In Kazakhstan, orphans and children without parental care, after graduating from orphanages, remain on the street and face numerous problems. Many of them are waiting for housing from the state provided by law for decades.
During recent years, the damp basements, vehicle service stations, railway stations, car washes, markets, and benches in the park during the summer are the places for the overnight stay for the graduates of Uryupinsk orphanage in Akmola region of Kazakhstan. Many of them are already over 30, so they have to seek shelter for their families too.
“No one helps us in solving our problems. For example, in Astana orphanage, the patrons help the orphans. Some of the graduates are 10-15 years younger than me, but already have their own apartments. Here, we live in small basements with our families. People from akimat came, and forbade us to live in the basement, demolished everything. They said we could not live there, and put us out on the street,” says Alexey Safonov, a graduate of Uryupinsk orphanage.
This is not the first time he seeks assistance addressing the journalists. This is a part of Safonov’s video message to Nursultan Nazarbayev published more than 5 years ago.
Screenshots from the YouTube video “Appeal No. 3 to President of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbayev”. Published on July 10, 2015.
During this time, the President of the country and several akims of the capital changed, and Astana itself was renamed Nur-Sultan. Only Safonov’s life remains the same. Currently, he still does not have his own residential property. Alexey has two children; his wife is also an orphanage graduate.
He rents an apartment for 100,000 tenge a month ($233), while receiving a salary of 140,000 tenge ($326). He is waiting to receive a housing for the seventh year already. He does not know for how long he has to rent an apartment, as well as his other friends from the orphanage.
“I registered for the waiting list for housing in 2010. To do this, I hired a lawyer for 100 thousand tenge from the allowance allocated for registering. I was included to the waiting list. It is useless. In a year, one or two people receive housing, that is all. At first, it was around 100 people, but now, there are fewer and fewer. There is no hope,” says Samat Tashbolatov, a graduate of Uryupinsk orphanage.
He has two brothers and a sister. They grew up together in the orphanage after a terrible accident in their family.
“In 1990, my parents started drinking. Once, I woke up at night, my older brother was not there, and my parents were fighting. I went to the kitchen, and saw my father stabbing my mother, killing her before my eyes. While I held the wound on her neck, father left the house, and I was not able to save my mother. There was so much blood. Everyone who ends up in an orphanage has own tragic story,” he says.
Tashbolatovs always stick together. They do not drink; they work and support each other. None of the four siblings received an apartment from the state.
Orphans registered for the waiting list for housing, receive an apartment only after 20 years, because of the slow work of the regions’ administrations, said Yesengazy Imangaliev, the Chairman of the Committee for Children’s Rights Protection of the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan.
According to December 2020 data, 807 apartments were allocated for the orphans and children without parental care from the housing facilities stock. This is enough for only 1.4% of the total number of people from the waiting list.
“Local executive bodies do not provide information on the allocation of housing to orphans. This indicates a lack of monitoring of this issue,” Imangaliev stated at a meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission on Juvenile Justice and Protection of their Rights under the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In the capital alone, the number of orphans and children without parental care is 838, according to Nur-Sultan’s deputy akim Nurlan Nurkenov. There are 2,771 orphans in the waiting list for housing from the state housing facilities stock, and in 2021, only 14 of them received housing.
Marat Boranbaev, an orphanage graduate, was not one of those lucky people. The janitor’s salary of 120 thousand tenge ($280), from which 40 thousand ($93) is a renting fee, does not allow saving up for own housing. The orphanage graduate did not receive the housing from the state.
“I have a child, and soon, the second kid will be born. Money is tight. Only I work in my family. I want our children to live better than we do,” he says, holding back his tears.
The problem of providing housing for orphans is periodically raised at different levels: in the government, parliament, maslikhats. However, for some reason, it is not solved. In early April 2021, the member of the lower house of parliament Vakil Nabiev addressed the government with a proposal to create an accessible, easy-to-use, unified digital database where orphans and children without parental care could observe how the waiting list is processing.
By the order of the President of Kazakhstan, an institution for development and support “Otbasy Bank” was created, which has the functions of centralized monitoring, registering for the waiting list and distribution of housing. On its basis, a Centre for Housing Provision is to be created; it will control the maintenance, registration of all those in need of housing, as well as the distribution of housing.
“However, it was revealed that Otbasy Bank database did not have options for registration for the waiting list and receiving housing for orphans,” MP Nabiev stated.
Orphanage graduate Denis Scheiner registered for the waiting list for housing in 2014, under number 2058. Now, his position in the queue is 1438. He lived in a boiler room, in a tire service station, in a trailer, and now, he rents a hostel room for 5 thousand tenge ($11.7) a day.
