing to wear to go to school. For a family we are planning to buy a sewing machine, it would be the family's only source of income. We have also bought a cow for a family for the same reason."
Nijazalieva notes happily that people have started to trust the project in spite of the early disbelief. "Now our project spreads information on the "people's radio" - from mouth to mouth the information spreads itself and people come to us," she says, saying that so far ten families have left the program successfully.
Depression and alcohol
The difficult economic situation also means that there is a lot of injustice, sometimes caused by ignorance of basic rights. For example, when a husband dies, the relatives usually kick the children and wife out of their home and take all the belongings. Sometimes the fate is more "favourable" - the relatives take the children to raise them which normally means that they use the children as a free labour.
Local people describe the current situation as a depression resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The smartest try to develop business, the rest of the people are trying to survive in the country, where the minimum salary is eight USD and an average salary is 40 USD.
"We see that we are slowly getting better," the locals say. For example, a teacher with ten years of experience can earn 100 USD if he/she takes many extra classes and gives private lessons.
"Generally speaking, people in the bigger cities live better; in places with no tourist attractions the 19th century is pretty much alive and natural economic is still the main way of living."
Alcohol consumption, the usual companion of depression, is widespread and causing problems. "This is a bitter topic and we can talk about it for countless hours. The families can be short of money for buying bread, but they sill manage to find money for vodka. Using drugs is more common in the southern part of the country, which is on the way of drug transit," tell the social workers.