BABUSHKA ADOPTION PROJECT: HELPING THE POOR ELDERLY IN KYRGYZSTAN

The NGO "Babushka Adoption
Project" (BAP) was established in July 1999 with the help of a grant from the Swiss
Federal Ministry of International Affairs. It supports seniors who live alone under
desperate conditions. The way a government treats its elderly is an indicator of its
economic and democratic development. In Kyrgyzstan, numerous impoverished citizens, most
of them elderly, resort to begging for money. Democracy has not done the elderly much
benefit as the government simply ignores the elderly, leaving them alone in a terrible
situation. Finally, there are NGOs that address social problems and help. The elderly
represent one of the poorest sectors of the population. Most live alone in ramshackle
houses or in tiny apartments using their inadequate pensions, that average between 200-300
soms (US$ 9), to fend for themselves confronting the lack of government attention and
treating their medical ailments with expensive medications.

The Babushka Adoption Project finds foreign and domestic sponsors for seniors in need,
a sponsoring process called "adoption." The sponsors pays US$ 10 each month to
the account of the NGO and it gives the money to a senior in local cash. So far, forty
elderly women and men have been adopted in Bishkek and in the Sulukta, Osh region. The
executive manager of Babushka Adoption Project, Xenia Kirsanova, plans to help over 500
seniors throughout Kyrgyzstan over the next 2 years. Recently, she received over 600
profiles of seniors in need from Kyrgyzstan’s numerous social organizations that fail
to help the elderly as a result of the economical crises in the country.

The elderly have lost their trust in government and the world around them. Many elderly
do not use electricity because it is too expensive. Many cannot afford to buy coal to cook
food in a stove. A never before married 65-year-old woman named Raisa Kipkaeva is one such
example of an adopted Babushka. She lives alone in a tiny dwelling attached to a house
with space only for a bed and a stove. For many years she has been sick with chronic
bronchitis. Her pension is 275 soms a month, insufficient to afford medicine and have
enough remaining to buy food. When meeting with Babushka Adoption Project volunteers, the
elderly often weep and tell how about the hopeless of their situation. Even those who
receive aid for three or even four months cannot believe that somebody out there remembers
and cares about them. The adopted elderly always ask what they can do for their sponsors,
and express their gratitude to the sponsors by giving embroidery or some fruit they have
grown..

The work of Babushka Adoption Project is very successful but there are also many
challenges remaining. The most crucial is the problem of getting foreigners to trust the
NGO with contributions. Knowing the corruptible nature of the post-Soviet system,
contributors triple-check where their money goes. Babushka Adoption Project is now working
on publishing booklets with all the information sponsors might need to quell their doubts.
Another challenge is getting local wealthy individuals to help elderly war veterans, those
very people who improved the lives of everyone through their service in World War II, who
struggled to contribute during post-war years and believed in the future despite their
hardships.

Anna Kirey, Student, Department of Journalism, American
University—Krygyzstan