Case study: Child from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

18-year-old Parhat from SOS Youth Facility Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, finds laughter precious and believes that it gives life meaning.

Parhat on laughter

The slightly skinny, dark-haired youngster lives in a suburb of Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek in the SOS Youth Facility together with 13 other youngsters. Just like all others there, he is receiving vocational training.

Parhat attends a technical school, and is in his second year, studying electronics. "It's a good school and I'm very interested in electronics. I will graduate in two years. This year we learned how chips work and how a radio is put together. In theory, I can now build a radio. In the next two years we will learn more complicated stuff," he tells us, adding that if he could change something in the facility he would make just one little amendment:

"At the moment it's quiet here all the time. My idea is to install speakers in every room in the facility so that everybody could listen to the same radio station in every room," says Parhat, whose dream is to open a business offering sound systems for cars.

Each person decides his destiny

He has been in SOS Children's Village Bishkek for six years, and this is his second year in the youth facility. "I'm incredibly lucky to be here," he says. "I could have ended up in some other place, which would not be as good. Here I feel great, it's super here."

Parhat appreciates the independence the youth facility offers. "Here one understands real life. In the beginning the hardest thing was to get up on time, here you have to wake up at the right time on your own."

"It's good that we have such a good relationship with the educators. They help us make choices, because from time to time life puts you in situations where you must make a decision," says the young man. "I fell in love with a girl and I had nowhere to turn to get some advice, friends only smiled, but the youth facility leader gave me advice."

Making the right decision when it is needed is essential according to Parhat. He strongly believes that a person decides on his/her own destiny. "I do not think that destiny drives us, because we have brains. The only thing destiny fixes is that we are born in a location somewhere in the world. The rest is up to each person."

Morally strong, yet with a sense of humour

"As a teenager I usually thought: why? Why was I sent here? Now I understand that my relatives are poor, very poor, and I am really grateful that I am here. I have become morally strong and I have understood that one has to live a worthy life, because we only live once."

The fact that one only lives once makes Parhat want to try different things. Apart from sports and technical training, the young man is very much into reading; and he likes books which encourage thinking.

"I don't like books which I can finish in one to two days. My favourite books are Jack London's "White Fang" and Victor Hugo's "The Man Who Laughs". I am still reading the last one, but I like it. The one who laughs is not the one who is rich and powerful, but the one who knows how to laugh."

Laughing is an integral part in Parhat's life. He adores comedies. The last movie he saw and truly enjoyed was Shrek 3 and there is something special which connects him with the film. His friends from the youth facility noticed certain similarities between Parhat and his best friend Mirlan, and the characters from the movie. When they got back from the cinema they were surprised to find a sticker of Shrek and the donkey glued onto the locker in their room.

"I like to talk so I'm obviously the donkey, and Mirlan doesn't like to talk much, so he is similar to Shrek."

SOS Children has been working in Kyrgyzstan since 1999 and there are two unique children's villages at Bishkek and Cholpon-Ata. More than 140 children have a loving family home at these villages while more than nine hundred children receive education through the SOS Schools and community support from the SOS Social Centre.

You can help children like Parhat by becoming a child sponsor.