Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation: The first five years

Bulat Utemuratov is a billionaire and businessman who owns a number of assets in sectors spanning banking and other industries.

Listed as one of the 50 most influential people in Kazakhstan, he played a key role in developing the state back in the 1990’s, focusing on entrepreneurship and expanding his businesses while also supporting the growth of the country’s economy.

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However, as well as a businessman, Bulat is a well-known philanthropist in Kazakhstan and abroad.

Utemuratov set up the foundation back in 2014 to run charity projects – these are as significant as his entrepreneurship activities, and most importantly, are much needed by his fellow countrymen.

The Foundation allocates its funds where they are most needed, with a focus on healthcare, education, culture and sports. These contributions create better living standards for every Kazakhstani.

We look at the projects and programmes that have really changed the lives of people in the country, in many cases dramatically. In doing so we will start with efforts to support children.

Autism: One world for all

The title of this programme speaks for itself. Parents who have to hear the words “Your child is autistic” no longer have to see this diagnosis as a lifechanging issue, as their children now have the same opportunities as everyone else, and the Assyl Miras Autism Centres were set up for this very reason.

If an autistic child is given the right conditions for its development and upbringing from the very start, it can grow up no differently to its peers, and can live an adult life just like everyone else – it can get an education, a profession and have a family – and Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation has allowed this to become a reality.

The first Kazakhstan Centre for autistic children was opened in Almaty back in June 2015, and in October 2015 Astana followed. In 2016 two new Centres in Kyzylorda and Ust-Kamenogorsk opened. Another in Aktobe in April 2018, and another half a month later in Uralsk.

Currently the Assyl Miras Centres under Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation successfully operate in the cities of Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Kyzylorda, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Aktobe, Uralsk, Shymkent, Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar. Thanks to special programmes and  support systems, children with special needs are able to live a normal life. For 74% of young Kazakhstanis with such conditions, their parents and support circle get professional support at the expense of the Foundation.

Thanks to special programmes and support systems, children with special needs are able to live a normal life.

When the city breathes and flourishes: reconstruction of the Botanical Garden

The Central Botanical Garden of Almaty includes almost 8 thousand species of flora. This garden is not just the most beautiful arboretum park in Kazakhstan, covering over 100 hectares, but also acts as the ‘lungs’ of the city, located on a natural slope where industrial exhausts, dust and smog accumulate.

Utemuratov’s Foundation set up a project to reconstruct the Botanical Garden, preserving and improving the beauty of this wonderful corner of wildlife which fell into decay in 2018 due to a lack of funding. The Foundation has contributed US$15 million to restore this oasis in the middle of the city.

The opening of the Central Botanical Garden after its reconstruction was a big event, both for the city dwellers and guests of Almaty. The park welcomed its first visitors on 15 June 2020. During the pandemic, children and adults were able to enjoy the beauty of nature, breathe in fresh air, look at the amazing plants and watch the insects and bird life – to forget the everyday hustle and bustle and have a rest among blossoming plants and grasses.

“All expectations, all hopes, everything that was foreseen in the reconstruction project can now be seen in our Botanical Garden”, said Director of the Institute of Botany and Phytointroduction  Gulnara Sitpayeva.

Today the Botanical Garden is the showpiece of Almaty, a place of wildlife among city blocks and the workplace of botanists.

BURABIKE — a bike ride for quality of life

The annual charity festival Burabike is not just a bike ride, but one of the most important projects of the Foundation, which helps many Kazakhstanis regain quality of life.

The project raises funds to purchase medical equipment for children’s hospitals, perinatal and rehabilitation centres, taxis for people with special needs and special vehicles for clinics, as well as furniture and playgrounds for orphanages. Fairs, leisure and amusement areas are open on the day of the  Burabike festival.

More than 4,000 people have participated in the Burabike festival since it was first held.

For over six years during which Burabike has been running, more than 4,000 people participated in it. Among them are famous sportsmen, politicians, public figures and businessmen.

Burabike Fest 2019 has become the most eventful in the entire history of the festival. For the first time, it was a two-day event and the programme included an amateur bicycle race, a bike ride, a camping village, performances by the most popular Kazakhstani artists, charity auctions, creative master classes and much more. Over US$3 million  have been raised by the Festival over the years, with the funds used to buy ultra-modern equipment for 26 children’s medical institutions in Kazakhstan.

This project run by Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation plays an important part in providing assistance to hospitals and orphanages, as well as popularising sports, promoting a healthy lifestyle and developing domestic tourism.

Support of the Batyrkhan Shukenov Foundation: music that endures through the generations

In 2018 the Batyrkhan Shukenov Foundation and Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation signed a cooperation agreement. They had a common goal – to create strong and dynamic musical environment in which musicians of Batyrkhan Shukenov’s level could appear. Signing the agreement provided the impetus to start the campaign.

