Friday's Footnotes

Kazakhstan Boy's Nice Shoes

A Quick Update:

Still working on the Boys slideshow!
The website is being revised. It is just taking time to do this.
Please be patient. More updates coming soon!

Have a great weekend!

Girls and Boys

There are thousands of children living in orphanages in Kazakhstan. Antares Foundation helps the children living in orphanages in the North Kazakhstan Region. The North Kazakhstan Region is one of 14 regions of Kazakhstan (Click to see a map of the regions of Kazakhstan.)

In the previous post we included the following slideshow of just a few of the precious girls. (To view, click on photo or link.)

Our Kaz Girls

"Boys" Slideshow Coming Soon!

Above is a photo of a bus full of boys. A "Boys" slideshow will be posted soon.

International Women's Day

Yesterday, March 8th, was International Women's Day. Kazakhstan is one of several countries that recognizes and celebrates this day. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize some of the women of Kazakhstan. We hope they had a happy International Women's Day!

Vice Directors at the Regional Orphanage

Vice Director at Poludino

Sokolovka

On this day, we also remember the many "future women of Kazakhstan" we met in the orphanages. Through the Antares Foundation we are trying to help them have a better future. Click on the small photo below to see the many faces we will never forget. Please help us to help them have a better future!

Our Kaz Girls

We send birthday wishes to these special young ladies who recently turned 14:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Friday's Footnotes

Casual shoes

Me (Apryl) and my sponsored daughters!
I miss them!

Outing Shoes

If you give a child a camera...
They take some interesting photos!

Socks and shoes of all kinds and sizes
are other items the orphanages continually need.

More Windows...

Small Windows of Opportunity:
The Opportunity "To Be a Kid"

Windows of the Play House at the Doner Cafe

Thanks to their personal sponsors, some children have the opportunity, a couple times of year, to leave the confines of the orphanage for a few hours and experience other aspects of life. The Doner Cafe is where many "outings" take place. It is very "kid-friendly". With its small play area that consists of a couple of coin (tenge)-operated game machines and rides; it is the closest thing there is to "Chuck E Cheese" in Petropavlovsk. It even has pizza too! (Kazakhstan's version of pizzas--but still pizza!)

For most children, their first outing to the Doner cafe is usually the first time ever in a restaurant. They are fascinated and sometimes even overwhelmed by the food "choices". Having the opportunity to "choose" what they would like to eat is a new experience for them.

The small play area there gives the children the opportunity to "play" and be a kid. As you can see in the photos, children of all ages, from young to older teens, have fun in the play area. For a few minutes they can forget about the difficulties of their lives and be a kid!

If you are interested in providing an outing for a child, please contact us:
antares.foundation@yahoo.com

Thank you to the sponsors who provide funds for "outings" for their sponsored children!
You can see how much they enjoy this!

Thought we would continue with the "windows" theme today. The previous post was about the need for new window panes at the orphanage. (If you have not read that post yet, please continue scrolling down when you finish reading this one.)

Windows

Each year the Regional Orphanage in Petropavlovsk has an art contest. Thirteen artworks (one for each month and one for the cover) are then chosen and compiled into a yearly calendar. Antares has the calendars printed and sells these to help raise funds for the orphanage. The 13 winners of the contest receive a prize. The profits from the calendar then go to a project determined by the orphanage. In the past, profits were used to purchase much needed washing machines for the orphanage. This year the orphanage asked that the profits be used to purchase triple pane windows.

Petropavlovsk is one of the northern-most cities in Kazakhstan. Winters are long, harsh, and extremely cold. Orphanages are often drafty due to old buildings and single pane windows. To replace these windows with triple pane glass would be quite an expensive venture due to the numerous windows of the orphanage. We had hoped to replace at least a few. However, because of complications this year, the calendars were late getting out and we have only sold enough (so far!) to cover the cost of printing them. We had hoped to raise at least $2000--enough to replace windows in one part of the orphanage--and are disappointed that we did not meet our goal.

Please let us know if you are able to help us in any of the following ways:

1. Better ideas on how to raise funds for the windows

2. Sell calendars in your area to help raise funds (Will you be attending a Kazakhstan gathering in your area any time soon? We will ship these to you, if you would like to sell these.)

3. Consider buying a calendar if you have not already done so. The art work is beautiful! (See the calendar photo on the side bar.) Since it is already March the calendar price has been reduced to $7.00.

4. Or if you do not need a calendar, donations of any size may be made to the Windows Fund.

Thank you for making a difference!

Note: These photos were taken in September. The weather is much colder now.

A New Look!

Thanks to Rebecca of Artistree Blog Designs our blog has a bright new look!
Hope you like it--we do!

While our regular website is being updated we will communicate through this blog. When the Antares Foundation website is up-to-date we hope to continue with this blog on a slightly more personal level than the website.

Thank you for your interest in helping orphans of Kazakhstan!