21.04.2022

AYALA Charity Foundation, with the support of the ORIFLAME, opened a modern career guidance workshop in the format of a “beauty salon” in the Karaganda Orphanage for children with developmental disabilities. This is already the third workshop that operates in this educational institution as part of the Career Guidance project. In just 15 years of work, the Foundation has opened more than 20 career guidance workshops in boarding schools and orphanages throughout Kazakhstan.

133 foster children from all over the Karaganda oblast study and live in the Orphanage for Children with Developmental Disabilities. They have their own state-of-the-art beauty salon now, this is exactly what the room where the hairdressing workshop is located looks like. New white furniture, comfortable soft chairs, professional hair wash, accessories for haircuts, styling — hair dryers, brushes, scissors and various cosmetics provided by ORIFLAME. There is a table and all the necessary equipment with consumables for learning manicure. But the main thing is that there are teachers who will conduct classes with the children at the orphanage several times a week, teaching them the basics of the profession.

«We are constantly engaged in career guidance for our children. We already have a photo and video workshop. Children shoot video, learn how to edit it, make videos, they are already excellent photographers and know the basics of computer image processing. Last year, with the help of AYALA Foundation, we had got a room for culinary trade training. Our foster children love it very much: they cook and bake in it almost every day. And, of course, for a very long time we dreamed of opening a hairdressing salon in our orphanage,” noted Daneker Saulebaevna Seisekina, director of the Orphanage for Children with ODD in the Karaganda oblast. — Career guidance classes in the workshops are conducted by both our full-time teachers and invited professionals on a volunteer basis. At the hairdressing workshop, a full-time employee works with children, teaches them the basics of haircuts, puts their hands on them, and teaches them the correct use of tools. We also want to invite volunteers to teach the basics of manicure. Career guidance is very important and essential because it gives children practical life skills so that they can be independent and settled in adulthood. Many thanks to AYALA Foundation and the ORIFLAME for this opportunity.

The total budget for equipment of this workshop was 4,194,210 tenge. The workshop has all the necessary professional accessories and very comfortable modern furniture. And before the entrance of the “beauty salon” there is a reception area, so that children learn not only how to cut clients’ hair, but also how to properly receive them for service, which will help them in the future try themselves as administrators in real beauty salons.

“Charity is an integral part of ORIFLAME who turns 55 this year. Through the ORIFLAME Foundation the company partners with non-governmental and charitable organizations around the world that not only have extensive experience in successfully implementing charitable initiatives, but also share our goals and values. The main goal of ORIFLAME charitable projects is to help children improve access to education, which is the foundation of a future prosperous life. For many years, the company has been trying to help children turn their dreams into reality, and we are glad that the foster children of the Karaganda Orphanage now have the opportunity to realize not only their dreams, but also their talents in the professional field,” noted Aizhan Mustapaeva, General Director of ORIFLAME Kazakhstan.

This is already the third career guidance workshop that the AYALA CF has equipped with the sponsorship of ORIFLAME. Since 2010, the Career Guidance project has covered 25 educational institutions in the country. Its goal is to help children from orphanages and boarding schools in their social adaptation.

“For 12 years of the project’s implementation, more than 1,000 teenagers have attended career guidance courses organized by the Foundation. In June 2021, the Foundation signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan as part of the Career Guidance project. We are glad that our project has had a response from the management of ORIFLAME and we thank the company for its many years of cooperation and support of our project,” said Aidan Suleimenova, President of AYALA Foundation.

As part of the Career Guidance project, AYALA Foundation organized 17 courses, opened 25 special workshops, and attracted dozens of excellent and caring professionals as volunteer teachers. We trained 5 teenagers in hairdressing, and one of them is already working in a barber salon in Almaty. More than 100 children were trained in sewing skills. Same number attended courses in preparing European dishes at home, after which they decided to enroll in specialized colleges. The Foundation attracted more than 30 students from the Republilcan Physics and Mathematics School named after Zhautykov as volunteer tutors. For several years now, they have been preparing dozens of high school students from 3 Almaty boarding schools to take entrance tests in mathematics, physics and chemistry.

This year, the Foundation will continue to search for sponsors to equip 5 more workshops in orphanages and boarding schools in Kazakhstan.