A few days ago, Almaty hosted the Steppe Awards ceremony — a prize in the field of Kazakhstan’s creative industries, established by The Steppe media platform as a means to recognize, support, and promote young creators and their initiatives. Aselle Tasmagambetova, President of the Saby Foundation, was invited to serve as the curator of the award’s Social Projects category.
For over ten years, the Saby Foundation has been running the “Build Your Business” competition aimed at supporting young Kazakhstani entrepreneurs. During this time, 80 emerging business owners have received non-repayable grants totaling $2,240,000 USD. Today, these projects continue to operate successfully, making a valuable contribution to the country’s economy.
It is especially symbolic that the founder of The Steppe, Zaure Rozmat, is herself a graduate of the 2015 “Build Your Business” competition. Her project, Kids Lab, received a $20,000 USD grant from the foundation. Participation in the competition became a significant milestone in the development of her business and provided a strong impetus for her professional growth.
With great enthusiasm, Aselle Tasmagambetova accepted the invitation to join the Steppe Awards jury and personally reviewed all submitted social projects. As a result, two initiatives — “Study of the Physico-Chemical Properties and Biological Activity of PM2.5 in the Air Environment of Almaty: A Comprehensive Approach to Assessing Environmental Risks” (in the Science Impact category), and “Specialized Library for Visually Impaired and Blind Residents of Semey City” (in the Social Projects category) —
each received a 1,000,000 KZT grant from the Saby Foundation to further develop their work.
In addition, as part of the foundation’s collaboration with Build Your Business alumna Zaure Rozmat, 2.5 million KZT were allocated to support the organization of the award, along with informational support for the event.
