Birlant Kasayeva received the Golden Heart Award from Jessica Lange, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador

By Rima Akhmirova, "Sobesednik" newspaper

On May 21, 2006, Birlant Kasayeva received the Golden Heart Award from Jessica Lange, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. This award is given for unselfish service to the higher ideals of mankind. Brilant is the director of an orphanage in the war torn city of Grozny.

The children in the orphanage gave their own award to Birlant long ago – they call her “mother”. The name Birlant means “diamond” in the Chechen language. Birlant’s husband and his brothers perished on the very first day of the war. She was left with two children in her hands, the youngest being only five months old.

“I don’t remember well the first six months of the war,” she says “as I couldn’t come to my senses having lost my beloved ones and because of the nightmare going on around me.  The first thing that I remember clearly was when I went shopping to a local market to get some food and spotted a boy of about 7 years old who was going through the garbage.”  She asked the boy, “Where is your family?”
“I have no family!” – the boy responded defiantly.
“Neither do I have any family now. Come with me and I’ll feed you...” said Birlant. Soon, the rumour spread around the youngest residents of the destroyed city that there was “a woman who gives food to eat.” Before long, Birlant herself was going through attics and basements looking for young “clients”. 

A city of abandoned children

Birlant found the children in basements, others in abandoned attics and on the street.  

In the wake of two destructive wars, Grozny turned into a city of children. Adults – those who managed to stay alive – had either left the city or gone into hiding.
Young residents of Grozny, left without parental care and shelter, were abandoned to their own fate. They flocked together into groups of ragamuffins in search of food and a night’s lodging. No one cared for them, nor did anyone went them. Adults were too busy minding coping with their own lives, consumed with fear, they were hunting for each other. 
In the meantime children lived in their own parallel world. They were aware of bombs falling from the sky more often than rain. They could neither spell words nor read. But they were very good at naming different types of weapons or military aircraft.
They did not play war games.
Even now, one does not feel comfortable talking to them.

“What is happiness?” one may ask.
“Happiness is when you find a good thing in a heap of trash.”
 “No, happiness is when you can not see the sky.”
“Why?”, we asked
“Because there are planes in the sky and they drop bombs…”

Birlant’s mission

In 1996, Birlant was appointed  to be the director of the first orphanage in Grozny.

In 1999, Birlant rented a bus and started traveling with her invaluable “live load” in the direction of peaceful Ingushetia – to the village of Nadterechnoye, where she had a house of her own. The convoy of vehicles was shelled and bombed, with everyone perishing in the fire, except for those who were traveling in Birlant’s bus.  

For six years, the orphanage and its children stayed in Ingushetia. They danced, sang songs, staged drama performances. For a sack of flour, Birlant invited a choreographer to teach her children dancing. The children were all well-prepared when peace finally set in in the city. Today,   they can all, without exception, sing and dance, they are invited to participate in all sort of festivals and contests.

In 2005, the orphanage returned to Grozny. Today, there is so much of everything in the orphanage – so much greenery, so many flowers and books, toys, plates and dishes, napkins and curtains. It is as if the child minders are intuitively trying to fill free space with household items that belong to a different, peaceful life in order to make children forget all the terrible things related to fear and misery.

Today, there are 57 children in Birlant’s orphanage – Russians, Chechens, Ingush, Azeris, Armenians... A few dozens of children have already grown up and left the orphanage. Young men work, young women have got married. One of them has already given birth to a baby boy and sent Birlant his picture the other day.