“I think, the akimat is to blame, only akim is in charge. I am waiting for the 8th year. The list does not change at all. I visit the website of the housing fund weekly: I either move 10 positions forward, or go back to the previous position. Recently, a man from “Zhilstroysberbank” (“Otbasy Bank” now) called, and offered me my promised apartment on a mortgage. I asked him where could I find money for this. I think this is not fair,” says Scheiner.
Anna Eichwald, orphanage graduate, who is raising a son with disabilities, very well knows what injustice is. Having waited for housing for several years, she suddenly was removed from the waiting list.
“I registered for the waiting list of the housing department in 2011. Now, it is 2021, we are still waiting, but it turned out that we completely disappeared from the list. I went to the housing department to ask why it happened. I went there, wrote them, called them, but received only formal replies. They just answered: that is all, goodbye. I am still calling them, but as soon as they hear my name, they hang up,” she says.
Anna Eichwald is an artist. She pays about 60 thousand tenge ($140) for rent, and spends a lot of money on the treatment of her 11-year-old son Vitaly.
“Sometimes, I barely make a living. There are many difficulties, I have to move constantly from place to place. Well, it is normal if you are alone, but moving with a child is very difficult and expensive,” says the orphanage graduate.
The members of the capital maslikhat believe that it is necessary to increase the provision of housing for orphans by 10-15% and determine a coordinating body to monitor the employment and residence of orphanage graduates.
“They have no relatives to turn to in difficult situations. Therefore, the risk of committing a crime or falling under someone’s negative influence increases. The constant problem is registration of a place of residence. Until they get an apartment, they should register at an orphanage, at their original place of study, or at a hostel,” suggested the member of the Nur-Sultan Maslikhat Vladislav Sergeev at the maslikhat meeting on the provision of state policy to protect the rights of orphans.
Sergey Kirichenko, a graduate of the Uryupinsk orphanage, has already served two terms for criminal offenses. After graduating from the orphanage in 2005, he remained on the street; he had no registration of a place of residence, no housing and no money to buy food.
“I got angry at the whole world, because the state did not provide housing, and committed a robbery. I received a term of 5 years and 6 months under serious article. I served 4 years and 2 months, and was released on parole hoping to receive an apartment. It did not happen. I committed a crime again, because I had no money to buy food, could not create a family, had nowhere to live. I committed a robbery again. Life would be completely different if the state took care of people like me,” says Kirichenko.
According to the legislation, orphans and children without parental care have the primary right to receive housing from the state housing facilities stock or leased by the local executive body in the private housing stock. In addition, in the distribution of housing, these categories should be allocated at least 20%. The provided housing must be at least 15 square meters per person.
Orphans should be registered for the waiting list at birth, so that by the time they are adults, they already have a place to live.
The necessary laws were adopted, the regulatory bodies are monitoring, the members of the parliament raise the problem of orphans at the highest levels, but in reality, the orphanages graduates continue living in poor conditions.
“In our lives, we see only tears, only suffering. Why not reach out and give the orphans a house? Why do you all want to live beautifully and have money, power, but do not give us opportunities? Where should we go? To your house? How long will we live on the street? Why have apartments become a business?” asks Aziz Kadyrov, a graduate of the Sayram orphanage in the city of Shymkent.
Aziz works as a janitor in the theatre and lives there. After the performance is over, and the actors and the audience leave, he makes his bed and sleeps here, at the aisle. Recently, he was allowed to live in a small unheated room, an extension to the theatre. This is all that an orphanage graduate can count on, says Aziz, recalling tortures, beatings and hunger in orphanage.
“In the Shymkent orphanage No.4, they beat children on the head with books, in the orphanage No.3, they drowned us in the bathtub. The teachers went home early for different holidays or weddings, then the nurses came and beat us. Sometimes, they took our kefir (drinking yoghurt – Tr.) home, took our bread home,” he shares his bitter memories.
“Will you publish everything I told you?” asked Kadyrov. He is already desperate to wait for the housing, to live in poor conditions, to fight for the truth, and he is very afraid of his thirtieth birthday. After all, his mother died at the age of 30.
“At 30, you are very close to death. I have such thoughts, I am not happy that I turn 30. The state did not provide an apartment for me, but I also want to have children, a family. I am also a citizen of Kazakhstan,” Aziz says.
Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan, a project to introduce the Child Welfare Index was launched. The President of the country ordered to introduce the monitoring mechanism to improve the situation of children and ensure equal opportunities for all.