Year: 2021

Low-income families will get 900 tons of compound feed that will be sufficient until next May. Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation will channel over 200 million tenge to victims of draught in the Aral District, reports zakon.kz referring to the Foundation press service.

The money will be transferred to the public fund “Aralym-Aidyn shalkarym” which will distribute them for the urgent needs of the affected people. There is a pressing problem of livestock access to water and food security in the region due to the prolonged drought. At the moment, mortality of over 500 heads of livestock has already been recorded in the district.

As part of the aid rendered by Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation, 800 low-income families in the Aral District will receive 900 tons of compound feed. This volume will be sufficient for the period from November 2021 to May 2022.

New water wells to preserve the livestock and to water pastures in the region, as well as cleaning of canals and repair of drainage structures are needed. The “Aspay” water-retaining structure will be restored on the Syrdarya river in the area of ​​the Amanotkel settlement, which will allow raising the water level and filling the Kamystybas and Akshatau lake systems; wells will be drilled, including in the remote aul (rural) district of Bel Aran, which currently has no drinking water – residents use a well located 35 kilometers away.

In addition, they will buy tractors, hay mowers, plows, balers for rural consumer cooperatives in aul districts could harvest fodder. To provide watering for livestock on distant districts, water carrier trucks will be purchased, and diesel pumps will be procured to water pastures and hayfields. Control over the spending of funds and the distribution of fodder will be carried out by a specially formed commission of members of the public.

Source: https://tengrinews.kz/kazakhstan_news/fond-bulata-utemuratova-napravit-svyishe-200-millionov-tenge-443326/

At the first stage, greenhouses will be installed at 16 schools in Almaty. Later they will appear at the educational institutions in Nur-Sultan and Shymkent.

Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundationannounced the launch of the “Green Schools” project.

The first stage of the project will start in Almaty where Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation will install greenhouses at 16 public schools. In the next two years, Nur-Sultan and Shymkent will join the initiative installing 40 more greenhouses. The first greenhouse opened at School No.177 in the Turksib District of Almaty.

Extracurricular activities within the framework of this initiative will be held in the new academic year for pupils in grades 5-7 at 16 public schools in Almaty. The total budget of the programme designed for three years will be about 2 million dollars.

“Green” technologies and ecological thinking is a global trend that becomes an integral part of our everyday life. Therefore, it is important to educate children from an early age in the spirit of ecoculture and to teach them take care of the environment, noted the Foundation.

“The Foundation has got an experience in implementation of projects in the field of conservation of the green fund of the country. In 2020, we have implemented a large-scale reconstruction of the Central Botanical Garden of Almaty. We tried and involved the best experts in horticulture and agronomy, and farmers of the Almaty Oblast engaged in organic agriculture, in the “Green Schools” project. Our big goal is to introduce lessons in greenhouses into the school curriculum for ensuring sustainability of the project in future,” said Marat Aitmagambetov, Director of Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation.

All greenhouses are equipped with modern systems of drip irrigation, heating and lighting. Sixty metres long phytolines with blue and red diodes are responsible for the light that is useful for plants, which supports the biosynthesis and vegetation of plants, improves their growth and increases yields. To prevent freezing of vegetables and berry crops in winter, infrared heaters were installed and a heating cable was laid in the soil. Operation of the heaters depends on the data of indoor and outdoor thermostatic controllers. This allows to set the temperature required in the greenhouse in advance and turn on the heaters automatically when the temperature drops.

The heating cable is laid down along the greenhouse perimeter and prevents soil freezing, switching it on and off is also controlled automatically. All this helps to minimise impact of winter frosts on plants. Heating and lighting are powered by electricity that is supplied via a cable of non-flammable origin, all cable lines are laid in the protected corrugated pipe, and connecting elements are protected by distribution boxes.

“This is an excellent initiative. Almaty became the first city in Kazakhstan where the “Green Schools” programme starts, and city schoolchildren will have an opportunity to run projects in the all-year-round greenhouse. I am sure that practical classes within the optional course and biology lessons will be useful and timely,” thinks Akim of Almaty Bakytzhan Sagintayev.

Work in greenhouses will allow to supplement the school curriculum with practical classes and will become an excellent opportunity for teachers to give exciting extracurricular lessons. Schoolchildren will grow vegetables, berries and green stuff, and harvest will be used in demonstration projects and competitions between school teams.

