NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan’s Qazaqstan Halqyna Fund will organize the National Charity Conference in September, the fund’s chair Bolat Zhamishev told President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during their meeting on Monday.
Tokayev and Zhamishev during the meeting. Photo credit: Akorda
Zhamishev said the fund now implements ten programs and projects. Eight are aimed at providing medical care, while one project focuses on improving social conditions in the field of sports for children from rural areas, and one program provides educational grants for students from rural schools and students from socially vulnerable groups in the population.
Created in the wake of tragic January events at the initiative of President Tokayev to boost social support, the fund implements projects in two areas – targeted assistance and development programs with the top priority of helping adults and children in need.
Development programs can include assistance in developing and improving the accessibility of sports and educational infrastructure for children, assistance to families who have adopted a child with a disability, illness, or social adaptation problem, assistance in developing and improving access to medical services for infants to eliminate possible future diseases and disabilities, and assistance in overcoming the consequences of natural and man-made emergencies, among other areas.
Targeted assistance focuses on сhildren with severe and rare diseases and disabilities, children in a difficult life situation, infants at risk of developing illnesses and future disabilities, families with children whose living conditions do not meet the minimum standards for income and inadequate housing resulting in life-threatening conditions and families of law enforcement and security officers, special agencies, military personnel who have died or have been seriously wounded while defending the territorial integrity and security of Kazakhstan or saving lives.
Among the recent examples of targeted assistance from the fund was aid provided to families of law enforcement and military officers who died in the January unrest.
The fund announced on June 10 that it paid three million tenge (US$6,830) each to five seriously wounded employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Security Committee, the Ministry of Defense and the National Guard.
Earlier, it paid seven million tenge (US$15,930) each to family members of 19 officers who died in the unrest and three million tenge (US$6,830) each to 106 severely wounded officers.
Priority of assistance does not depend on who applied first, but rather on the urgency and severity of each particular case.
During the meeting, Tokayev emphasized the need for the broader involvement of society and public institutions in the process of determining the target areas of the fund.
A board of trustees includes prominent public and government figures, civil society representatives, and philanthropists. The board is responsible for determining the main activities of the foundation and its objectives, approves the budget, and performs other control and organizational functions.
The fund is now working on a new concept of charitable programs and projects, which is expected to involve representatives of the non-profit sector, deputies from the maslikhats (local representative bodies), representatives of businesses that donate to the fund, and experts.
