Capital: Astana
Area: 2,724,900 km²
Population: 15.2 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Kazakh, Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, German
Official language(s): Kazakh
Religion(s): Russian Orzhodox, Sunni Muslims
Currency: 1 tenge = 100 tiyn
SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
Sara Nazerbajeva, the wife of the Kazakh state president, was on an official state visit to Germany in 1992 when she went to see SOS Children's Village Diessen on lake Ammersee. She was immediately impressed by Hermann Gmeiner's idea. The national SOS Children's Village association in Kazakhstan was founded in 1994 and the first children were able to move into SOS Children's Village Almaty.
Almaty lies on the border to China and Kyrgyzstan and was the Kazakh capital at the time. The country became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Its social and economic situation is very poor and many children live in great poverty. Therefore, in 1998 it was decided to build a second SOS Children's Village in the new capital Astana. This has been operational since July 2000. There is also a holiday camp in Capchagay near Almaty where the children and mothers can relax in the summer months. The third SOS Children’s Village of Kazakhstan was constructed in Temirtau, a poor industrial city near Karaganda, where an SOS Playbus and an SOS Family Strengthening Programme were established in the following years.
At present there are three SOS Children’s Villages, two SOS Youth Facilities, an SOS Kindergarten as well as four SOS Social Centres.