Opinion: Central Asia is ready for philanthropy

The rural Kazakh tradition of asar, where a community comes together to help an individual with large tasks, can be considered an ancient form of volunteering in Central Asia. Throughout its history, Kazakhstan has developed customs to alleviate the harsh conditions of life on the steppe. Now, Central Asia is gradually experiencing the rebirth of philanthropy.

For decades, the region had broken away from its civic-led tradition of philanthropic giving. During the Soviet era, the ultimate responsibility for social welfare belonged to the state. Citizens were dependent on the government for their needs, and, as a result, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, philanthropy was neither understood nor trusted. This is changing slowly. In recent years, there has been a visible shift, as citizens and entrepreneurs begin to recognize the importance of philanthropy to fill gaps left by the state or business.

When the Bulat Utemuratov Foundation was established in 2014, the founder’s vision was that the initiatives undertaken by the foundation should not duplicate other projects. We identified problems that nobody was dealing with at the time and sought to find effective ways to solve them and then share our solutions with both society and the government.