One of the BOTA Foundation [9]’s most successful programs is providing valuable educational opportunities for low-income youth across Kazakhstan.
This academic year, BOTA selected 328 finalists from more than 2,000 applications. Grant applicants studying social professions in line with the BOTA Foundation’s organizational activities, such as working with children from low-income families, were given preference in the selection process. More than half of them are from rural areas. The cohort also includes eight youth with disabilities and 53 orphans (40 living in orphanages and 13 with guardians). The BOTA stipend recipients will study at 45 colleges and 62 institutes of higher education around the country. In the 2011-2012 school year, the foundation plans to distribute more than $2 million. This year, the first four BOTA stipend recipients completed their education with grant assistance, becoming the first “BOTA graduates.”
In addition to paying for college or university, TAP also covers cost of living, and transport and other expenses (ie, school supplies). This year, grant recipients also have the opportunity to attend trainings in professional development, aimed at expanding their successful academic qualities and building their professional skills and habits.
Over the last two years, BOTA’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) [10] awarded 649 grants to young people from low-income families worth almost $2 million. This support is vital as tuition costs continue to rise.
One grant recipient, Shyryn Idrissova (Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Finance), expressed her appreciation. “I’m so happy to receive[the] BOTA grant that I just cannot express everything I feel in words. You opened my way to [the] future. Without [the] BOTA grant I could not study at university. Such a great luck has happened in my life for the first time and I will try to achieve high results in my studies.”