Four Years Ago...First Outing for Family 9

August 2003, we arrived home with our son! As he was settling into his new life, we would periodically wonder about his friends in Kazakhstan; especially when we would look at the photos from our trip. As his English improved, he was able to tell us about the orphanages, school, and more of his life there, including his friends.

I began researching on the internet, and looking for ways to sponsor the children we had met in Kazakhstan. There were a couple of sponsorship programs in different parts of Kazakhstan. It seemed that there was no such program in the North Kazakhstan Region where Petropavlovsk and the Regional Orphanage are located.

One day, when researching, I came across an article about the “Student of the Month” project at the Regional Orphanage. It was sponsored by a lady named Jamie. I had to research further to find Jamie’s contact information. I called and was excited to learn that she and another lady, Laura, who also lived in the Atlanta area were in the process of starting the Antares Foundation, a non-profit organization to help orphans in the North Kazakhstan Region. My family was thrilled to learn that we would be able to sponsor our son’s friends through this organization!

It was the spring of 2004. As the end of the school year was approaching, my son made a comment one day about having had gone so many places since he had been in the US. He meant not just to visit family and friends in other towns, but to various stores, the library, parks, sporting events, etc….. I realized that during this same time period, once the the children in Kazakhstan had returned to the orphanage from camp….that they had rarely left the orphanage during the school year. There was no reason for them to, as they lived in one part of the building and attended classes in the other part. I couldn’t imagine being in one place for so long. Our family decided to sponsor an “End of the Year School Outing” for our son’s group at the orphanage. It was “Family 9” the group with the youngest children of the orphanage. Most of his friends were in that group. For $200, the whole group was able to go to the cafe, the park, ride on some rides, eat some “shashleek" (like shishkibob) and then have some ice cream.

The orphanage dressed up the children in their good clothes for the outing. The girls hair was fixed nicely and they wore their huge white hair bows. There were 15 children accompanied by two caregivers. Below are a few photos from this outing! (May 2004)

We went on to personally sponsor these two girls, our son’s closest friends that still remained at the orphanage. We continue to sponsor them today.









More on sponsorship tomorrow!

Apryl