About Us
What is Crossroads Central Asia?
Crossroads Central Asia exists to help the needy of Central Asia – orphans, those with addictions, refugees, youth, victims of natural disasters, the elderly, those with medical and educational needs, poor families and the unemployed.
Crossroads Central Asia is a registered charity based in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. It is a branch office of the international charity, Crossroads Foundation (www.crossroads.org.hk).
How do we know the goods reach those in need?
What is Crossroads’ financial policy?
Where is Crossroads Central Asia at work?
Afghanistan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
How does Crossroads Central Asia work?
Crossroads Central Asia seeks to support and expand existing social welfare projects. Often these projects lack the resources they need to get their job done. Crossroads brings assistance, not by giving money, but by giving donated goods. These goods enable charities to do their work, helping the poor and the needy around them.
At our Shymkent warehouse, we receive goods donated internationally and locally. We also receive requests from charities working all over Central Asia. We then match the donated item with the request and send the goods to the charity. So Crossroads seeks, indeed, to be a crossroads – a place where need meets resource.
Since opening…
Crossroads’ Central Asian Branch was opened in June, 2004. Since then, we have regularly received forty foot containers from international donors and increasingly we are receiving significant quantities of goods donated locally within Kazakhstan.
It has been our joy to see these donated goods helping improve the lives of the needy throughout Central Asia. In Shymkent and southern Kazakhstan, Crossroads has distributed goods to needy individuals, families, schools and orphanages. More broadly we have sent donated goods to over 100 different charities and welfare agencies working throughout Central Asia: in Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The Crossroads Equation
“How much of my donated dollar actually reaches the person in need?”
That is the question most often put to charities regarding their financial policy. At Crossroads the equation is turned the other way round. We do not send a percentage of a donated dollar to people in need. Instead a donated dollar can be “multiplied” up to 30 times its value in the goods it allows us to send.
For example, a recent cash donation of US$500 enabled us to send $15,000 worth of goods to charities in Almaty oblast.
Who donates to Crossroads?
Crossroads Central Asia receives both local and international donations of goods
- Hotels refurbish and give superseded goods.
- Hospitals upgrade and give away older equipment.
- Householders move.
- Manufacturers dispose of stock over-runs, samples or seconds.
- Companies move or refurbish.
- Educational groups upgrade facilities.
- Community groups conduct relief drives.
- Other charities, if given more than they need, pass on surplus goods.
The standard of the goods is, often, unusually high. Often recipients tell us they are not used to receiving donated goods of such quality.
What kind of goods?
Stock may include household furniture, office furniture, classroom furniture, bedding & fabric supplies, medical equipment, electrical items, computers, household goods, clothing, stationary, books and educational toys.
How do we know the goods reach those in need?
Crossroads works in partnership with other charities and government bodies. We only send to areas where distribution can be monitored and accountability provided. All recipient groups are required to furnish us with documentation, photographic feedback, any press coverage, and lists of how goods were distributed. Where possible, CCA staff will visit the recipient soon after the goods have been shipped.
What is Crossroads’ financial policy?
As a charity, we try to minimise overheads. We seek, wherever possible, donations in kind rather than cash.
- Relief provision. Crossroads does not purchase the goods we ship. All are donated.
- Freight policy. Crossroads has never paid for a shipment. Freight services are either given or sponsored.
- Rent. A local NGO has provided our office and warehouse space, for minimal rent.
- Volunteer system. Volunteers locally and internationally make the work of Crossroads possible.
- The Crossroads Equation. A monetary gift can help move goods values at many times its own worth and, in this way, multiply itself.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CROSSROADS CENTRAL ASIA!!!
