Low-Income Student Thrives on Educational Opportunity

Dinara Shakmetova grew up in a small remote village in Kazakhstan with her single mother and four siblings. With limited economic resources, Dinara would often knit clothing items to sell as a way of making extra money for the family in addition to her studies and household chores. Thanks to the BOTA Foundation, her life took a different turn and she is now breaking the cycle of poverty through education.

It all started with BOTA’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, which satisfied her thirst for reading. In her village, it was very difficult to find any books, let alone books in Russian or Kazakh. With a large supply of English books provided by local NGOs, Dinara began reading in English, as they were the only books available. She then joined the English club at school, which was founded by a BOTA CCT volunteer, Natalia Pelikh.

Seeing the potential in Dinara, Natalia arranged for her to enroll in CCT’s Youth Livelihoods (LLH) component, which targets poor youth ages 16-19 in Kazakhstan to increase their access to education and vocational skills training to improve their livelihoods and secure future employment.

Dinara received a living allowance, participated in a series of professional trainings, held an internship, and attended classes on livelihood topics such as safety and personal finance. She even served as a team leader during a summer camp.

After completing the LLH program, Dinara went after her goal of pursuing a university degree and applied for BOTA’s Tuition Assistance Program. She won the scholarship and is now studying Informational Systems at Karaganda State Technical University. Upon graduating, she hopes to become an IT teacher to give back to her community.

Aside from providing Dinara technical training and financial support, BOTA has also helped her become more confident in her other talents. She started drawing again and has recently won several prizes at local art contests.

“Participation in the BOTA program prompted my interest in new opportunities, but most importantly, it gave me a chance to shape a dream and make it true, which seemed impossible before,” Dinara says.

IREX is building the BOTA Foundation by providing senior technical expertise to ensure that over $100 million dollars is effectively reaching the poorest of poor in Kazakhstan. BOTA is an independent not-for-profit NGO that improves the lives of children and youth through university scholarships, small cash transfers to impoverished mothers, and grants to local NGOs