Several dozen mothers gather at the office of the mayor of Krasny Yar on a chilly May morning in northern Kazakhstan. Besides a school, the mayor’s office is the only public building in this village of 200 families, so the mothers of various ages and ethnicities who have gathered here, had no trouble finding the location. Each is struggling to raise children from below the poverty line. Each has come to learn more and enroll in a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program as part of the BOTA Foundation [7] that will help them access health and education services for their children that they might not otherwise be able to afford.
While poor, these mothers are not helpless. They are here to seek new opportunities for their children. Many are educated and active, yet it remains difficult for many in this community to find steady jobs, and under-employment is also a problem.
Sveta is a young mother in her early 20s, who would like to participate in the program while studying dance choreography at a near-by college. “I would like to work with young children; I want to teach them how to dance,” she explains while waiting to enroll. She is neatly dressed and energetic, but has been unable to find work that will allow her to raise her child while she pursues her studies. Although Sveta cannot find permanent work, she donates her time teaching dance to children, usually in preparation for performances at holiday and celebrations at neighboring schools. Her husband works part time as an electrician, but his salary is not enough to cover the costs of health and education services otherwise available to their child. Sveta hopes that the program will provide just enough for her children to be able take advantage of such services.
Another enrollee, Aigul, is the mother of five. Her husband was an auto mechanic, but is now only partially employed. “In the past, he had a steady job fixing equipment at a communal farm, but it has all been replaced by foreign equipment that only people from cities are able to work on. Now he has occasional work as a security guard in the city, but it is not enough.” When her husband is not working Aigul’s family receives monthly assistance of about $37 (5,500 kzt) from the government. “This is so little,” she explains, “because with five children, we spend about a third of this amount just on flour for baking.” In addition, two of her children have persistent health problems, preventing her from finding part-time work herself. She hopes that the program will help to supplement the family’s income so that they are able to raise healthy children.
Like Sveta and Aigul, the women gathered here today hope to be able to afford health care and education services for their children, and the CCT program seeks to enable them to do so. However, “this is not a charity program,” explains Kulash Karshalova, a BOTA Foundation representative. “You will receive assistance through the program only for providing services to your children, for taking initiative and being proactive.”
IREX, Save the Children [8], and the World Bank [9] have partnered to oversee the development of the BOTA Foundation, an unprecedented development venture that is overseeing the repatriation of $84 million through programs targeting the poorest children in Kazakhstan.