Child sponsorship letter from Baku
25/09/2008
Update from Spring 2008
Dear sponsor,
I take the opportunity to start this report by thanking you for village sponsorship or child sponsorship of SOS Children’s Village Baku. On behalf of SOS mothers and all the children I have the honor to send you hearty greetings and the warmest wishes. We believe that you will continue your generous support thanking to which our children feel safe, live in cozy houses, surrounded by care and love.
At the beginning of this year SOS Children’s Village Baku was a home to 103 children. 3 of them were re-integrated into their biological families in October, 2007. Parents of the siblings - Sahil and Gulafet reconciled and after regular guidance and recommendations, they took their children back. The biological mother of 12 year-old Afsana also took her back, after her elder son was back from Russia and the family managed to improve their living conditions. The mother wanted to take the elder sister of Afsana - 15-year-old Dilbar too, but she decided to stay in the Village together with her SOS Mother. Dilbar is moving to the Youth Facility in 2008.
So, now there are 38 girls and 62 boys in the Village, most of them go to school and only 2 kids attend SOS Nursery School Baku, situated in the territory of the Village.
On January 4, 2007 after the 1st half of the school year was over, we arranged an educational assessment in the Village to check the performance of our children and their perception of school subjects, the results were quite satisfactory. We have these assessments twice a year. The second one was arranged on June 4, 2007 after the school year was over. The specialists invited from different schools of the city conducted tests for our children on different subjects (Azeri language, Nature studies, Mathematics, English, Russian). The last results were also satisfactory; however some gaps also were defined and action plan for the improvement was compiled.
Celebrations for the children
In March with the support of our local sponsor we celebrated the national holiday Novruz Bayram - with mothers, aunts and children in the restaurant. It was very joyful: the children danced, sang, the mothers tried not lo lag behind them so everyone enjoyed the truly holiday atmosphere. Once again we felt ourselves as members of one big family.
In March one of our girls 14-year-old Nigar expressed her dream to become a member of the professional volleyball team. We discovered that she had necessary talent and capacity for it. So, she attended different classes and is now selected to the junior team of “AZERREYL” professional volleyball club, which won Europe top club cup 5 years ago and since then has been regularly taking part in Champions League. She dreams to get a place in the senior team and represent Azerbaijan in different international tournaments. She attends the volleyball classes 3 times a week.
In April two of our children Fagan and Alim passed exams and entered Azerbaijan-Turkish Lyceum which has the highest qualification ratio in the country. It is also a good place for our boys to prepare them for the autonomous life.
On June 01 International Day of Protection of Children’s Rights was celebrated with the participation of many guests in SOS Children’s Village Baku. The interesting music party was organised, our children showed vivid interest in the arrangement, they took an active part during the celebration and were awarded with many gifts provided by our kind sponsors. The event was demonstrated on 2 local TV channels. Besides it the special reportage devoted to SOS Children’s Village Baku was filmed on the state television.
Summer Holidays
In summer 9 of our children spent their vacation in Mardakan Summer Camp and 12 of them - in Guba Camp. 2 SOS families spent their summer time in the SOS Children’s Village Ganja. It considerably promoted the close relationship between the both villages. 6 families spent their summer with the biological relatives of SOS Mothers. The best memories were left after summer vacations, up to date the SOS mothers and their children like to watch the memorable pictures talking to each other again and again about the places they walked, the seashore where the children swam and played, the excursions where they had a lot of fun.
According to the plan on preparation of the elder children to the youth homes and to the independent life, summer jobs were found for 10 of our elder children. Youngsters were very happy to get their first manats (national currency) in life.
Besides the tutoring classes on Math, English and other school subjects, sport, drawing, sewing, and music activities also were successfully continued in 2007. This year 25 our children were admitted to Musical school No. 25. They are taught different musical specialties there.
One of the priorities of our work is physical development of the children and their entertainment. 24 our children attend the football circle, other 24 - the gymnastic and wrestling lessons.
Since 2004 “SOS Children’s Villages - Azerbaijan” Association has joined the Global Peace Games Movement (GPG). Sport and Youth Department of Baku city organized drawing contest where our children took an active part and won many prizes. In the framework of GPG in September - October, 2007 we organised the mini-football tournament at the playground of SOS Children’s Village Baku. 8 teams from the community and 4 teams from our Village competed in the tournament. All prize places were taken by our teams.
The Dental Cabinet continues serving the SOS children and the outside beneficiaries, especially the children from families in need and from families of refugees. The high quality treatment is absolutely free of charge.
With its ups and down, SOS Children’s Village Baku is going to complete one another year. All the achievements have been possible only thanking to your continuous support. We once again express our deep gratitude to you and taking the opportunity we would like to send our best wishes for the upcoming New Year and Christmas.
Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!
With best regards,
Ali Akhundov
Baku SOS Children’s Village Director
Relevant Countries: Azerbaijan.