Critical needs

I think right from the time we started coming to Central Asia, we have had many people, and you may be one of them, that have give a donation, and then said , if there are any emergency's that arise, let us know and we can do more ?  

  I have always felt that there are so many needs that an open invitation to directly contact a sponsor could be a difficult habit to break so I have avoided it . 

   Today we are facing so many needs .. with back to school supplies for the orphanages,  the needs for more clothes for many of the kids , the scholarships, coal for winter heat, funds for food drops, medical treatments, and the list goes on.  

  A couple days ago I was in the bazaar , and so many people came to me with needs those I know and those that I don't know , I finally gave up and went and waited in the car for the others. 

  Just to cover the most basic needs with the orphans and seniors we are trying to help, we are around  $25 000 short.   We do have funds for a few large projects we are working on such as the Hospital waiting room and the men's home and the shelter for those who lost everything in the fire. The difficult part is people see we have funds for those areas, but do not understand designated funds and that we can't use those funds to help an orphaned  child go to school .

  I know that many of those who have donated in the past are very socially conscious,  and with the mess the world is in today I am sure you are all being pulled in so many different directions , I am sure that daily in the home front there are many things coming up .. tuition and back to school for your own kids,  or maybe dumping a bucket of water and making a donation for a worthwhile cause .. they are all important, 

This is not easy to be asking, but as Julie always points out to me ,We are a voice for those who would otherwise never be heard..  Please consider helping us at this time with an special donation so we can continue to bring Hope and dignity to those struggling in Kyrgyzstan and their critical needs . 

school Uniforms needed

We have 14 orphans here that need uniforms so they can start school next week.  I am sure that once that need is met they will realize that the need some school supplies as well .  In total I think it will be around $40 each for this need .

If money comes in for this today, we will take them to the bazaar tomorrow so that they will be all set for Monday morning 

a request for sponsorship from Anya

One of out tasks today was helping our young friend Anya .  

We first met Anya at the Tokmok orphanage back in 2008.  The orphanage was closed some time ago, and Anya has had a bit of a bumpy ride.  Emma and Bekah have kept in regular contact with her and have been there to guide her through a few rough spots, and to advocate for her.  Today Anya  has it all together and is registered for University. 

She has done all the leg work and has been able to register into the teachers program for free.  She just needs to pay for her dorm and her food .  The dorm is $35  a month and her food will be about the same .

Bekah and Anya in her room with new sheets , blankets , towels pots and dishes and a bit of food to get her started .

We are working at securing a sponsor for her right now, Anya knows that she might have some help on the way , but she wanted to give a message to  possibly help some of the others in her position 

Anya with a student start up pack ..a pillow, an Aigula blanket, sheets and towels.  this costs about $40 

A special day at the seniors home, but "What about coal?"

Many of you will know of and even  own one of your own Aigoola blankets.  They are the best , they are warm and they are beautiful .  A real treasure for any one who owns one.  

Over the summer Blair Haverstock worked hard to raise the funds necessary to have one made for every senior at the seniors home.  He has seen how seen the blankets they had, and he knows how cold it gets here in the winter, and has has a burden to  do this for a long time.  Today that dream was realized when the Blankets were delivered to the seniors.

Aigola with all the blankets 

We loaded up two cars and headed out to Kemin to the seniors home .  Unfortunately Our car over heated as we were passing Iskra, so Bekah and Sergey continued with out us and we took the opportunity to go see Larisa and Tanya while the car cooled down. 

gathering seniors together to give them blanket 

what a blessing to have such beautiful blankets 

This is the first time I have seen the younger man on the right smile in the 4 years I have known him 

Thank you Blair and all those who helped him with this blessing to the seniors .

There was a second part to this trip.  The workers at the seniors home where told by the government that they needed to start wearing nurses uniforms.  This is expensive, and many of the workers are volunteers and can not afford uniforms.     
  Bekah and her friends at iam1ru.com took up the challenge to raise funds to get them each a uniform.   That need was met, but it gets better.  We found some nurses in the Peterborough area that heard about this need, and started collecting uniforms for us .. if fact they collected  over 100 uniforms so far.  all of them are like new and of the best quality.  So for the cost of buying just a few here in Kyrgyzstan, we were able to pay the shipping for all the uniforms ..  Today Bekah brought them out to the seniors home and every worker there was able to pick out two complete uniforms each, and we still have a suitcase full that we will be able to bless other health care workers with . Thank you Bekah , Thank you Possibilities International , and thank you Canadian nurses who all came together to make this extra blessing possible.