Source: https://informburo.kz/novosti/fond-bulata-utemuratova-zapuskaet-proekt-zelyonye-shkoly-pervuyu-teplicu-otkryli-v-odnoj-iz-shkol-almaty

Bulat Utemuratov’s Charity Foundation allocated 1 million tenge to each family left homeless after the forest fire around Ridder town in the East Kazakhstan Oblast. More details of the “Aid Card” project for victims of natural and man-made disasters, and of other social and charitable initiatives, were given by the Foundation Director, Marat Aitmagambetov.

– Marat Temirgaliyevich, could you please tell us in more detail what the “Aid Card” project is and who is eligible to recourse to it.

– It is a joint charitable project of Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation, the Red Crescent and ForteBank that has been implemented since 2018. During this time, assistance was rendered to victims of natural and man-made disasters for a total amount of more than 350 million tenge. Assistance is provided mainly to victims of floods, but there was also an experience in emergency response after the explosions at the ammunition depot in Arys.

This year, having found out about the fire occurred in Ridder our team couldn’t step aside and decided to immediately look for ways to support those who were in trouble. And, for the aid to be timely and appropriate, we decided to provide financial support in the amount of 1 million tenge to each family left without a roof over their heads. To our deepest regret, the fire was not without casualties. I express my deep condolences to the family and friends of the perished Galina Filaretovna Spivakova.

Each of the thirty affected families received a bank card of 1 million tenge par value, and the total amount of aid was 30 million tenge.

– Will the implementation of the “Autism. One world for all” programme continue this year?

– Sure. This is our flagship programme to support children with autistic spectrum disorders and their parents. Nine Assyl Miras autism centres were opened within the frameworks of this programme in the cities of Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Kyzylorda, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Aktobe, Uralsk, Shymkent, Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar. The most recent centre was opened last December in Pavlodar.

Doors of our Centres are open for all parents and children every day, here our specialists, trained in the most advanced techniques, will help to diagnose ASD absolutely free of charge and in case of revealing the disorder a child will be enrolled to the relevant programme to develop the required skills. All our centres give classes in accordance with American technologies developed by the University of California and the Marcus Autism Centre in Atlanta. These technologies have proved their effectiveness. Every child who took or is taking classes in our centres show progress in their development.  

– How do they differ from the special needs centres set up by the state?

– We understood that ASD children were treated in the old way, as was the practice back in the Soviet Union. We decided to refuse from such approaches and recourse to the international experience. Our “Autism. One world for all” programme is based on science-proved techniques which are widely adopted in the USA and Europe.

The standards of work of state rehabilitation offices in Kazakhstan do not coincide with the system adopted by Assyl Miras. For example, in our centres, a lesson with a child lasts 60 minutes, and in the state rehabilitation office – only 25-40 minutes, which is not enough for efficient work with a child. Also, the specialist’s schedule in the state programme does not include hours of work with parents and supervision of the child after the programme completion. For these reasons, since mid-2020, we have been striving for the legislative definition of the Assyl Miras centres as a separate type of special educational organization. Such an order was signed recently, and we are very happy about that. Now our centres, opened in partnership with akimats in the cities of Nur-Sultan, Shymkent, Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar, have received the status of “Centres for the support of children with autism (ASD)”. This means that we will be able to implement the “Autism. One world for all” programme in these centres to the full extent and not contradicting with the state programme.

We are also starting transfer of the remaining centres into the public management in the format of municipal public institutions (MPI). At this, we will preserve the programme effectiveness, will continue to monitor the process of training of specialists and their use of best practices.

We are still planning to open new centres. The Foundation will continue cooperation with regional akimats in this direction, reserving training, including that provided by foreign experts, and full equipment of the centres for ourselves.

– What other charity projects are supported by Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation?

– This year Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation supported the “El tiregi – Elbasy” campaign arranged by the Halyk Charity Foundation. What is its essence? It is assistance to low-income multi-child families and families upbringing special needs children. Our Foundation formed 4,000 food baskets and delivered them to residents of the most densely populated cities of the country: Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Shymkent, Kyzylorda.

This is a campaign run by the Halyk Foundation, we decided to back it and to provide support to families that found themselves in a difficult life situation amidst the pandemic and quarantine restrictions. At present, more than ever, our society should stick together and help those who is in the most need because only doing so we will be able to overcome all hardships.

– There are tens of charitable foundations in Kazakhstan, but projects implemented by Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation differ from them. Do you choose such projects purposefully, in order not to replicate?

