Baby Houses in Kazakhstan

If you have time to look at other families' blogs or the pictures on our adoption agency's website, you will notice that the Baby Houses have rugs, toys, wooden cribs, walkers, and colorful murals throughout the buildings. Usually the children remain in the Baby House until they turn three, then they move to a seperate younger child orphanage until they turn five. Some regions have the older toddlers in an adjacent building to the Baby House so you may still see pictures of the infants by them near the playground. The toddlers take music lessons and often put on little shows for all the parents coming to pick up children. There are usually playgrounds at all of the orphanages and the toddlers do get to play outside. Many of the items at the various orphanages are donated by international adoption agencies and by individual parents coming to adopt children. The World Partners Adoption website discusses their playground construction projects in their Humanitarian Aid section of their website and it is definitely great to see that our agency is dedicated with supporting the orphanages in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan has an excellent reputation of caring for their children who live in their orphanage system. Often when the children leave the baby house through adoption, there are many bittersweet tears from the staff and caregivers, since they love these children so dearly and will miss them - yet they only want them to have a happy life. When post placement reports are sent back and pictures of the children are given to the baby house, the caregivers remember each of the children by name and are delighted to see them thriving in their new homes. Many US doctors have commented on the good care of the children upon their arrival home, and one is even quoted as saying, "We aren't sure what Kazakhstan does right, or what other countries do wrong." Doctors are often are amazed at how well the children look upon arrival home after being adopted, saying these children do not look like typical children who have lived in an orphanage setting.

There are multiple reasons that children are living in these institutionalized settings, called Baby houses in Kazakhstan, such as relinquishment or termination of parental rights, abandonment, death of birth parents, economic strife, unwed birth mothers, as well as a number of other reasons. When children are abandoned, either at birth or later, the custodianship and guardianship bodies of the local Departments of Education try to locate the child's birth parents, but often time the birth mother has left false information, making it impossible to locate her. In some regions, Hospital officials will go to the address that the birth mother gave at the time of admission, but often they are unsuccessful in finding the birth mother or any other family members. In the case of abandonment, the Akim, Hospital or Department of Health (Depending on the region) will write up an abandonment act which will allows the child to be placed into the Baby House. If a child is considered to be a "foundling" meaning literally "found" outside of the police station, hospital, or park with no identifying information, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the Militia) will try to find the birth parents or some family member who can be responsible for the child. If they are unsuccessful in their attempts to find a family member, the child is placed for adoption. The children must be on the local registry for 3 months and then on the national registry for 3 more months before they can be adopted internationally. The youngest child to be adopted from Kazakhstan will be at least 6 months old. Not all of the children living in the orphanages are cleared for adoption because parents have written a letter or family comes to visit them from time to time. The following information is provided by our adoption agency and they do a good job explaining the Baby House environment in Kazakhstan.

The Baby Houses are unique due to their staff and daily routines with the children. The baby houses are staffed with doctors and nurses and specialists such as speech therapists, physical therapists, neurologists, massage therapists, music teachers, and nannies. It is similar to a residential medical facility. The children have three full meals per day along with 3 snacks per day. Infants, of course, are on their own feeding schedule. The children are divided into groups according to their ages. There are typically 8-12 children per group depending on their age and there is one primary caregiver per group and 2 nannies to care for them at all time. Each child is assigned a primary caregiver so the child is able to establish a bond with someone in the important early stages of brain development and attachment. The daily routine of the children, while a very strict schedule, allows them to engage in playtime with their friends, attend music lessons twice per week, learn dances and poems, and work with a speech therapist every day for up to 30 minutes! Children under one year of age work with a massage therapist and physical therapist routinely to aid them in developing gross motor skills and muscle development. This interaction with these specialists provides stimulation, which allows them to learn musical patterns, sing memorized songs, enhance gross and fine motor skills, improve receptive and expressive language, and have interaction that will help them with their cognitive and emotional development. Around the holidays or special occasions the children wear costumes and will put on performances to a variety of audiences!

The Baby Houses and Orphanages are often very stark in the outside appearance, however the inside walls are typically covered with colorful murals of animals and characters which creates a child friendly environment. The baby houses and orphanages are very clean and free of debris, and toys are neatly stored on shelves. The building is usually a two-story facility that has a full kitchen, laundry room, play rooms, therapy rooms, and bedrooms where the children are grouped by age. Several children sleep in the same room in separate beds, which are lined up in rows. The outside often has a playground and a covered area that seats many children for outside play. Often times the playground and outside equipment is in need of updating and repair, however, the orphanage budget does not have the money to replace or repair the equipment, so they do the best with what they have.

The workers are very protective of the children's health, as an illness can quickly spread creating an epidemic throughout the entire house. The children are sent to the hospital for fevers and other illness we might consider to be minor because the caregivers are trying to keep all of the children free from getting sick. The workers are also very careful with the people that come into contact with the children and enter the baby house so they can limit the exposure to germs to the children.

Kazakhstan's first lady Sara Alpysovna Nazarbaeva is the President of "Bobek" Children's Foundation, established in 1992, and is the winner of The International I. Dogramachi World Health Organization Prize and The International Unity Prize. She has dedicated her life to underprivileged children, and has taken upon herself the responsibility for thousands of orphaned and handicapped children. She has created this foundation to help mother and child care, provide supervision of foundling homes and orphanages, provide equipment and supplies to schools, aid gifted children from low-income families, and assist to the child health care system. In 1997 she launched the first National Children's Rehabilitation Center and the "SOS Children's Villages of Kazakhstan" which are the family villages for orphans. Mrs. Nazarbaeva plans on building these children's villages so the orphaned children can live in a family setting. These children's villages consist of several houses build together in a group where many children live in one house with several caretakers. Mrs. Nazarbaeva understands the need for the family, and her plans for the children's villages will enable the orphaned children to grow up in a family atmosphere.

With this type of dedication to the children, stemming all the way from the top of the political structure, it is no doubt the children are so well cared for in Kazakhstan. This is a country that deeply loves it's children and wants what is best for them. It is with great honor that adoption agencies are able to work in this beautiful, kind, and compassionate country. We support them by assisting in providing loving homes and care for these precious orphaned children of Kazakhstan who are so loved by their country.