YESSENOV FOUNDATION PUBLISHED GUIDANCE FOR NGOs

 Scientific and Educational Foundation named after Academician Shakhmardan Yessenov released the guidance for NGOs and volunteers in Kazakhstan. The guidance consists of chapters regarding finding and training volunteers, project management, communications, fundraising and other relevant to the nonprofit sector matters.

— This is the third edition, and of course it is seriously upgraded and expanded, says the coordinator of projects of the Foundation and the initiator of the release Grigory Lee. — The main objective is to help Kazakh NGOs to improve their working methods in accordance with the latest trends in this sector. The world now is changing very quickly; some tools become outdated, while others upgrade and confirm its effectiveness. All this is reflected in the new guidance. I hope it will benefit and help non-profit organizations to more effectively fulfill their missions, he concluded.

In the writing of the guidance, such organizations as Civil Alliance of Kazakhstan and National Volunteers Network, the Coordination Center for volunteers “Komanda SOS” and International Center for Nonprofit Law (ICNL), as well as experts in this field, as Irina Kim and Irina Naydenova, took part.

Once the guidance was ready, it was sent for review to well-known NGO sector’s figures in Kazakhstan — Asiya Akhtanova (Association of parents of disabled children “ARDI”), Alma Bekpan (Rukh Public Association) and Aruzhan Sain (DOM Foundation). Upon receiving their feedback, the guidance was edited according to their suggestions. Its printed version, having a modest circulation of 60 copies, was distributed through a National Volunteers Network. It can also be requested from the Shakhmardan Yessenov Foundation Office, or can be downloaded as electronic version of the publication from the website of the organization.

— In December 2016, the Kazakh Law “On volunteer activities” was adopted. And this guidance provides valuable and relevant information regarding the volunteers’ movement in the country, depicting variety of volunteer initiatives, the involvement of volunteers in the NGO events and other issues. We would like to thank the team of authors from Shakhmardan Yessenov Foundation, National Volunteers Network, all of our partners and volunteers for their participation in the preparation of the publication, — commented on the release of the guidance the UN Volunteers’ Program Coordinator in Central Asia Dmitry Frischin.

Let’s remind that in March 2009, 32 Kazakhstan NGOs gathered together in Almaty for participation in the seminar on the development of volunteering. As an outcome of the seminar, the first edition of the guidance for NGOs was released, the second edition of which was published 3 years later.