– There are, indeed, many foundations, they are different, work at various levels – at the levels of cities, regions, country. Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation works at the national level, on the nationwide scale, and implemented social projects are designed first of all for the vulnerable groups of population, including children, teenagers, youth. The Foundation’s mission is formulated as to make Kazakhstan a better place to live today and tomorrow. But the core message of its founder is that the Foundation does not repeat those initiatives and projects that are already being implemented and supported by the state.

Branches of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation throughout the country continue admitting the youngest sportsmen to children’s groups (from 3 to 5 years old). They do so in order for children to develop the basic skills of a tennis player at a very early age. Then, by the age of five, it will be much easier for a child to start its journey in the “Tennis under 10” programme.

What “Tennis under 10” is

40 schools and 34 kindergartens throughout the country are involved in teaching children through the “Tennis under 10” international programme in Kazakhstan. More than 2,600,000 children play tennis free of charge. With the financial support of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation, educational institutions are provided with 5,000 balls, 2,000 rackets and 240 mini-nets annually.

The “Tennis under 10” programme is structured into three levels that are optimal for the development of children. They are named after the color of a ball the children play: red, orange and green. This system allows players to progress according to their age and abilities. The court size, racket length, and ball speed change from one level to the next one. The player is gradually prepared for the transition to the standard court with ordinary yellow balls.

Use of multi-color, lighter or slower balls makes the game more interesting for a child.  Quite often children who start training with yellow balls would finish playing tennis soon because the ball goes too fast, jumps off above their heads; accordingly, rallies become very short, no adequate game can be played really, and children spend their training time running to collect balls. After such training, interest in the game is quickly lost. When children play more with light balls, their motivation to stay in tennis increases, and the risk of injury decreases. At the same time, smaller courts are used, because, playing on the entire court, children simply cannot apply certain tactical decisions.

From cheerful games to serious tournaments

Consistent work of the Tennis Federation helps to develop infrastructure for young athletes in all regions of Kazakhstan. Tennis centres attract a great number of children and teenagers, there are already 26 centres throughout the country. The centres meet international standards, are suitable for holding a big number of tournaments. Thanks to this, tennis is becoming more accessible and attractive for children.

David Miley, KTF Executive Director for Tennis Development, notes that to improve the level of Kazakhstani tennis, they constantly work to improve the skills of the coaching staff, and national tournaments are regularly held for children and teenagers.

“We also need to engage our professional players to continue to popularize tennis in Kazakhstan. Looking at such Kazakhstani tennis players as Alexander Bublik, Zarina Diyas, Mikhail Kukushkin, Aleksandr Nedovyesov, Yulia Putintseva, Yaroslava Shvedova, young people will be able to seriously get involved in tennis,” believes David Miley.

No pressure is put on little children at the preparatory stage. They just play with each other, and there could be about ten people on the court at the same time. Thus, tennis becomes more understandable and available for children. If training begins to turn into a professional track, more stringent requirements will be imposed on the child.

“Every child who starts to be trained in tennis is a talent in his way,” says David Miley. “At first, we observe his movement on the court, his work with the racket and conduct various tests on running, jumping and coordination. At the age of 9-10, children are already quite adapted to the game, understand its basics and are ready for competitions. We hold tournaments for them, but there is still no pressure: at this stage, the children are not assigned ratings so that young athletes are not demotivated due to possible failures.”

Coaches watch how the child behaves at such tournaments, how he gets up for the game, how he applies techniques and tactics that he has in his arsenal. And only in adolescence, mentors pay attention to the progress and results of the player. It is only from 14 years old that tennis players are assigned ratings based on the results of participation in competitions.

What else a child can learn from tennis

Tennis for a child is not only an excellent way to develop his physical skills that put on the job all muscle groups, but also a priceless psychological experience. David Miley, Executive Director of the Tennis Federation, calls this sport the most honest and fairest.

“Tennis teaches players to be honest towards a rival. The outcome of the game is decided by the mastery and intelligence of the player, and not by various return services and unnoticed violations of the rules. Being on the court face-to-face with the opponent, a person learns to react to the current situation and independently solve problems that arise during the game. Tennis teaches you to be ready for anything: a matchpoint does not guarantee the victory, and a player who is lagging behind in a score should not give up ahead of time. Tennis teaches you never to give up, whatever the situation is on the court. The tennis court can be compared to a microcosm with its own micro situations, where almost everything that happens in life can happen,” says David Miley.

Photo by the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation

What distinguishes graduates of Haileybury Schools in Kazakhstan and how to get an educational grant.

Haileybury Almaty and Haileybury Astana are private schools, where education is organised in the best tradition of British education. Senior pupils are taught according to special programmes that helps them enter the best universities of the world.

