At the end of 2024, the founder of the Anak Kita Foundation (“Our Children”), Maria Konovalenkova-Smith, received a prestigious award from the charitable organization “Role Foundation.”
She was recognized as the person of the year in the “change maker of the year” category. This title is given to someone who has made the most effort to change the world for the better. We asked Maria about these changes, the recent results of the foundation, and the team's plans for 2025. She is not only the visionary inspiration behind the charity but also a mother of three, a wife, a midwife, and an osteopath.
According to Maria, the main goal of the foundation in 2024 was to reach a level where the funds raised would be sufficient to cover monthly expenses and implement all major programs. Specifically, this includes the Big Umbrella program, the patronage of orphanages in Indonesia, the scholarship program for university studies, and the construction of the Mother’s House, where pregnant women in difficult situations can find shelter.
“The foundation is a Russian-speaking community. Over the year, we managed to reach a more or less stable plateau. In 2024, we generated over 1.7 billion rupiahs, around 140 million per month. There were months with good collections and very challenging ones, but overall, it was not bad. One thing is clear, we have a strong and united community. There are many businesses on the island that are genuinely open to supporting social programs. It's great that together we conduct such a significant and regular project,” says Maria.
The Anak Kita Foundation currently sponsors five orphanages: four in Bali and one in Semarang, northern Java. With donations, these institutions provide nutrition programs with a balanced menu that includes chicken, eggs, fresh fruits, vegetables, and milk, carry out renovations, and supply children with all necessary household and educational items.
Maria says that the foundation manages to consistently fulfill all its obligations to these children's institutions. In 2024, they carried out renovations in the Kasih Jember orphanage, and everything is ready in Sanatana Dharma as well. They conducted major renovations, but did not finish, in a large boarding school Al Mustakim. “All the girls' dormitories, toilets, and showers are already renovated. The entire kitchen and dining area are ready. We rebuilt everything there, now it's all white, clean, and very decent,” Maria shares. Renovations of the boys' rooms and classrooms are still awaited.
Major renovations began in 2024 at the Makmur orphanage. Currently, active work is underway in the boys' dormitories, and in 2025, the girls' living spaces will also be updated. Besides these homes, the Anak Kita Foundation signed a memorandum of assistance with two more homes.
Not every orphanage can collaborate with the foundation, Maria explains. There are conditions, or rather, an ultimatum - all children must be treated for lice. To this end, the foundation provided effective pediculosis treatment and sent it to the orphanages. The directors are responsible for maintaining the children's hygiene and health. If they fail to meet this condition and do not start sending monthly reports to the foundation on the children’s academic performance, emotional and physical health, they risk losing funding.
Maria explains that a significant portion of expenses in orphanages concern not only renovations and organizing nutrition for the children but also large amounts are spent on covering school needs - purchasing uniforms, textbooks, and educational fees.
Currently, Maria explains, the foundation can focus not only on addressing the most pressing issues in the orphanages but also on thinking about providing a better quality of upbringing and education for the children there.
Starting in 2025, a new large project for teaching coding to children, Dinosaur Phil, has been launched in four of the aforementioned orphanages. Computer classes are fully equipped, and teenagers have regular programming lessons in Python three times a week. The entire educational process, curriculum, and teachers are provided by Algorithmics, and the project sponsor is the crypto-project Phil Coin. Sixty high school students, both boys and girls, who passed the testing are participating in the Dinosaur Phil project.
“We've come up with another fantastic program for teenagers!” Maria shares. “It's called 'Film Therapy'. For the New Year, four of our orphanages received large smart TVs as gifts. They aren't meant for watching YouTube, of course. This is our way to engage children in open dialogue, allowing them to express their thoughts and feelings and to improve their essay writing skills.”
Every other week on Saturdays, the children will watch a film selected by the foundation. The following day, on Sunday, program participants will have a joint call with a teacher-facilitator to discuss what they watched. After the call, students will be given topics for essays that need to be submitted for the next film viewing. A special teacher will oversee this work, giving each child personal attention.
“In six months of 'Film Therapy,' the kids will watch a collection of excellent movies, have opportunities for open reflection, and practice essay writing. But that's not all! Three of the most engaged participants, the authors of the best essays, will receive SUPER prizes - a grant for university studies! This year, we provide a grant for the faculty of English literature, an applied faculty (IT, nursing, veterinary medicine), and one neutral - management or tourism,” Maria shares.
The Anak Kita Foundation doesn’t only focus on current orphans but also does not overlook graduates. Therefore, besides scholarship grants, partnerships are already in place for future employment for boys. For those not keen on pursuing higher education, a construction company is ready to teach them the basics of the trade and employ them, and a Muay Thai sports club is even ready to fully support a few boys with housing and meals to eventually train them as coaches.
Funding the scholarship program requires large sums, Maria says, so the foundation is grateful for any contributions, especially if they are regular and monthly.
“Another important achievement of ours is the construction of a shelter for pregnant women. Quietly, without boasting or singing our own praises, we built throughout the year. And this fills me with immense gratitude and respect for the foundation's working group and everyone who contributed, without asking for grand reports, emblems, branding, etc. By the end of the year, we had indeed constructed a building,” Maria shares.
Photo/Anak Kita
A major and challenging task for this year, she says, is to prepare the legal framework so everything is correctly arranged in the shelter for mothers. The foundation should have a solid legal foundation to work with complex and delicate issues, like the desperation of mothers facing the decision of relinquishing their child.
“I appeal to everyone who considers themselves part of the foundation. We do a lot for orphanage children. Now let's work on creating a system that supports women in objectively difficult circumstances. Let's be the force that allows hundreds of babies to stay with their mothers,” urges Maria Konovalenkova-Smith, the founder of the Anak Kita Foundation (“Our Children”).
How to Support the Foundation?
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