By Assel Shaidikeshova | Project manager
Dear friends,
We are happy to share with you the results of our work in 2025 — a year filled with meetings, discoveries, and stories that touched us deeply.
Over 12 months of joint work in five cities across Kazakhstan, many meaningful things happened:
Every new connection and every story is more than just a number in a report. It is a real step toward greater trust, support, and positive change in the lives of teenagers.
Warm Moments of the Year
This year in Shymkent, we organized an outdoor creative workshop for mentors and mentees in a city park. Children and their mentors painted together, talked a lot, and enjoyed spending time with one another. After a full and inspiring day, everyone gathered for a shared pizza lunch. It was a day filled with warmth, care, joy, and genuine connection.
Syanam and Valya (Shymkent)
Syanam, a mentor, met Valya in April 2024. Their first meeting took place within the walls of a children’s home. Both were nervous and carefully observing one another — cautiously, with interest and inner tension.
With each subsequent meeting, the anxiety gradually faded. They began to grow accustomed to one another, learn each other’s personalities, and discover how to be present and attentive together. Step by step, a bond was formed — not quickly, but sincerely, warmly, and genuinely.
During this time, they celebrated two birthdays and two New Years together. These holidays are especially meaningful, as they are closely tied to feelings of family, warmth, and belonging. Sharing these moments became an important part of their journey and significantly strengthened their connection.
There were also challenging moments. At times, Valya would withdraw or become silent, as if testing how the adult would respond to being ignored or unanswered. During such periods, the support and professional guidance of the team’s psychologists proved especially important. This support helped Syanam find gentle and thoughtful responses — ones that did not hurt, but instead preserved the connection and brought them closer.
The changes that have taken place are noticeable and deeply valuable. At the beginning of their acquaintance, Syanam met a girl with a frightened, guarded look. Today, she sees a more confident, brave, and open girl — someone who is no longer afraid to express herself and her feelings.
Their relationship is a warm friendship with a touch of maternal care. There is now more tenderness in their communication: hearts, kiss emojis, and messages saying “I’m looking forward to seeing you.” For the mentor, this is a sign of trust, a source of motivation, and a quiet confirmation that the path she has chosen alongside Valya is the right one.
Throughout the year, the team in Atyrau worked actively: conducting “Mentor School” trainings, organizing mentor meetings, and hosting joint activities for mentor–mentee pairs. One such event was a pottery workshop, where mentors and children created clay items together by hand and kept them as warm, meaningful souvenirs.
In Karaganda, during 2025, we received 45 applications, conducted training for candidates, and 4 of them became mentors. Currently, 22 mentor–mentee pairs in Karaganda are supported by our team.
All mentors receive regular psychological support from project specialists and attend monthly “Mentors’ Club” meetings. These gatherings provide a space to share experiences and concerns, gain useful knowledge, and develop new skills that help build thoughtful and supportive relationships with children from orphanages.
Additionally, we organized a workshop in Karaganda where mentors and children created small toy keychains. Each participant made their own teddy bear to keep as a keepsake. The event was engaging, joyful, and filled with positive emotions.
When care is enough for more than one
Saule has been a mentor since 2019. Her first mentee grew up, successfully got married, and started her own family. Today, she is the mother of a wonderful child. Saule continues to stay in touch with her, as over the years they have become truly close, and this bond will remain for many years to come.
At one point, Saule realized that her experience, warmth, and care could be needed by another child who was still waiting for a trusted adult. She returned to the mentoring program and met Ekaterina — a girl who had been eagerly waiting for her mentor. Their relationship is just beginning, but Saule already sees how much attention Ekaterina needs and is happy to give it once again.
In Pavlodar, our team received and processed 24 mentor applications, conducted 19 interviews, and organized 3 “Mentor School” training sessions. As a result, 7 children were matched with their mentors.
This year, Pavlodar also hosted two workshops for mentors and children. In one, participants painted together; in the other, they cooked pizza. For many children, this was their first experience preparing a dish on their own. They were excited to see how easy and fun cooking can be, gained a useful life skill, and created warm memories that will stay with them for a long time. The children were very proud of themselves and happily said that the pizza they made was delicious.
This year was filled not only with numbers and tasks, but also with real stories — stories of change, growth, and deep human connection.
Thank you for being with us, for your support, and for believing in the importance of mentoring.
Together, we continue to change lives — step by step, person by person.
By Aselya Shaidikeshova | Project manager
By Aselya Shaidikeshova | Project manager
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