ASTANA – We Art, a creative centre designed to help young people from socially vulnerable families train for modern, in-demand professions free of charge, recently opened at Narxoz University in Almaty. The project is supported by the Bulat Utemuratov Foundation.
Photo credit: tengrinews.kz.
“At We Art, our foundation allocated a 21 million tenge (US$56,200) grant. This centre will help young people from low-income families and orphans to realise themselves. This is a good opportunity to get not only relevant professional skills, but also personal qualities, which many of them do not now get enough of,” said foundation director Marat Aitmagambetov.
We Art is a platform to develop creative potential, a kind of forge of talent. The centre not only has qualified teachers, but also mentors who help young people with social adaptation. They follow the graduates after the end of the course and help them find an interesting job, reported Tengrinews.
The three-month training is divided into three main stages. Centre staff and professional psychologists help young people develop personal and creative skills, then concentrate on professional training and internships. The first student is studying in the digital and filmmaking programme with teachers including professional directors, screenwriters and New York Film Academy graduates Dias Azimzhanov and Zhanel Sarieva.
Photo credit: tengrinews.kz.
The centre will be launching digital marketing in partnership with DAR ecosystem and is planning to offer courses in culinary arts, industrial design and other popular professions.
Founded in 2014, the Bulat Utemuratov Foundation collaborates with many non-profit organisations, volunteer groups and government agencies involved in childhood development in Kazakhstan and abroad. The foundation develops socially beneficial and effective projects, focusing on creating and stimulating system changes to provide better access to more people. It does not provide targeted assistance, but collects money for programmes that solve significant social problems.
This year, the foundation has five projects worth 499 million tenge (US$1.3 million), each of which differs significantly from typical Kazakh charity projects.