Schools are not a commercial, but a social project. The income is reinvested in creating better conditions for students, and part of it is allocated for scholarships for the free education of talented children. Therefore, Haileybury in Kazakhstan is not a story about expensive private education, but about gifted students, their hard work with the support of professional teachers.

What distinguishes Haileybury Schools

You will recall that the shareholders do not get dividends from the schools, therefore the administration distributes income on its own, directing it to material fitting out and attraction of the best teachers. Haileybury Almaty, for example, is the only school in Kazakhstan that has connected gas equipment and received permission to use gas in scientific laboratories.

The schools hire the best foreign teachers, build additional facilities to develop not only mental but also physical capabilities. So, in 2019 Haileybury Astana opened a new sports centre of 1,851 square metres, and last year they have finished reconstruction of the school theatre.

The schools plan to develop STEM, currently the most modern direction, – an abbreviation that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Who can get a grant to study at Haileybury Schools

One can enroll in a school based on the results of competitive testing on a paid basis. Gifted Kazakhstanis from the age of 16 can study for free, having received a grant to study in high school. Each year, at the initiative of the principal shareholder, both schools allocate 10 free slots each for the 12th and 13th years of studies.

In the last grades, students are prepared to take tests according to the international pre-university qualifications A-level (in Haileybury Almaty) and the international baccalaureate programme IB (in Haileybury Astana). The schools team cooperate with  the World’s TOP Universities Counselling and advice service, which helps students enter some of the world’s most competitive universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Russell Group universities and the US Ivy League.

One of the students who won a grant is Shyngys Bilyalov. The young man studied at one of the public schools in Almaty, and is now a student at the University of Cambridge.

“There is a huge difference between public schools and Haileybury. There are only 10-12 pupils in a class, thus everyone has a chance to be actively involved in lessons. The most exciting and tense moment is the time of making applications to universities. It would be almost impossible to enter Cambridge without Haileybury Almaty assistance,” believes Shyngys Bilyalov.

From the new academic year (2021/2022) Haileybury Almaty plans to expand the grants programme: now 13-year-old students will also be able to participate in the competition.

How to enter world top universities

Upon results of the last academic year, five students of Haileybury Almaty got the highest A-level points in all subjects. One of them, Aiganym Raimzhanova, received invitations from several US and British educational institutions at once.

“In the end I was choosing between the University College of London and the Brown University in the USA. Decided to settle on Brown. The process of enrollment at American universities is much more complex: if for British universities I have passed just IELTS and one essay, then for enrollment at the American ones  – SAT, SAT Subject and essays for each university,” tells Aiganym Raimzhanova.  

Another Haileybury graduate Gaukhar Alzhanova received an invitation from the Yale University that is one of the Big Three most prestigious universities in the USA.

“This is the school’s merit. Because  it is here that I was taught, apart from international educational programmes, to be engaged in charity, was given an opportunity to take part in the British Science Olympiad and to take the pre-university course in engineering. Teachers gave their references that is so important for applying to study abroad. I think that a combination of factors brought me to my dream – to become a student of one of best world universities,” says Gaukhar Alzhanova.

She advises those willing to enter the top universities to pay a special attention to writing their essays.

“Before starting to draw it up, I advise applicants to seriously think about the main question: “What have I done and am doing to make this world a better place?” After all, it is precisely such students who can bring something special to the student life are looked for by the Ivy League universities,” the girl emphasizes.

Three days of lectures, 10 participating countries, 86 scientists and practitioners and more than 300 guests – this is how the Ryskulov Readings-2021 took place at the Narxoz University. The scientific forum had to be held online due to the pandemic, but this only expanded the event boundaries.

Ryskulov Readings are held annually at the Narxoz University for a reason. In 2000, the name of the brightest representative of the Kazakh intelligentsia, Turar Ryskulov, was given to the Kazakh State Academy of Management. Since 2006, the Ryskulov Readings have been held here, and in 2016 the university was renamed as the Narxoz University. This year the unchanging tradition celebrates its 16th anniversary. Over time, only the format of the readings changes.

“This year we changed the format,” says Deputy Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Aigerim Raimzhanova. “We didn’t want this to be yet another research and scientific event, so we changed the format to a discussion platform. We brought together speakers from all over the world in thematic areas and gave them topics for discussion so that they have food for thought. As a result: people began to collaborate with each other, world class experts met on the same platform and they have common thoughts for further cooperation.”