Leaders of youth wings of ethno-cultural associations and activists of "Zhangyru Zholy" RYM of Kostanay region visited the Kazakh-Russian Youth Forum, which was visited by the President of Kazakhstan Qassym-Jomart Toqayev.
The large-scale event gathered more than a thousand volunteers fr om Kazakhstan and Russia in the new Youth Palace. The forum started its work on May 20. At the opening ceremony, Arhimed Mukhambetov, the Akim of Kostanay region, made a speech in front of the people, who noted that the main priorities of youth policy in Kazakhstan are social support for employment among young people, and the forum is another opportunity to continue and preserve the centuries-old traditions of good neighborliness and friendship between our countries. After the plenary session, the forum participants dispersed into sections, where Kazakh and Russian speakers addressed them.
The youth discussed the most important topics of the volunteer movement, ways of its development, opportunities for cross-border cooperation and projects to be implemented at the international level.
–“Very useful meetings were held within the framework of the forum, and most importantly - informative and useful for the future work of volunteers” a participant of the forum, an activist of the youth wing of the Tatar-Bashkir ethnocultural center "Duslyk" Valeria Chikayeva said. “It was interesting to listen to the speaker from Russia Oleg Chestnov, who worked in a number of countries affected by conflicts, as well as natural and technical disasters, wh ere he was engaged in the management of humanitarian aid”.
After a conversation with Olga Amelchenkova, who heads the Central Headquarters of the All-Russian Public Movement "Volunteers of Victory", there was a wish to organize the same work in homeland.
On May 21, President of Kazakhstan Qassym-Jomart Toqayev met with the participants in the framework of his working trip to Kostanay region.
In anticipation of an important guest, the forum participants, who had already had time to get acquainted with each other, arranged an "open microphone" in the hall: they sang songs with pleasure, chanted the names of their cities and regions, and even arranged a dance battle to the sounds of an improvised beatbox.
Charged with positive emotions, the boys and girls met the President of Kazakhstan, who arrived at the meeting with a storm of applause.
Before the head of the state and participants of a forum 6 speakers who presented the best practices of volunteering in format TedX acted.
Thus, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Volunteer Centres Artem Metelev told about the largest projects of Russian volunteers and asked to support them in Kazakhstan, and Chairman of the National Volunteer Network Vera Kim proposed to declare 2020 the Year of Volunteers.
After the speeches of the speakers, Qassym-Jomart Toqayev came on stage to greet the audience.
- As President of the country, I support the volunteer movement," the President said, "We promise to help the youth and I give instructions to all levels of akims to support the volunteers. A list of the 300 most trained young people will be drawn up, who will be given the opportunity to work at all levels of the civil service. In 2016, we adopted a law on volunteering. This law established the status of volunteers, their rights and obligations, and provides for state support measures. And these measures will be increased. This year was a new stage in the development of volunteering in Kazakhstan. The head of state also proposed to organize an international award "Volunteer of the Year". The prize will be awarded for the best volunteer projects of the two countries and will be a good help to those who generate creative ideas and projects. I also propose to discuss the possibility of creating a permanent volunteer council with the participation of leaders of volunteer organizations in Kazakhstan and Russia. This will strengthen the potential of our mutual cooperation, friendship and strategic partnership. We have common tasks ahead, but they will be solved undoubtedly," concluded Qassym-Jomart Toqayev.