Family Preservation Program

Frank Foundation Launched a New Initiative – “Family Preservation Program”
    
    Frank Foundation recognizes that there are many factors that explain why children are abandoned or placed in child care institutions. Even though in the past few years the most rapidly developing countries in the CIS have increasingly acknowledged this growing problem, there are still not enough effective programs to resolve it. Single mothers, low-income families, elderly parents (grandparents) or other senior citizens are forced to take on the direct role of parents or primary guardians – the number of such families is constantly growing, but they do not have the practical help and support in fulfilling their basic life needs. If a family is functioning well– provides stability and love for the child – Frank Foundation strives to preserve such family unit. Research shows that if a child is taken from home, the family is much harder to reunite.
    
    Frank Foundation’s new initiative – “Family Preservation Program” – provides support, which would allow the family to keep its cohesiveness in a trustworthy and stable environment.
    
    Such support is initiated through financial aid in the form of mini grants, which the Foundation would distribute to specific families who are pre-screened by the appropriate government agencies. These are families in crisis, whose children can be placed in childcare institutions.
    
    On January 31, 2006 in Astana, Kazakhstan, twenty-two single mothers from low-income living conditions received the first twenty-two mini grants. Each family has different, complicated circumstances; many lack support from relatives, many others have children with disabilities.
    
    Board of Directors of Frank Foundation Child Assistance International provided these families with grants of 530,000 tenge for financial support. FFCAI expresses deep gratitude to the chairman of the board of directors of “Landstar Systems” and member of the US Chamber of Commerce board of directors, Mr. Jeffrey Crowe, who donated 130,000 tenge to this cause. As a result, each family received 30,000 tenge. Frank Foundation also expresses appreciation to Astana city office of Akim and the Department of Interior, as well as to “Ana Alakany” Public Foundation, for their support in realizing this program.
    
    The following officials took part in the award ceremony: Nina Kostina, President of Frank Foundation Child Assistance International; Lyazzat Kusainova, secretary of the Family and Children Affairs Committee within the Astana Akimat office; Dinara Tuksaitova, Representative of the Department of Women’s Rights Against Violence in the Department of the Interior of Astana; Anna Akubekova, Director of “Ana Alakany” Public Foundation.