Who We Are  :  Description of the BOTA Foundation
Registered in April 2008, the BOTA Foundation was established with the clear mission to improve the lives of children and families suffering from poverty in Kazakhstan though increased investment in their children’s health, education and social welfare.

Our guiding principles are to be transparent and effective in providing meaningful assistance to families and children in need.

The BOTA Foundation currently offers three programs to support children from families in poverty in Kazakhstan:

1) The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program will provide financial support to households struggling below the poverty line in order to improve the health and well-being of their children. From November 2009 to November 2010, the CCT program will be piloted in Kyzyolorda and Akmola oblasts, with expansion to other oblasts in future years. By providing monetary support for impoverished families to increase their use of health and education services, the CCT program aims to:
  • reduce anemia in pregnant & lactating women in poverty to improve the health of their newborn children;
  • improve access to pre-school development services for children ages 4 – 6 to increase their potential for academic success; and,
  • improve the quality of home-based care for children with disabilities in families suffering from poverty by improving parental involvement in their disabled children’s physical, educational and emotional well-being.
2) The Social Services Program (SSP) makes grants to local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to improve the lives of children and youth from impoverished families.
In 2010 SSP will invest up to USD 3 million in legally registered NGOs that demonstrate the institutional and professional capacity to effectively deliver social services and systematically improve the welfare of children and youth suffering from poverty.

SSP provides the following categories of grants:
  • Community Mobilization and Action Planning: grants to engage local communities and mobilize resources for sustainable provision of social services
  • Social Service: grants to provide necessary social services, with emphasis on innovations that have significant potential impact and lead to sustainable results;
  • Scaling Up/Replication: grants to support spread of successful and innovative project models to provide social services for children and youth within an oblast or to other oblasts;
  • NGO Capacity Building: grants to NGOs for building capacity of other NGOs to effectively deliver social services;
  • Children and Youth Welfare System Improvement: grants to increase the quality and effectiveness of children and youth welfare systems in Kazakhstan.
SSP seeks applications that aim to assist children and youth from families suffering from poverty in four target areas:
  • Improved access to pre-school development services for children aged 4 - 6;
  • Promoting youth opportunities and prevention of risk behaviors – for youth aged 12 - 24:
  • Promoting access to quality services, including health, education and social welfare services – for disabled children and youth aged 0 - 24;
  • Assisting children and youth that are in difficult life situations: promoting effective forms and methods of working with minors characterized by a high degree of social risk for children and youth aged 0 - 24.
SSP operates through semi-annual open grant competitions for local and international NGOs. Applications will be recommended for funding by an independent evaluation committee and approved by the BOTA Program for funding based upon evaluation criteria clearly stated in the request for proposals.

3) The Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) will help youth with strong academic performance, but lacking in financial means, to undertake higher education, including vocational education, within Kazakhstan. The aim of the program is to improve the attendance of young students from families suffering from poverty in higher education and to provide them increased opportunities to better their and their families’ economic future.

The TAP program will run on an annual recruitment cycle (February – August each year). The TAP recruitment process is an open competition in which all eligible applicants may apply, however TAP scholarships will be awarded to those academically qualified students whose families demonstrate the most critical financial need based upon indicators of family income, consumption and composition. TAP scholarships will be awarded based upon the recommendations of an independent selection committee following interviews with those applicants whose applications demonstrate dire financial need. TAP scholarships will be awarded in August of each year.

In 2009, the BOTA Foundation awarded 87 TAP scholarships to applicants meeting the financial and academic criteria of the program. In addition to funding tuition for study at a college or university, the BOTA Foundation TAP program also provides stipends for housing, daily expenses and transportation. The BOTA Foundation will provide each recipient with several professional development seminars and workshops throughout the year to support the fellows success.

The BOTA Foundation hopes to award up to 400 scholarships over the coming four years.
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