NEW ORPHANAGE IN CENTRAL ASIA Slavic Gospel Association is excited to see the growth in a recent project in Central Asia. A North American partner helped provide funding for a new orphanage. The picture is dismal for many children in these orphanages. Some are abandoned, homeless, or their parents have been imprisoned. For others, difficult economic situations force parents to bring their children to an orphanage with the hopes of being able to take them back again sometime in the future. Because of their approach with the children, a number of state-run orphanages are allowing local missionaries and church workers to come in and share Christ's love. The evangelical churches SGA serves want to expand this ministry to reach even more children. Through this new Orphans Reborn location, workers from a local evangelical church will have an opportunity to work with disabled children. Through regular visits, the teams give them Bibles, provide emergency food and clothing, and disciple those who choose to follow the Lord. As a result, Christians forge new friendships and share the Gospel with the children. As the community sees this, it helps build more evangelistic bridges. SGA offers a sponsorship program to help connect other believers with these children. $30 enables Orphans Reborn to reach one child for a whole year. Each child will receive a children's Bible and study materials, prizes for progress in the program, as well as supplemental humanitarian aid when possible. The church workers will also receive teaching aids and supplies to help them in their discipleship of the children, ongoing leadership training, transportation to and from the orphanages and other necessary items. Call To Action * Pray for the spiritual strength and growth of the children touched by this ministry. * Pray for the health and safety of the field staff and their families in this expanded work. * Pray for the workers in these homes, that their compassion would continue to grow. Visit: MISSION NETWORK NEWS MISSION NETWORK NEWS FROM ASIA

Official Opening Of Mercy Foundation In Kyrgyzstan

CHRISTIAN FACILITIES ESTABLISHED IN KYRGYZSTAN

Elder Chia Shan Yang, a retired shipping broker and merchant marine captain founded Central Asia Sharing Aid (C.A.S.A.) in 2000. He and his wife, Yuen Chen Yang, had previously served as missionaries to Kazakhstan. It was during this period that Elder Yang felt led by God to start Christian schools. He was reminded of becoming a believer himself through a missionary school in China. He soon met another missionary with a similar vision. They joined force and started Mercy Foundation of Kyrgyzstan. C.A.S.A. is a major supporter of Mercy Foundation. Mercy Foundation, a non-profit interdenominational Christian organization founded on May 11, 2001, is the first legally registered Christian Foundation established in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, with the full approval of the Religious Affairs, Justice and Education Departments. Mercy Foundation's goal is to establish Christian charity projects, such as schools, orphanages, playgrounds, technical training centers, seminaries, churches, medical clinics, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, and other projects, as God leads. Mercy Foundation has been blessed with the cooperation and goodwill of the Kyrgyz government. Our school and orphanage projects are dedicated to bring Central Asian Muslim children to Christ, uniting the efforts of foreign and domestic Christian organizations. Some of our orphanage children formerly lived in city sewers and others came from abused and neglected backgrounds. Many of the children in our schools come from poor families. We also have a live-in school for the mentally and physically disabled children. Our five schools and two orphanages serve about 1100 children, between the ages of 4 to 18, in Northern Kyrgyzstan. We not only provide for the physical needs of the children, such as food, clothing, shelter, health care and education, but also for their spiritual needs, including Bible studies, prayer time and learning from Christian role models. Mercy Foundation was founded in 1999 as a united effort between individual Christian organizations: Central Asia Sharing Aid of Illinois, New Life Ministries of North Carolina and Good News Bible of Kyrgyzstan. In addition, Mission of Mercy of Colorado, has been securing child sponsorships for the students and orphans of Mercy Foundation since 2000. Mercy Foundation's newest project is the completion of a gymnasium building adjacent to the Tokmok School of Blessing in September 2004. This multi-purpose facility will house a library, classrooms, and basketball courts available for various sport activities, in addition to church and evangelism activities. During this same time period, the Foundation will also complete a playground and adjacent evangelism-building project in Tokmok. This project is collaboration between Mercy Foundation, Kids Around the World, Rockford First Assembly and C.A.S.A., all from Rockford, Illinois. Dedication for both the gymnasium and the playground/evangelism facilities took place in October of 2004. The President of Kyrgyzstan, the regional governor and the mayor of Tokmok all attended. As requested by the regional Kyrgyz Governor, Mercy Foundation will start Christian grade schools in the Kyrgyz countryside in the near future. The summer of 2004 saw the beginning of Christian summer camps for poor and homeless children in many of our Christian schools, taught by the voluntary efforts of our Christian school teachers. The camps were extremely well attended and well received, and will continue in future summers. We welcome church groups, including youth groups, to come on short-term missions trips to help us at these summer camps. As God leads, Mercy Foundation will start new projects in other Central Asian countries, such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and go westward toward the Caucasus, Turkey and Macedonia, to recover the missionary work established by the Apostle Paul in the first Century. We claim the trust and promises in these verses from the Bible: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” found in Proverbs 22:6. Our founder, C. S. Yang, became a Christian at a Christian school through the efforts of American missionaries serving in China. That is why he and his wife are so passionate about reaching the children of Central Asia with the gospel of Jesus Christ through Christian education, while their hearts are still tender to receive Jesus. As Jesus said in Mark 9:37, "Whomever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me." It is our hope and prayer that the next generation of Central Asian Christians will come from our schools and bear fruit in changed lives and increased Christian witness in Central Asia. Thank you for your prayer and financial support. Visit the website: CENTRAL ASIA SHARING AID

