EJ RESEARCH: Give children a miracle

Attitude of a senior student to orphans in Astana

Orphans, like other children, need care, love, and attention. Charity organizations, which mostly consist of adults. Unfortunately, only few students are involved in this common problem. What is the attitude of students to orphans?

Even in the most peaceful times, orphanages and shelters happen to be overcrowded. Unfortunately, it is a global trend and a challenge of globalization, but Kazakhstani government and society counteract this trend. Volunteer of the public fund “Voluntary Society “Mercy” Yuri Yurin gave an interview to the “Caravan” newspaper. By 2017, there are 7236 orphanages in Kazakhstan (Yurin, 2017). According to the statistics, this number is reducing by 10-12% every year (Yurin, 2017). Since 2015, the network of organisations for orphans has decreased by 48 units – from 188 to 140 institutions (Yurin, 2017). Nowadays there are several ways that allow children to keep away from orphanages.

Firstly, Mother’s houses appeared thanks to contributions of the businessmen that reduced the number of abandoned children. Looking at the statistics of orphanages in 2017, out of 20 children who were in the Mother’s house during the year, 14 kids were sent to orphanages, while 6 children could find a family.

Secondly, there is a form of guardianship and patronage education called “Guest family”. Foster care provides an opportunity to take a child who does not have a status. These new forms are already working very well right now and these are the positive moments that we can talk about. Such “guest family” has changed the situation into the positive side and indicated its effectiveness, for example, since 2012 the number of orphans in orphanages exceeded 30,000, while today this number decreased almost for four times having a little more than 7000 (Yurin, 2017).

The total number of orphans and children left without parental care in 2006 was 1,529 in Astana, 841 under guardianship, 646 in boarding institutions, 42 in foster care («V Astane sokraschaetsya kolichestvo…», 2017). By July 2017, the number of orphans and children left without parental care makes up 946 in the capital of Kazakhstan, 574 of them under guardianship and trusteeship, 302 in the boarding institutions, 70 in foster care («V Astane sokraschaetsya kolichestvo…», 2017). However, not only the government supports and helps these kids, but also different organisations and volunteers. For instance, there is a charity fund «Zhakiya», a public fund “Voluntary Society” Mercy”, a volunteer corps “Careful Hands” that forms the conditions for realizing the potential of orphanages.

Comparison between Kazakhstan and USA

I propose to compare a situation of Kazakh orphans and American orphans. It stands to reason, in the United States (as in any country) children left without parental care are many. But the fact is that the modern American system of helping children left without parental care is not the same as in Russia and the post-Soviet countries, but in a fundamentally different way. USA practices a method of foster care in most cases. Foster care is a the raising or supervision of foster children, as orphans or delinquents, in aninstitution, group home, or private home, usually arranged through a governmentor social-service agency that provides remuneration for expenses (Foster Care, 2017).

Following to the example of the West, new forms are being introduced, such as patronage guardianship and foster care. Various actions and events are often held in support of orphanages by the government and some charitable funds. Community also contributes to ensure the favorable conditions for orphans. But, unfortunately, there is no article that tells about a participation of students in the provision of any assistance. I can assume that Astana students are not interested in the problems of orphans, but it is not always the case.

Kazakhstani case

Let`s see case in the Kazakhstan. For instance, “Komek” is a community of students created on the basis of al-Farabi KazNU, which organizes volunteer work to help a socially vulnerable group of people. The organization was established on November 10, 2010 (“Volonterskoe dvizheniye “Komek””, 2017). The international volunteer program AIESEC is also managed by students and young professionals (Izmailova, 2014). It studies the global problems, such as cultural understanding, social development, education, HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability.

The “Give children a miracle” action

KazNU (Almaty) has own charity community, but do we have? I decided to conduct a mini-research among students of Astana to find out what is the attitude of students to orphans. In December 2017, a charitable action “Give children a miracle” was held in Astana, fully organized and prepared by members of the auto club, students of the Medical University of Astana (here in after MUA).

For role of interviewee I chose a student of the MUA – Alexey Osokin, 19 y.o. He is a foreigner. Until now, he lived in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. He studies at the Faculty of General Medicine. The participant of my research is also an activist, president of the MUA auto club, and a member of the student council, despite the large amount of educational material. The Autoclub of the Medical University was established on November 7, 2017 with the support of the student council and the dean’s office for youth affairs. And a month later, on December 8, the idea was conceived. At the moment, there are 43 people in the auto club who are students from 1 to 5 courses. In all the student council there are about 150 people. Thus, the members of the auto club are more than 1/3 of the whole council. It should be noted that the dean’s office for youth affairs has shown active participation and great support in the creation of this autoclub, because the dean himself is one of the members of the association.

I chose him as an interviewee because he is an organizer of the charity event “Give Children a Miracle”. Accordingly, he knows more than anyone else about this event and will be able to give me informative and accurate answers. I contacted directly and offered to participate in the interview. Fortunately, he agreed to answer to my questions immediately.

“The meaning is that we with the other of the student council of our university collect a charitable action and the purpose of this action is to visit an orphanage. We were in a specialized children’s home on Manas street recently, a couple days ago. The main goal of the action is to show the children that they are not abandoned; we think about them and show that our white robes are not just clothes that we wear every day”,-

the organizer Alexey Osokin said about concept of the event.

Results of the research

The results of the interview show that the basis of the “Give children a miracle” project is humanity, living in the hearts of students. They want to demonstrate that they are not indifferent to children who were left without parental love, who have a difficult fate. A large number of students of MUA responded to the announcement of a trip to orphans, and because the university administration would not allow half of the students to miss lessons, only 21 people went. Alexey Osokin thinks that the young generation should take part in public life, thereby constantly proving that we are people, caring not only about ourselves. Alexey decided after the trip that we must be able to work and smile when it is hard.

In conclusion I can say that our students, on the example of medical students, have responsive hearts and keep themselves human. In relation to orphans independently show initiative, gratuitously arranges various events and charity actions. In general, attitude of students of the MUAto orphans is fair and sympathetic. First of all, because the work of doctors is directly connected with people. The quality of work depends on the attitude to people, in particular to vulnerable groups of society. Doctors should have compassion and understand their wards.

Currently, available online resources are scarce and limited that provide little information about the social activities of students. As recommendation for the future I propose that there should be more coverage of various events going on in our society so that people see the example and try to act in the same way. To introduce the younger generation to participate in public life, it is necessary to hold specialized evenings, fairs, to create announcements and videos, to intensify media activities and Internet blogging, to disseminate information in different ways.

 Anzhela Kaliyeva