Various religious organisations in Kazakhstan actively engage in charitable projects helping their parishioners and others in need.
Kazakhstan is a country where, in addition to the titular nation – the ethnic Kazakhs, mostly Muslims – representatives of many other ethnicities and religions coexist peacefully.
Amid the increasing antipathy between people with different ethnic and religious backgrounds, which is becoming one of the major challenges in the world, the social activities of various religious groups to help people in need are becoming an example for others.
A total of 3,658 religious associations representing 18 different denominations are registered in the country. The main religions include Islam, which is practised by more than 70% of the population, and Orthodox Christianity. There are also Protestant communities, Catholics, Judaists, Buddhists, and other religious groups such as Baha’i and followers of the Society for Krishna Consciousness.
There are more than 3,464 religious buildings in Kazakhstan, including 2,550 mosques, 294 Orthodox churches, and 495 Protestant churches and houses of worship.
Volunteers from various Islamic, Christian and other religious organisations actively engage in the country’s social life.
For example, the Kazakhstan Evangelical Church is also active in volunteering. An example is their programme to help the homeless, where volunteers organise the monthly distribution of hot meals and try to provide temporary accommodation for the homeless.
Homelessness is a serious social problem, and the number of homeless people increases annually. According to one of the largest charitable organisations Habitat for Humanity International, there are approximately 5,500 homeless people registered in Kazakhstan. This is, of course, approximate data that does not show a complete picture, but other sources also report that the number of homeless people in the country is growing.
Thus, according to the Akimat of the capital of Kazakhstan, 982 people without a permanent home were registered in Astana in 2020, and as many as 1178 homeless people – in 2023.
The UN defines homelessness as the lack of living accommodation, when people have to carry their belongings with them and sleep wherever they can: on the street, in the entrance halls of houses, and other random places. According to representatives of this organisation, states and society should make great efforts to eradicate this problem.
However, the homeless still exist and their number, unfortunately, increases. That is why caring people try to help homeless people as much as they can.
In Petropavlovsk city, the regional centre of the North Kazakhstan region, parishioners from different religious organisations provide the homeless with food, help them find housing, and change their lives through the religious paths.
Volunteer Tatiana Mironova, a parishioner of the House of Prayer of the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church, works as a manager in an insurance company. She says they started feeding the homeless in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.
The soup kitchen was in a garage cooperative near the regional military recruitment office.
“When it got cold in the winter, we started looking for a building and found a permanent garage. At first, we had some problems with the other garages’ owners but now, they are used to us, everybody has calmed down. They were concerned that there might be thefts and talked about calling the police. At first, people even slept there but now, there is nothing like that anymore. Everything is clean and we warn our visitors not to leave trash. We explained to them that if something is stolen from somewhere, we will have to close and stop feeding them,” says Tatiana.
In a CABAR.asia interview, she said that their community bought the garage. They installed tables and benches, repaired the roof and insulated the ceiling. They plan to replace the gates and make the benches more comfortable and attractive. They feed homeless people once a week, on Saturdays. They bring hot meals with them and heat water there.
“5 to 15 people come here to eat hot meals. In winter, there are more people. During the pandemic, up to 30 people came here,” says Tatiana.
They receive donations for their volunteer work from church parishioners and indifferent people who support them. They bought the garage themselves and raised funds for the repairs.
Helping those in need goes beyond just feeding them. Volunteers help the homeless to change their lifestyle and find God. Those who want to quit their addictions are placed in rehabilitation centres in the region. One of them is in the village of Bogolyubovo, Kyzylzhar district, North Kazakhstan region. In the town of Bulaevo (93 km east of Petropavlovsk), there is a “Brother’s House” (a rehabilitation centre for Evangelical Christian Baptists – Ed.) affiliated with the House of Prayer.
Tatiana Mironova said they plan to open a second soup kitchen and feed people there at least twice a week. They also want to open a centre to help women, similar to the “Brother’s House” at the House of Prayer.
She says that all their visitors have different paths, some are the victims of housing fraud, some were kicked out of the apartment, some were separated from their wives, however, in the end, they are all homeless. At the same time, some of them try to earn money, work as loaders, or go to seasonal work to harvest crops.
Tatiana told the story of Zhanat, who was able to change his life and give up his addictions, but this path was very difficult for him and took him two years. Zhanat Iskakov, 42, once lost his own home and came to the soup kitchen to eat a hot meal. Now, he lives in the dormitory of the Emmanuel Church (a charitable mission of the Evangelical church) and helps people like him. He helped find many homeless people who live near the city train station, some of whom cannot even walk, says Tatyana.
“Zhanat came to Petropavlovsk from Astana in 2020, when there was a pandemic. He had a wife there. He left her. He found out about us. He started coming to eat here. Over time, he wanted to change his life. We sent him to Bulaevo, where people stay from 6 to 9 months. At some point, he wanted to return to his wife in Astana. There, he fell into the same circle of people, broke down, and started drinking. Then, he returned to Petropavlovsk again and got lost,” says Tatyana.
They found him; he started coming to the soup kitchen again to eat there. Then, they sent him to Bulaevo again, but he gave up and went to his wife for the second time.
“This time, his wife did not let him in, and he went to his mother. After some time, he came to our church. I set a condition that we would accept him if he stopped drinking. We sent him to the Emmanuel Church, where there is a dormitory. We do not have such opportunities. But even there, not everything went smoothly at first. After living there for some time, something happened to him, and he left. Last year, Zhanat came to me again, asking me to take him back. However, we do not have residential places, and I told him to return to the Emmanuel Church and ask them to let him in. He got a place there, and now, he helps me feed people, telling everyone that they need to change,” says Tatyana.
She says that not all people find the courage to change; only about 20% manage to do so.
“In addition to having a strong will, it is necessary to change your social circle and environment. Otherwise, the risk of failure remains,” says Tatyana.