The final of the Republican Festival of ecological ideas and projects within the National Social Eco-campaign TURAQTY JOL was held on May 11, 2024 in Almaty.

TURAQTY JOL is an educational initiative aimed at educating the younger generation to cherish their native land by inculcating cultural, moral and environmental values.

The main objective of one of the stages of TURAQTY JOL, the Republican Festival of Environmental Ideas and Projects, is to raise awareness among young people aged 16 to 35 about current environmental problems within the country and to find ways to solve them. From more than 300 applications, 10 finalist teams were selected and underwent online training with engaged experts. The finalists arrived at the final part of the event to compete for a total prize fund of 15 million tenge. The festival jury evaluated the presentations of the teams and selected the best ones, who received financial support to continue their journey in the realization of environmental projects. The distinctive feature of this year was that the final of the TURAQTY JOL project was participated by teams of schoolchildren.

"Having gathered about ten thousand participants since its launch in 2020, TURAQTY JOL has become a key initiative aimed at promoting one of UNESCO's priorities in the field of education for sustainable development. I am confident that this initiative contributes to changing the worldview of young people, drawing public attention to the problems of preserving the environment and achieving sustainable development goals," - said Bolat Akchulakov, President of the Kazakhstan National Federation of Clubs for UNESCO.

According to the results of the expert group's evaluation, the winners of the festival were determined. The MUNARA project, presenting an innovative system for growing plants, took the deserved first place and was awarded a grant of 6 million tenge. The second place took the BEELIEVE project, whose idea of developing an innovative beehive allows to monitor the state of the apiary from anywhere in the world, the team received support in the form of a grant of 4 million tenge. The CARBONICK project, which took the third place, received a grant of 3 million tenge for presenting the idea of researching the process of obtaining pure hydrogen from greenhouse gases. It is important to note that incentive prizes of 1 million tenge were awarded to the teams JANARU and OSKIN.

"We not only strengthened our communication skills and found new friends among the finalists, but also got acquainted with other projects. I want to say that all the participants were incredibly cool! Webinars with experts who shared their experiences and tips on how to achieve success at the TURAQTY JOL final were especially valuable for us. Thanks to this, we defended ourselves perfectly and became winners, receiving a grant in the amount of 6 million tenge. Now our plans for the future are to implement and scale the project, taking into account all the recommendations of the jury, and move forward to new heights! We express our deep gratitude to the Kazakhstan Federation of Clubs for UNESCO, as well as as partners - CenterCredit Bank and Chevron company for the opportunity to improve the lives of millions of people and create a more environmentally sustainable future," Kauken Aruzhan notes.

TURAQTY JOL is a continuation of four cycles of the project successfully implemented by the Kazakhstan National Federation of Clubs for UNESCO in collaboration with the general partner Bank CenterCredit and the official partner company Chevron. The initiative is being implemented with the support of the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ICESCO, the UNESCO Regional Office in Almaty and the Akimat of Almaty. The information partners of the project are the media holdings “Alash Media Group” and “Nur Media”.