Tanya the seniors home director sorting uniforms 

more sorting

Bekah with the cook and her new uniform 

Bekah also brought a bag of vitamins with her today as well.. just a little extra blessing for them 

When all the excitement was over , Tanya took Bekah aside .  She was very concerned and apprehensive to ask , but she has a genuine concern ..finally she asked " WHAT ABOUT COAL?"

There is no other funding available for coal, and they rely on us to keep the heat on.  the home provides beds for 37 seniors right now, and in the winter time operated as a shelter for another dozen or so on emergency basis.  I have never heard of anyone being turned down for a warm bed, but to keep those beds open and warm, we need 20 tons of coal a winter . Thats just under $2000 .  That is a lot of money.  We recognise that, but we also see how important it is to keep all these seniors warm .    Unfortunately from this point on into the winter , the cost of coal will only increase and the availability will decrease ..  It may be over 100 degrees in the valley right now, but when we look to the mountains, we can already see the snow caps forming.   We need to act quickly .. there are so many others that will need our help with coal this winter , but lets start now with the seniors.  Thank you all so much for your on going support with this . 

Orphans turned down for scholarships ..desperate situation

There are two BIG needs that we have in the fall .. One is tuition and the other is coal for heat.  The first one is the tuition 
   We have about 40 kids that we suport with partial scolarships, and another 15 to 20 expected that will need suport if they are going to go to school this fall .  Our total assistance with out taking on any more is $15000 of which we have only $5000 so far.  so at this point we can give 1/3 of the regular suport , and No new sponsorships . 

What I have dreaded is here .. We have had to tell our first orphan trying to make their way on her own out of the orphanages that at this point we have no funds to help her this year.. It is truly heart breaking .   Whats worse is that this is just the beginning ... the next couple weeks are going to be very difficult as many are hoping to go to or return to school this year ..   for several weeks we have had the scholarship fund highlighted on the side of the blog, and if anyone has noticed , it has not moved at all since posting  .. 

Please if any of you can help with this huge need at this time we would appreciate it . 

What so ever things are good ... think on these.

So despite the bad flights, lost baggage, Bekah's sickness, broken car and visa issues just to start the list, we appear to be back on track today .   We faced so much this return that I will not even go into it .. "What so ever things are Good .. Think on these. "  Let me share some of the good .

We landed in Bishkek on Thursday evening, and Friday morning the Wedding party continued .. for three full days .  

Emma was to sit at the head of the main table , and as people came they would come in and visit with her, bring gifts and place a scarf on her head .  

The girls sitting with Emma between guests 

Jengish and I were given new outfits as well 

Emma and Julie with some of the aunts and family friends 

Julie and I were presented with Cowpaks and scarves as well 

While this was going on , we continued to get settled in and deal with the many issues that arose , but when I look back I choose to remember moments like  being able to have Jengish and Emma take a young orphaned boy out for lunch .  He is getting ready to go back to school to take an I.T. program.  he was asking Jengish if he thought that maybe a small tablet would be good enough for him to learn on .., but thanks to Meljesnic Computers in Norwood , we had the perfect computer for him to learn on. 

just think about how exciting this day was for this young boy .. likely one he will never forget.

Vlady brought over a bunch of Zucchini , so Kamalla and I made 28 Lt of relish  that we will be able to give out .  

we had both green and yellow zucchini , so it looked amazing 

Young Ruslan had the weekend out of the orphanage to stay with Dr Tatuana and Vlady .. they stopped at the house after spending the day in the ancient city with the mettle detector looking for coins .. they walked about 15 km so as soon as he sat down he was a goner .. a good kind of rest .. 

Today , after a year of creating documents and getting all the necessary approvals for a new medical clinic ,  We are ready to start .

