Hearts Wide Open - Adopting from Kyrgyzstan

Izzy, me, Petra Nemcova & Philip Caputo

I went to Husband’s place of work, which is a racetrack to meet and talk with someone very special.  Firstly, my husband has a dream job.  He runs and operates a racing school for amateur and professional drivers alike.  They specialize in courses aimed at people who want to learn how to drive their performace vehicles safely, and drive them to their limit.  So every once in awhile, the school attracts a person in the media, and even the odd celebrity.  A certain ‘dreamy Doctor’ comes there and Suzannah and he are like this.  Zannie loves going to the track.  But, it was Izzy’s first time to the other day.  What a cool thing happened too.  At the track that day, having a few hours on the track, was Petra Nemcova.  You may have heard of her as she was written about extensively in the aftermath of the tsunami in Thailand.  She and her fiancee were pulled into the tsunami and she clung to a tree for over 8 hours while awaiting rescue.  Her fiancee didn’t survive. 

We came to the track to meet her (and she was absolutely sweet and adorable to us, willing to take a picture and congratulated us on Isabel…) to talk with her about the foundation she started, The Happy Hearts Fund.

Happy Hearts Fund has funded different locally run, culturally specific, effective and efficient charitable projects around the world. Thus far, HHF has established successful programs in Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Czech Republic. Programs in India and Haiti are under way and expansion across the globe is continuing. HHF aims to advocate and provide for disadvantaged youngsters who have had to endure hardship and who are not receiving the essential and sustainable help they need for healthy childhood development.By bridging the existing gaps in education and health care, Happy Hearts Fund is helping to improve the lives of children by providing them with the means necessary to self sustain and only strengthen with time. Giving little ones the opportunity for higher quality education and health care will allow them the chance to receive increased life
opportunities and gain the personal strength needed for them to elevate not only their own lives, but the lives of their families and entire communities.Husband had the great idea of telling her about Kyrgyzstan and what a great need there is for an organization such as hers for the people and children of Kyrgyzstan and central Asia.  She held and cooed at Isabel and Isabel flirted back and soon they were the mutual admiration society.  We spoke of how Kyrgyzstan is very much underrepresented in foreign aid and that the need for organizations such as hers is dire.  What she said was that she would be open to adding Kyrgyzstan to her list of countries, but that she needs “A well-connected person who is there, or a very powerful individual who is willing to step forward.” 

Let’s put on our thinking caps people…

Let’s put that six degrees of separation to work and see what we can do. 

Facts about Kyrgyzstan:

Recognized as an LLDC (Land-locked Developing Nation) by the United Nations Ranked 116^th out of 177 countries in the UN Human Development IndexRanked 143^rd out of 177 countries by the UN HDI for GDP per capita According to the World Bank:

In 1999, relative to a national poverty line, 64.1% of the population of the Kyrgyzstan Republic was living in poverty. Annual household surveys from 1993 to 2000 in Kyrgyzstan found that more people were living in poverty each year. In 1993, 17.2% of people lived on US$ 2.15 per day or less; by 2000, the proportion had doubled to 34.0%.

Let’s not let the people of Kyrgyzstan think that the world has forgotten them. 

  According to the World Health Organization:

WHO estimates Kyrgyzstan’s latest probability to be 59 under-five deaths per 1000 live births. WHO estimates for neighboring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are both lower, at 33 and 32, respectively.

Let’s Not Let The People Of Kyrgyzstan Believe That No One Cares