Al-Farabi National University (Kazakhstan)

Al-Farabi National University, founded in 1934 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, is the oldest and largest university in Kazakhstan.  Al-Farabi’s mission is “a shaping of competition of specialists  with modern prestigious higher educations, that orients decisions of problems of the intensive development of the most important directions of economy, sciences and public life of the state.”  Al-Farabi’s website>>

The university actively promotes students to take action in their communities to address socio-economic issues. Some examples are below:

• A social project “Youth in Care for Children.” First step: the program will cover 30-40 children and to work with them as tutors are 15 volunteers. This will be the senior students with sufficient knowledge and pedagogical skills. Project goal: to provide tutoring assistance to orphans, children from low-income disadvantaged families, children with disabilities. This activity will not only help to cope with learning the most vulnerable children population of Almaty, and will encourage the development of civil and social activities of students as the vanguard of democratic transformation of the Kazakh society. http://www.kaznu.kz/en/3/news/one/2875/

• Students of the Faculty “Geography and Nature Management” took an active part in environmental action in conjunction with akimat of Almaty and Kazecology organization on November 3, 2011. This action was part of the program “We are for a clean city”. The objects of treatment at this time were the banks of rivers: the Big and Small Almatinka, Esentai with the slogan “Clean rivers, clean the floodplain”.  http://www.kaznu.kz/en/3/news/one/3127/

• A volunteer movement “Kemek” involves student volunteers in various programs aimed at preventing crime and violence among Almaty youth.

• Members of a volunteer movement “Kegershin” assist Kazakh non-governmental organizations and civic groups with organizing and managing social polls among students in Almaty aimed at discovering and preventing corruption at institutions of higher learning.

• University students take active participation in charity programs, including “Bring Light to the World Around You,” “From One Heart to Another,” “Help Someone in Need,” designed to assist the elderly and physically challenged citizens of Almaty.

Al-Farabi also hosts a variety of conferences, events and discussions throughout the year for the university community, the local community and central Asia as a whole.