By Benjamin Bach
Danish European Mission has a partnership with the children's center Svetly Put, located in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. We regularly receive feedback from our partners about how the children are doing, and I would like to share some of the stories with our readers here.
13-year-old Tima
Tima has lived on the streets for three years and is a true street child, as the social workers at Svetly Put call him. That is, he lives a hard life on the streets with violence, abuse and theft. When he came to the center, he was suffering from tuberculosis. The staff took good care of him. The disease was treated and he had a good time at Svetly Put with children and adults. But one day he ran away with one of the new bikes at Svetly Put and the staff have not seen him since. They suspect he went to the lake Issyk Köl, where many Russians and Kazakhs spend their summer vacation, where he can make a good living by begging among the tourists. The love Tima experienced at Svetly Put will hopefully have an impact on his life in the future. Maybe he will return to the center and start school - but for now, he lives a harsh life on the streets with thousands of other street children - as a child made in the true image of God.
Five-year-old Asia from the Dungan people
Asia initially had both a mother and father, but the father beat his wife. When he started abusing Asia, the mother ran away with her daughter and they had to live on the streets without possessions or identification papers. Svetly Put helped the mother get back on her feet, first through a stay at a women's shelter and then by getting her a steady job. Asia received treatment for her condition and now lives in an apartment with her mother.
A future
Each child who comes to Svetly Put is helped based on their specific problems and needs. The vision is to send the children home to their families or family members who can take care of them, because that is where they are most comfortable. Some children find that Svetly Put becomes their home for almost their entire childhood. Whatever problems the children may have, the staff at Svetly Put are there with open arms, ready to take care of the children who come in from a life on the streets that is violent and brutal.
