Every large city of Kazakhstan has Hesed. Jews come here with their joys and troubles, receive different kinds of help and contribute their volunteer work. Hesed often becomes a second home for its members. On January 30-31, in Almaty was held a seminar for Hesed Directors of Kazakhstan.

At the seminar, the Hesed Directors met with Program Directors: Home Care - Valentina Sokolkova, Rehabilitation Equipment - Marina Iorish, Medical Consultations and Medicines - Sima Branovich, Children Initiative - Zhanna Danilenko, Nutrition - Tamara Nikitenko, library work - Galina Korobkina, Jewish Education - Alexander Abramovich, accounting - Galina Boldyreva, sports work - Ruslan Archakov.

Hesed Directors, in their turn, shared their work experience. Director of Hesed Polina, Inessa Chugainova (Almaty), talked about the International Volunteers Project. Elena Untenko (Aktyubinsk) and Elena Levina (Astana) told about building successful cooperation with sponsors. Irina Tverineva (Pavlodar) raised the issue "Young People and Work". Fedor Malin (Karaganda) suggested creating a big Jewish portal on the internet. Bella Kamenetskaya (Karaganda), Olga Dergacheva (Uralsk), and Vladimir Lebedev (Ust-Kamenogorsk) spoke about interaction with state authorities. Zhanna Danilenko (Almaty) and Bella Atran (Shymkent) told about charity programs for children. Psychologist Irina Zaltsman (Almaty) held training on how to work with young people and develop leadership movement in Jewish communities. She spoke about different age groups and explained in detail priorities for each group.

Seminar participants were asked these questions: Was the meeting useful, what issues were raised, what issues were solved, what have you learned?

Alexander Baron (Almaty), "Work with young people is essential for continuing our leadership traditions. This is, as you know, one of the major priorities in our community."
Irina Tveritneva (Pavlodar), "I am glad many issues were raised at the seminar, particularly the issues related to the work with young people. At every meeting we move to a new level of solving our tasks"
Ilya Lemeshevskiy (Petropavlovsk), "I am glad to have met colleagues holding the same views as I do. I will do my best to use what I have learned in my community."
Grigoriy Shilman (Semipalatinsk), "I have learned a lot, in particular about working with young people. I am eager to use my new knowledge in my work in my city."
Bella Atran (Shymkent), "I am interested in the approach of working with young people discussed here. This is important for all of us. I have got many new ideas here. New vision is especially important in our work."
Bella Kamenetskaya (Karaganda), "Our young people could see a new way and it is very good."
Alexander Abramovich (Karaganda), "Young people are self sufficient people. If we alienate them, they will go and never come back. Our goal is to make our community to be interesting for all generations."

Alexander Abramovich held a poll at the Jewish Young People Forum. He proposed seminar participants to answer same questions as young people had done at the Forum. All participants rated a priority level of Jewish Values. It was interesting to see how answers changed subject to age. It turned out that there are no big differences in the perception of values, major values do coincide: "own life", "remembrance of Holocaust", "Jewish contribution to the world culture", "Jewish community life", "charity".

At the end of the seminar everybody gathered at a round table. Directors were interested in a large educational project, a quiz. President of Mitsva Association, Alexander Baron, summarized the seminar results. Elena Levina from Astana handed in a gratitude letter to Mitsva Association from the Community Fund of the Peoples Assembly of Kazakhstan.

Lyudmila Starodubova