Child sponsorship update from Borovljany, Belarus

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village Borovljany, Belarus from June 2008

Dear sponsor,

It is time again to share with you news about the sponsored facility.

There are 73 children living in 14 families at the SOS-Children’s village Borovljany. In April 2008, a new girl was admitted to the village - the 14 year-old Anastasiya. To the point, the girl’s life has been rather dramatic. We hope Anastasiya will rid herself of her sorrow and warm up to the people. She’ll find here sympathy and love so much needed by a teenager.

At the end of 2007, we’ve been honored to receive the President of the Republic of Belarus at the SOS Children's Village. On December 30, he attended the New Year celebration at the village and presented a minibus to the children.

The school year is nearing its end, and most children are doing well. Many of them attend schools in Minsk, both regular and specialised (with choreographic, theatrical, musical bias etc.). Children get up early in order to have sufficient time for morning exercises - the best way to cheer up for successful daily routine. Then, they hurry to the nearby bus stop - the way to the city takes time.

Most children at the SOS Children's Village are teenagers. That’s why it is getting more and more difficult for SOS mothers to cope with grown-up kids. One needs a great deal of patience as well as tactfulness. For that matter, the SOS Children's Village psychologist initiated counseling of 3 families during which kids were taught how to assume responsibility. Family behavior rules were jointly worked out and laid down. All this for the sake of family climate improvement.

26 children attend the local music school. They try and master piano, flute, cymbals, and accordion. At the SOS Children's Village, there is a dancing hobby group. At the end of May, a group of children from Borovljany took part in an arts festival in Orel (Russia). Together with local kids, they gave a joint concert. In the course of three days, the children were taken on a sightseeing tour around the city, went to a disco and had an intellectual tournament. Now, they intend to share those memorable impressions with the rest in the self-edited journal called ‘SOS-sedy’ (an English-Russian charade meaning ‘neighbours’).

Many SOS children go in for sports on regular, organised basis attending hobby activities: ski jumping, judo and samba wrestling, bicycle-racing, soccer, volleyball etc. We are proud of Masha who is the national judo champion among school children. For the time being, she attends the National Olympic Reserves School. Alesya, who is a member of the SOS Children's Village sports orientation hobby group, also won the national-level competition.

Children's activities

In April, at the invitation of the Government of Moscow, a SOS Children delegation visited the Russian capital. Children were very much impressed by the city of such huge dimensions. Tired but quite pleased, they got back bringing a present by Moscowites - a big-screen LCD-television set. And quite recently, a delegation from Moscow paid a visit to the SOS Children's Village Borovljany presenting tourist tents to the children - quite a commodity during summer rest and recreation period.

On weekends, several SOS children visit the cancer-hematological hospital for children situated next-door where they visit their peers who are treated for cancer. Also there are many elderly people in the neighborhood community who need help - 5 such people are ‘sponsored’ by SOS children who help them out around the house and in the garden, extend holiday seasons’ congratulations and best wishes.

Summer vacation will set in soon bringing several opportunities for rest and recreation: river raft or boat journey, summer forest camp etc. Main thing - there is still a lot of wonderful time until the end of August. And the fist big social event that we are going to jointly celebrate at the beginning of the new school season will be our SOS Children’s Village birthday.

SOS Youth Facilities
The beginning of summer is a period when several youths leave their SOS youth facilities. They are ready for an independent, self-sufficient existence and we wish them luck from the bottom of our hearts as well as success in the chosen professional fields: be it carpenter or seamstress, hairdresser or driver, machine tool operator or welder. Some will follow their respective employment after the completed vocational training to gather practical experience and earn their money. Others will try and enter higher educational institutions in order to continue and develop their education. As a folk’s wisdom goes, one can never have enough of knowledge. To that end, all SOS youths have been attending preparatory courses of their choosing.

At the same time, another several youths, coming from the SOS Children's Village Borovljany, will replace those leaving the youth facilities. There will 10 of them all in all. They have been visiting their respective future residence for some time already in order to meet teachers, educators as well as find answers to questions they are concerned about. Individual development plans for incoming residents have been put together. The life at the SOS youth facilities promises to be as interesting as it has been this last year when the youths take charge of organising it. For Christmas, for example, they presented self-fabricated “Christmas shoos’ to everybody; on Mothers’ Day (the 8th of March) they invited their SOS mothers to a theatre.

In July, they will take on a traditional bicycle tour as well a canoe journey on country’s rivers. In August, many will try to get a temporary employment in order to earn pocket money and gather practical experience.

School project

SOS Computer Class Project

This SOS project is being implemented since 2002 at the Borovljany comprehensive middle school. The PC-class has been initially equipped with computers and is functioning at the expense of the SOS Children. Training is conducted according to ECDL-standard (European Computer Driving License). 106 individuals benefited from this project since its start, receiving the ECDL- certificate, which amounts to 36 percent of these certificates handed out in the Republic of Belarus.

The SOS Computer class project provides an additional support for the kids in need. Take, for instance, Eugene - a youth from a large, but dysfunctional family, who grew up in poor conditions. Following high school graduation he tried but failed to enter a higher educational institution. Thanks to the training and certificate received trough the SOS project, however, he was able to find a job with a computer assembling and distributing company thus making his living.

Community support for children in Borovljany, Belarus

SOS Social Centre
Some 246 individuals received help through the SOS Social Centre, including children with oncology - hematological problems on rehabilitation as well as families who came here to improve the overall health condition of their children.

The SOS Social Centre staff looks for new ways to support the neighborhood community and contribute to social activities with respect to early abandonment prevention.

Lyudmila is a single mother taking care of 3 kids. The family initially lived at the woman’s elderly parents’. As her mother died, the father and elder brother got killed in an accident, and the house burnt down, something broke inside Lyudmila and she lost her heart. She gave up her job and gave up on herself, took to alcohol. Children got neglected, because Lyudmila knew that the Government won’t give up on them. Children were taken to an orphanage while the woman was about to get deprived of her parental rights.

But Lyudmila had luck, maybe, for the first time in her life - she was included into the SOS Social Centre rehabilitation program. She received help in restoration of her personal papers, went through a medical treatment and got a job whereupon the children were returned to the mother. The family was provided a room at a dormitory, Lyudmila repaired it, and they moved in. At the moment, both mother and children receive psychological support and counseling by the Social Centre psychologist.

"In life, everybody can stumble and fall on his face. In such a situation, it is people capable of sympathy and ready to help, who make difference," says Lyudmila.

Dear Sponsor,

Not withstanding a huge distance between our countries, we feel your sympathy and warm humanly support. We deeply appreciate your keen interest and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your help.

Wishing you a pleasant summer rest and recreation

Yours Sincerely,
Valery Mikhalevich,
Director