The new clinic will be about three times the size we had raised funds for , but will contain not just the waiting room , but clinic and treatment rooms as well as washrooms and an equipment sterilising room .  all so necessary.
The plan will be that we will divide this into two phases .. phase one , we will build the foundation and then the front 1/3 being the waiting room and a small exam room .  This we will have open this fall..  phase two will be the back 2/3s of the building  for this we will have to raise funds ,  starting with local Tokmok Business men , then Over the winter I will see what we can do.  Vlady has started making forms and the cement mixing troughs today and tomorrow , and we will break ground on Friday .

We have about a dozen of Emma's kids coming for breakfast tomorrow , and actually a couple of them will spend the night tonight, then they will be going to camp from here for a couple days .

  We always said that we were not going to get into the habit of giving food from our apartment, but many of the kids now we have known for about 6 years, and we are their family.. these little kids .. are now grown up and trying to make it in a big hard world..   We are just so happy to see them and be able to spend time and to mentor them , its nice to be able to help with the odd meal, and to do a load of laundry for them .    If they are not sitting at our table or on our couch where would they be ?

Here and There

he girls are getting settled in nicely in Kyrgyzstan .  Painting and repairs to Emma and Jengishes / Guest apartement , Getting caught up with all of the kids Emma works with and touching base with all those that we work along side .  They are all thrilled to see the wedding pictures 

They have been doing ok with out me cooking for them, looks like they have a good spread

Now don't feel sorry for us though .  We were blessed today when Sam took us out for ribs .. something that we will not see for a long time, and something thats a a favorite.  

It was also nice to see so many in Brantford that have become such good friends .. both from  there trips to Kyrgyzstan and our trip to Brantford.  They are such a blessing.. When I returned in the spring, I had such a burden for those families from the fire in the village.. as soon as I shared that, they jumped right on it and the whole time we have been home, they have been raising funds so we can go back ready to dig in .. Such a blessing . 

It was also nice to meet up with Lauren as well.. she is a good friend of Emma and Bekah, so it was great to see her. 

A special blessing

We have been working for some time on the dining room at the mens home.  walls ceiling floors and electrical, heating and windows.  The chairs have been re built, and now we are working on the table tops.  

The floor is now done.. and we have actually built a small stage there and a movie screen 

 The men use this room as a gathering place and we have concerts etc there .

Now that everything is coming together with the room, I would like to get Larisa a laptop and projector that she can use for a movie night .    If anyone would like to be a part of that blessing, let me know and I will bring one from Canada with me next week .. I think I can do it for under $500

The Girls are back in town

Well the girls are back in Kyrgyzstan. It was a good flight , a short connection in Moscow,  but they did manage to show up one bag short, hopefully that gets fixed quickly.  

   While they were traveling, we did get a few updates from some of the things that we have been working on over the last couple weeks that some of you have been a part of .  

Our little friend has had her heart surgery, and has done very well .  She will need another surgery down the road the Drs think, but it will have to be done out side Kyrgyzstan we are told... we will check into that when we get there.  

This is after the surgery..

This week she was even well enough to join the other kids at camp 

 Speaking of camp. we got a letter from the kids at the mountain camp with a nice card from them and these  pictures.. They show one of the dorms with new mattresses , blankets and pillows .   There were 100 in total that were purchased. ( still have $250 to go to cover this need ) 

Campers and leaders excited to be at camp this summer giving a big shout out to all you who helped with this 

Yesterday we got a call from the baby hospital.. there was a new baby there that needed food.   since 2009 we have provided formula for all the babies that do not have parents  There was no budget for this , but it makes such a difference for the kids if we can get them on the best formula as soon as we can ... This has been one of Kamala's jobs, and yesterday as soon as the call came in she headed over with the formula.    This is the type of thing that there never is time to look for sponsors and transfer funds, so it just comes from our general un designated funds when needed .. so for those of you who give " as needed " Thank you for making this possible .  

A beautiful baby .. in perfect health , and off to a great start with the care and nutrition she needs  

We still have a long way to go with the scholarships.. we have $5000 so far, but still need another

 $10 000  to meet the requests that we have for scholarships this year.. we have a total of 49 kids.  that works out to an average of about $300 to of set their tuition and living expenses for the year , Kids like two shown below, many are orphans , and will not be able to attend collage or university if they do not get the support they need.  Maybe you would consider sponsoring a student, or at least passing on the word with others that you know that would like to help us out with this .. September is coming quickly.