ASTANA – The sixth Annual Christmas Charity Bazaar, held this year on Dec. 1 at the Radisson Hotel, has become a philanthropic ritual in Astana. All proceeds from the bazaar go to helping underprivileged children in the capital.
The Annual Charity Bazaar is one of the capital’s major fundraising events and involves the international and diplomatic communities from about 50 foreign embassies and diplomatic missions in Astana. In addition to its charity mission, the event is also an opportunity for Astana’s diplomatic corps to showcase the culture, food and traditional and modern handicrafts of their home countries. Visitors to the bazaar could taste and purchase food and drink from restaurants and shops in Kazakhstan and from around the globe, as well as pick up items of clothing, jewellery, toys, souvenirs, cosmetics and more. The bazaar presents a world of food within wintertime Astana. A choir sung carols in a variety of languages and other entertainment for children and adults was presented.
The bazaar this year was also the inclusion of a stall from Haileybury School who were using the event to help teach their Year 8 students about Business and Entrepreneurship. The Young Enterprise activity involved around 20 students working in groups, setting up different companies to make money for charity by selling goods. They each had a start up of 10,000 tenge and then had to see how much profit they could make. They would meet once a week to develop their business plans and learn about cash flow and to develop their ideas. The students decided what they would sell and this ranged from cakes and sweets to Christmas gifts and one group who set up an ‘art dealership’ selling the works of artist on a sale or return basis. Colin Callaghan, the headmaster at Haileybury Astana, said that “this is a great way for our pupils to learn new skills, while at the same time contributing to such a great community event.’
The idea was led by three teachers from the school Claire McCarthy, Gareth Stamp and Anuar Sharipov. The students had a great day and raised over 100,000 tenge profit in the proceeds.
Tickets to the bazaar cost 200 tenge (US$1.30) and bought visitors entry into a raffle of exclusive gifts that included trips, hotel stays and restaurant meals as well as passes to spas, salons and fitness clubs.
