Oasis Kyrgyzstan
Oasis Kyrgyzstan started operating in January 2009, primarily with vulnerable young people. One of the projects we run is based at a youth prison for boys aged 14 - 19. Country Base Leader Thirza (far left) speaks about the work...
Many of the boys in the youth prison come from the streets. They were homeless for a variety of reasons: they are orphans or have alcoholic parents. Others were simply poor, which forced them prematurely into work.
While on the streets, many young people join the mafia, which offers them apartments and a good salary. They are very vulnerable, not just to the mafia, but also to the false promises of traffickers, who sell them for slave labour domestically and into Russia.
They are arrested for all kinds of crimes, from stealing to murder. While the boys are awaiting their trial, they are held in isolation and are permitted no visitors. This can last for several months. After sentencing, the boys join the other 60 or so inmates, and spend anything from a few months to ten years in the prison.
Right now the situation there is pretty difficult. The Prison Director had no control and as a result the boys ran their day-to-day lives themselves. The guards had no authority, and one 16-year-old prisoner - with a team of bodyguards and helpers around him - was in charge of the others.
In mid-July, a fight broke out in the prison, leaving one boy dead and eight others in hospital. The Director was fired, and a new one has just been put in place.
Many of the young people suffer from very low self-esteem. They have no real opportunities to achieve - no access to education, no family; no one outside to genuinely care for them, or give them hope for the future.
Oasis Kyrgyzstan aims to fill that gap. We run a street hockey program at the prison and give classes in life skills during the breaks. Hockey is a new sport in Kyrgyzstan and helps the boys to work as a team, instead of only looking out for themselves. In order to play hockey well, they need to stick to the rules and develop much-needed discipline.
Hockey also builds their self-esteem, and teaches the boys that their actions have consequences. The hockey program is just one component in a long-term strategy to reintegrate these outcast boys back into society.
Many of these young men have nowhere to go when they leave the prison, and tend to return to the mafia to engage in all kinds of criminal activities, including drug dealing. It usually doesn't take long before the boys are once again caught by the police and returned to prison.
So for the future, Oasis aims to be able to support the boys when they are released. We are currently developing partnerships with the police and the Ministry of Education. We hope to enable the young people to access government-run vocational training.
Prayer Points:
The unemployment rate in Kyrgyzstan has been estimated as high as 50%. On release, these boys really need jobs, but as there aren't any, we want to create them! Please pray for a project manager and funding to start a business which will provide training and employment for the young people.
We are planning to start work in the children's detention centre (boys and girls ages 7-18) and a boys' reform school (boys ages 7-15) in the next couple of months. Please pray that we get the clearance we need to work in these facilities.
Please pray for the future of the prison - that the new Director will bring positive change to the way the prison is run.