Golden Hearts…Running Around a Hotel Together for 48 Hours

Sunday, November 23 2008
Aktobe

Last night was my first night home in three days.  Thursday and Friday we had our festival, “Golden Heart”, for disabled children and their mothers.  The event was outstanding.  26 disabled children.  25 mothers and fathers (two of the children are sisters).  27 volunteers.  1 hotel. 7 hours of sleep over two days.

“Golden Heart” had four goals.  The first – to provide a forum for the parents (particularly mothers) to come together to share support, resources, and think of ways to help each other.  The second – to provide an opportunity for the children to relax and see that they are not alone.  The third – to further develop the relationship between volunteers and disabled children; both the specific one-on-one bond between each child and his or her volunteer, as well as strengthening the importance of local volunteerism.  The fourth – to bring additional attention to all of these areas to the general community.  I think we accomplished all these goals.  And, especially important, despite the conclusion of  “Golden Heart”, we’re continuing to expand our work in these areas.

The volunteer club will continue to work with these volunteers continuing to assist these, and other disabled children and their families.  We currently have around 100 volunteers that will also be working with other children, visiting their homes and also meeting in groups at a local coffee shop, “Black and Brown Coffee”.  They have been working together ranging from a few weeks to around a year.  Each of the disabled children and their parents created an abundance of artwork which we sold at the festival.  Unsold pieces will be displayed at “Black and Brown Coffee” with information about each child and our program.

I almost cried many times during the program.  The “children” ranged in age from 4 to 31 and of course different types of relationships could develop between volunteers and their children.  One of our volunteers, Tanya, ran around like crazy “playing” with her young child.  She never seemed tired out and kept going for two days straight.  Another volunteer, Sana, who has been working with her 31 year old “child”, Nastya, and Nastya’s mother for a year, spent the two days with Nastya, sitting together and tirelessly trying to entertain her.  Nastya is fully immobile.  One time, Sana was playing with her.  She was throwing marbles up and down, up and down – and expressing her excitement, and just trying to cheer her up.  Nastya had  minimal, if any response.  It was at that moment that I realized how much Sana had done and meant to Nastya’s family.

The first night, volunteers went home after the end of most of the day’s programming and didn’t stay for the Discotech, because it was late and everyone needed to get home.  The second night, however, we had extra hotel rooms for volunteers (since some of the families went home the second evening, as there was no program the next day, just breakfast), so about 10 volunteers stayed.  After the Discotech, the volunteers and four disabled children of the same age (17-21) stayed up talking and playing games together until 5 AM.  At about 2:30 AM, I left them to go to sleep.  Waiting for the elevator, I just smiled at the fact that this group developed a real friendship.

Earlier in that evening, before the late night games was the “Mother’s Ball”.  We honored each of the mothers (and two fathers), presented them with a letter of thanks and put on a show to honor them for their on-going and unceasing love of and work with their children.  The brass section of the Aktobe Philharmonic performed, four Kazakh dancers did a series of dances, there were a few singers, all the mothers were all given these beautiful hand-made shoulder wraps from Orenberg, Russia, and finally Vika and I reprised our waltz.

After the “Mother’s Ball”, we had a “thank you” volunteer meeting with our staff.  They surprised us (Maral, Gulmiera, Kurulai, Rima, and I) with a poster they had done as a thank you to us.  And, the volunteer who presented it made a speech, during which she cried.  She said to us, “Both you and we knew how important this program would be for the parents and for the children.  But, we want you to know (and here she started to cry) how important this was for us as well.”  I joined in with some tears.

Later in the evening, after I left our late-night partyers, I went down to the bar to get some work done.
The father of one of the disabled children, Alibek, a 25 year old young man who is nearly completely  paralyzed due to a disease that continues to affect him and has made him blind, also came down to the bar.  We had met a few times before and talked, but never one-on-one and over beer.  We looked at pictures from my travels and from America, and talked about politics, and life.  We also talked with Greg, a former PCV in Aktobe, both of whom were glad to make the connection with each other again.

I am incredibly proud of my organization and our volunteers, and thankful to Dastan Hotel and the many businesses and individuals that made it possible for the disabled children and volunteers to run around the hotel next to oil and gas businessmen and to play keep away with balloons in the front lobby coffee shop.  My friends and I are planning a charity party for next Saturday, more volunteer meetings, and our wheelchair factory.  There’s a lot coming up on the agenda, but for a moment – I’m able to take a breath and see what we have accomplished, for everyone involved.  As I said to our volunteers in our meeting, “Everyday when I come into our office, I am inspired by my coworkers.  After spending these two days with you, I am similarly and immensely inspired.  Thank you.”