Batyrkhan Shukenov’s personal scholarship was established for talented students of wind instruments. The grant is issued with the support of Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation.

This is part of a set of measures designed to enrich the country’s culture and have a lasting impact: scholarships for talented students; publication of printed music of Batyrkhan Shukenov’s songs in the Kazakh language; organising the Republican contest of woodwind musical instrument performers named after Batyrkhan Shukenov; collectors’ edition of all sole albums of the Master that included two concerts, nine music discs and earlier non-published songs.

Equal right to life

Infantile cerebral palsy (ICP) is a disease that changes the life of a family when a baby is born with this condition. ICP disorders impact the ability to move and stay balanced. The development of such children is affected from an early age and they need significant rehabilitation, but this is a long and expensive process.

Unfortunately, ICP is widespread in Kazakhstan:

• 14,000 children with ICP officially registered
• every 84 out of 100,000 children have this diagnosis

Almaty and Nur-Sultan are the cities with the highest level of ICP disease rates: 150 and 120 people respectively per 100,000 people under 14 years of age. In the regions, the highest rates are in Atyrau and Zhambyl: 108.3 and 107 people respectively per 100,000 people under 14 years of age.

Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation provides help to the families of children with ICP. On 3 March 2018, the Foundation signed a Memorandum with the Association of Parents of Disabled Children (ARDI) and allocated  US$1 million for the launch of the Intensive Rehabilitation Centre and early intervention for children diagnosed with ICP. These actions have demonstrated that society’s moral compass is defined by how it treats people with disabilities.

Leading international techniques are used at the Centre, with children and parents supported by experienced specialists who undertake training and education in advanced international practices for rehabilitation of ICP children. All this has a significant impact and can minimise movement disorders, with regular exercises giving a child the chance to enjoy a school education and adapt to an independent life.

300 ICP children from 0 through to 14 years of age attend the Centre.

Aid projects for emergency victims and vulnerable groups of population

Support for the Red Crescent: aid cards

In 2017 Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation and the Red Crescent of Kazakhstan signed an agreement on joint assistance for people affected by disasters. This is a unique example of a partnership between non-governmental and private organisations. Since the start of the project, Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation has provided US$1 million in social aid cards issued by ForteBank.

Balameken: “When you know that you have a roof over your head”

Balameken is the name of the project run by Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation that provides housing to families in urgent need.

The first new settlers were multi-child families in the city of Kyzylorda. Jointly with the Akimat (Administration) of the Kyzylorda region, 75 duplex houses were built, of which 50 houses were built at the Foundation’s expense. Each duplex house is designed for two families, and each family has its own entrance and a plot of six hundred square meters of land.

• US$1.185 million — the Foundation’s contribution to the construction of these houses.

Following a tragedy in Arys in 2019 when 100 families were left homeless due to explosions at an ammunition depot, the Foundation allocated US$2.2 million to be used for the construction of 50 new houses for these families.

As early as November 2019 the families moved in to the completed houses which had high-quality finishes, equipped kitchens and bathrooms. The new inhabitants were people whose houses had been completely destroyed by explosions, as well as multi-child families and families with disabled children.

Flooding caused by a dam failure resulted in the destruction of houses in Myrzakent in the Makhtaaral District of the Turkestan region in spring 2019. Hundreds of people would have been left homeless had it not been for the assistance of Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation, which funded the construction of 150 houses within a short space of time for Makhtaaral residents who had lost their homes.

150 families received new three-room cottages with improved heating and sanitation, and 100 square metres of space.

US$6 million allocated from the Foundation provided for the construction of houses and became the most significant contribution to the region’s regeneration.

As a result, new houses were built in three towns and 350 families received new housing at the expense of the Foundation.

Foundation’s participation in control of the pandemic

In 2020, the Foundation made its contribution to the control of the coronavirus pandemic in Kazakhstan. Right at the peak of the pandemic the Foundation imported 94,000 express tests that were given to health departments of Almaty and Nur-Sultan. The express tests were used to screen socially vulnerable citizens (people with special needs, pensioners, low-income families) and high-risk groups (doctors, police officers, akimat civil servants, utility service employees).

Two module laboratories were established in the same cities to conduct PCR testing for coronavirus, which at the peak of the pandemic (in June and July) worked at full capacity, conducting up to a thousand tests per day. The analyses were done free of charge for vulnerable and high-risk groups.

The Foundation also transferred  US$ 1 million to the Republican Fund “Birgemiz”.

In April-May 2021, Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation formed 4,000 food baskets and delivered them to families who found themselves in a difficult life situation due to pandemic and quarantine restrictions, living in Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Shymkent, and Kyzylorda.

The Foundation’s work is always focused on achieving results, with hard facts and figures to demonstrate this success. Bulat himself does like to give interviews, and does not publicise his mission and social activities in the media. He simply invests his funds and resources in the development of the country’s economy and in concrete humanitarian programmes.