30.12.2025

The year 2025 has become a significant for the children’s healthcare system in Kazakhstan: serious government investments in medical equipment, training of doctors and early diagnosis have contributed into the measurable results. The AYALA Charity Foundation also contributed to these changes, focusing its efforts on reducing the infant mortality rate, preventing the disability since birth, and developing the medical infrastructure in the regions.

Saving newborns has been one of the key activities of the AYALA Charity Foundation over the last 18 years. In 2025, the AYALA Charity Foundation, supported by its major partners: Chevron and Tengizchevroil, the Courage to Be the First Corporate Fund and the GASENERGY gas station network, as well as thanks to the donations from thousands of Kazakhstanis, has allocated more than 500 million tenge to provide the state perinatal centers with modern equipment for diagnostics, resuscitation, respiratory support and nursing the newborns.

This allowed the doctors in Almaty and Shymkent, Turkestan, Atyrau, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Yekibastuz and Zharkent to provide timely on-site care without urgently transporting infants to the large cities, because it often becomes a critical factor for their future health, especially it concerns the very premature infants. It is the prompt and highly accurate care in the first days and months after birth that determines not only the survival rate, but also the quality of a child’s life for years to come.

In the first nine months of 2025, the infant mortality rate in Kazakhstan reached a historic low: 5.84 cases per 1000 live births, which is 19.3% lower than in the same period of 2024 according to the information from the Ministry of Healthcare. Neonatal mortality rate decreased from 3.4 to 3.1 cases per thousand live births in ten months. The AYALA Charity Foundation believes that the “Breathe in Life” project has become one of the factors contributing to this positive trend.

The important event of the year was the opening of two individual breast milk banks by the AYALA Charity Foundation — in Almaty and Turkestan. The project has closed a significant need of the healthcare system: providing the breast milk to premature and weakened infants from their own mothers when the natural feeding is temporarily impossible.

“We have been systematically working to reduce the disability since birth for the last ten years. In 2025, our efforts have been focused on Atyrau and Turkestan regions, — says Aidan Suleymenova, the Founder and President of the AYALA Charity Foundation. — With our participation, the equipping of “1-day Clinics” has been completed for the accurate and early detection of genetic abnormalities in fetal development in Atyrau and Shymkent. The special devices have been provided for the early diagnosis and treatment of retinopathy of premature newborns, one of the main causes of childhood blindness. High-precision equipment and training of specialists permit to detect the pathology at the early stage and preserve the children’s vision.”

Fetal surgery is actively developing in Kazakhstan supported by the AYALA Charity Foundation. In 2025, 92 intrauterine surgeries have been performed, and the lives of 105 future newborns have been saved. Dozens of obstetricians, gynecologists and ultrasound specialists from all regions of the country took part in the international workshops and educational programs of the AYALA Charity Foundation. The neonatal surgery department has been opened in Atyrau, where eight complex surgeries have already been successfully performed on newborns, including the newborns with critically low weight — about 700 grams.

“Advanced training of doctors has a direct effect on the quality of medical care, forms the sustainable changes within the healthcare system, improves the clinical approaches and provides the unique practical skills that remain with doctors for life,” emphasizes Aidan Suleymenova.

In 2025, the AYALA Charity Foundation has continued its work beyond the medicine, supporting the educational and social initiatives for children and adolescents. For eight years, the AYALA Charity Foundation has been involved in the implementation of SAMSUNG Kazakhstan’s projects in the field of STEM education, innovation and digital skills — Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung Innovation Campus. These programs annually covers the thousands of schoolchildren and help to form a new generation of scientists, engineers, mobile application developers and data analysts in Kazakhstan. For the fifth year in a row, the partnership with the CUMMINS representative office in Kazakhstan continues in educational projects for children in difficult situations in Karaganda region.

The joint projects with large international and Kazakhstani companies permit to combine the financial resources, expertise and volunteer potential, enhancing the effect of each tenge aimed at the social initiatives.

At the same time, the AYALA Charity Foundation keeps the focus on transparency and trust, openly reporting on its activities and involving the society into the conscious charity culture. This approach makes the assistance not one-time, but sustainable and systematic.

Summing up the results of the year, the Founder and President of the AYALA Charity Foundation, Aidan Suleymenova, emphasizes:

“We see how the annual social investments into the medical equipment, the knowledge of doctors, the educational programs for children and adolescents have a positive effect on the destinies of thousands of families in Kazakhstan. I am sincerely grateful to everyone who supports the projects of the AYALA Charity Foundation. I sincerely congratulate the Kazakhstanis on the upcoming New Year 2026 and wish them the most important things — health, confidence in the future and faith that we can change the future for the better through joint efforts.”