UNICEF ESTIMATES ONE MILLION CHILDREN LIVING IN INSTITUTIONS IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Nobody knows exactly how many children are living in institutions in Europe and Central Asia. But according to a report issued by UNICEF, the most conservative estimates put the figure at around 1 million. UNICEF spokeswoman Angela Hawke tells RFE/RL from Geneva that these children are“extremely vulnerable” to violence. "Firstly, they were vulnerable before they ever went into an institution. These are children for whom things have gone badly wrong otherwise they wouldn't be in an institution. Secondly, once they're going to an institution they may be isolated from their family [and] from society. And what goes on behind these closed walls is very hard to find out," Hawke said. Residential institutions include either public or private orphanages, children's homes, and detention centers. According to UNICEF, institutionalization -- no matter how well intentioned -- hinders intellectual, physical, emotional, and social development. The younger the child, and the longer the time spent in institutions, the greater the damage. "We don't even know how many children live in institutions. So that makes it very, very hard to find out who they are, where they are, what their problems are. It makes it very hard to actually respond or plan." An estimated 200,000 children are living in institutions throughout Central Asia, half of them in Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan, about 30,000 are orphans, with the rest being children who have difficulty with parents, behavioral problems, or children who were simply abandoned. There are also almost 20,000 children with disabilities living in institutional care in Uzbekistan, in addition to 3,500 children without disabilities, around 800 infants under one year old, and about 570 children in detention. Meanwhile in Kyrgyzstan, there are more than 2,000 children in institutions, while in Tajikistan at least 11,000 children under 16 are living in institutions. Hawke stresses that violence affects children living in residential institutions from Western Europe to Central Asia. "The situation of children in institutions is maybe no more problematic in Central Asia than anywhere else. It's the fact that they are in an institution that is part of the problem. The research shows that violence against children in institutions seems to be a problem right across Europe and right into Central Asia," she said. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has raised the issue of police officers ill-treating children and young people in police custody in Albania, France, Georgia, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The committee has also expressed concern at the lack of a clear ban on corporal punishment in institutions in Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Kyrgyzstan, and Moldova. A report on Kazakhstan shows that 80 percent of children in residential schools are treated “cruelly.” Hawke says there are serious difficulties with obtaining data about institutionalized children which undermine the chance of an effective response to the dangers they face. "We don't even know how many children live in institutions. So that makes it very, very hard to find out who they are, where they are, what their problems are. It makes it very hard to actually respond or plan," Hawke said. The UNICEF study was issued ahead of a regional meeting on Violence Against Children in Europe and Central Asia taking place in Slovenia. UNICEF calls on ministers attending the meeting to legislate a ban on all forms of violence against all children in all settings -- institutions, schools, the home, and the community -- to screen staff working with children in institutions, and to create effective complaints channels for these children. The organization also urges governments to ensure that the institutionalization or detention of children is a measure of last resort, and that that these children have regular contact with their own families. Meanwhile, the Japanese government and the United Nations have decided to extend assistance of $2 million to the project: "Every Child has the Right to Grow Up in a Family Environment." "This new program aims to reach around 32,000 [children] in the next year or so, trying to get them actually out of institutions, either back to their own families or into foster families. No matter how well-meaning or caring an institution is, it still can't replace a family environment for a child," Hawke said. The project, which is also targeting 30,000 families that are at risk of institutionalizing their children, will establish community-based social services and centers for children and families, sensitize professionals and experts, boost the capacity of professionals to respond to children and families at risk, and promote foster care at a community level. Visit the UNICEF WEBSITE

REFUGEES FROM KOSOVAN FLOOD INTO ALBANIAN ORPHANAGE FOR HELP Lucy Norman, a local nursery teacher, has recently returned after 3 months working in an Albanian orphanage and helping Kosovan refugees. This was Lucy's second trip to the orphanage, where she worked as a volunteer. The orphanage has been taken over by Salisbury-based charity 'Hope and Homes for Children', and cares for 40 children, ranging in age from 2 months to 5 years. "Most of the children have been abandoned at birth, and are considered the lowest of the low. Even amongst some of the staff, there was prejudice, and a real need to change their practices. The children often did not receive the attention and stimulation that they needed," says Lucy. Lucy worked with another British volunteer to help look after the children, and train local staff in childcare and development. There were many problems to overcome, not least the language, since none of the local staff spoke English. But as time progressed they saw the quality of care improve. "One of the children was thought to be deaf, as she didn't respond when her name was called. But it turned out that she was simply not used to hearing her name, and did not know what she was called." Many of the children will be adopted, but for those who are not, the charity is trying to set up 'small family homes.' These will house up to 8 children, where they will be able to stay up to age 16, without being moved or separated from siblings and friends. Kosovan Refugees The orphanage is situated in Albania's main port, Durres, about an hour's drive from the capital Tirana. When Lucy arrived there in mid-April, there were already 20,000 refugees from Kosovo. This number rapidly grew to 80,000 as people flooded in. Through the local church that she was attending, Lucy got involved in distributing food and clothing, and heard first-hand what people had suffered. [Picture shows Lucy at Durres with Angela, Narsede, Razi and Mosa] "Many people had arrived with nothing, not even shoes. Their possessions and documents had been taken at the border, and many of the men had been led away. Even babies had been strip-searched to make sure that nothing was hidden in their clothing. Some of the refugees wanted to talk, especially those with good English, and hearing their stories really affected me. I went back to see one family again and again, and developed a warm relationship with them. But the last time I saw them was different; conversation was strained and they were obviously very tense. They were about to return to Kosovo, and had no idea what to expect. But they wanted to get back quickly to ensure no-one else took their house." The relationships that have been built up will continue, as the local churches continue to send aid into Kosovo and help people try to rebuild their homes and lives. Visit The Website