The village of Nura in the Karaganda region was awarded in the nomination "EN MEIRIMDI AUYL – 2024" at the international Volunteer of the Year award and the Marathon of Good Deeds project. The winners were selected in 60 different categories, of which five were special. One of them is "EN MEIRIMDI AUYL – 2024".
The winners of the Volunteer of the Year award were awarded in Astana.
– Of course, I did not expect that we would win. This is a huge high-level competition. The participants are very decent people. There was a family, for example, who regularly donates blood for those in need of transfusion. I shook hands with the head of the family, said he was a hero. And they answered me: "We are all heroes here," said Talgat Sholtaev, director of the Nurinsk Youth Resource Center and head of the NuraArnasy volunteer group.
Talgat Sholtaev became famous throughout Kazakhstan this autumn when he single-handedly saved a horse drowning in viscous mud. The video quickly went viral on the Internet.
– I myself do not know how I was able to get this horse out, where the strength came from. Then I couldn't get up for four days: my lower back hurt. But saving a horse is not what we were awarded the prize for. We are constantly engaged in volunteer activities. During floods and fires in Karkaralinsk, even if we could not go out and help personally, we always collected and sent humanitarian aid. We find sponsors and help our nursing home. We also attract our youth, including those from socially vulnerable segments of the population," Talgat Sholtaev says.
Within the framework of the Marathon of Good Deeds project, Shakhtinsk volunteers became the winners in the nomination "Leader in the direction of inclusion".
– Our volunteer association, together with the Kamkor – 2007 association of Meirzhan Shayakhmetov, works in various fields, but it so happened that most of the help is given to children with disabilities. We hold events for them, distribute products from the "Basket of Goodness", which is filled with residents of our city, and organize trips. For example, in the summer we took children with special needs to Astana, but recently we organized a trip to Karaganda for them. The children were taken to the cinema and the children's activity park," said Alexey Varzaev, head of the Shakhty Youth Resource Center.
Shakhty volunteers received the nomination "Leader in the direction of inclusion" for organizing the annual Tansholpan festival for children with special needs. This year, more than 150 people from the Karaganda region participated in it. They sang, danced, recited poetry and presented various creative performances.
Shakhty residents help not only children. They are also engaged in animal welfare and eco-activism.
In the Karaganda region, the winners of the Volunteer of the Year award nominations also became:
- "For contribution to the solution of issues of animal protection" – Olga Koroleva (Karaganda);
- "For contribution to the preservation and development of historical and cultural heritage" – Aisha Azimbai (Karaganda);
- "For contribution to the preservation and protection of the environment" Elena Varganova (Temirtau).

Source : https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/karaganda/press/news/details/897883