The medical facility helps people with mental disorders and disabilities recover and return to society. To do this, labor rehabilitation courses, where patients can learn working specialties, were organized. Over 500 people come to rehabilitation here annually.

“We also help in social adaptation, conduct consultations, train social skills, engage in psycho-education, and family counseling. Help is provided by qualified professionals. Thus, we solve complex rehabilitation issues,” said the director of the center, Yerbol Nurkatov.

Since 2015, the GreenTAL social workshop has been successfully operating on the basis of this medical center, where they train and further employ citizens from socially vulnerable categories: people with disabilities, from large and low-income families, and former convicts. Patients who have undergone rehabilitation at the medical center can also get a job here.

According to project manager Emin Askerov, over five hundred people were trained in the workshop over five years. The average salary is 100-150 thousand tenge.

“Our main goal is not making money, but creating conditions for the employment of socially vulnerable citizens. Today, 42 people work in our workshop, 16 of them with mental health problems. But, despite their peculiarities, they work, receive wages, they have motivation to live and work,” Askerov said.

Berdibek Saparbayev praised the work of the social workshop, instructing the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population to consider the dissemination of such experience in other regions of the country.

The next object of the visit was the DAYR Public Foundation, opened by Amir Suleimenov, a group I disabled person. In less than a year, the Fund trained more than 200 unemployed, people with disabilities, single-parent and large families IT and SMM skills. Of these, 80% were able to find a job.

“Your example is indicative. Because, in spite of life's difficulties, you not only work on yourself, realize yourself, develop your abilities, but also help other people gain certain skills and find a job. The Ministry of Labor of Social Protection of the Population and the akimat need to support and scale up such projects,” Saparbayev noted.

In addition, the deputy prime minister visited the hypermarket of a large retail chain. The Akimat of the capital, together with a trading company, plans to implement a project to provide guaranteed social packages for children from low-income families.

“Families receiving targeted social assistance will be issued plastic cards. With their help, they will be able to receive food and hygiene kits directly in stores. In total this year, we plan to reach about 4,200 low-income families with targeted social assistance and social packages. More than 2 billion tenge has been allocated for these purposes,” the deputy akim of the city, Bakhtiyar Maken, said.

The project is scheduled to be launched in March 2020.