OREANDA-NEWS. On 12 May 2008 was announced, that the National Carrier of Kazakhstan has a social responsibility and considers the implementation of social projects as a very important task. This spring with the support of the Company three large projects were implemented. At the beginning of April Air Astana was an official carrier for the participants of a concert organised for the Families of children infected by the HIV-AIDS virus in the Southern region of Kazakhstan. This concert took place in Shimkent city at the Kajhy Mukan stadium. Аll money collected from this concert was offered to the Families of children infected by the AIDS virus.

Air Astana’s Public Relations Director, Bella Tormysheva, says ”Besides the offer of treatment by qualified specialists, as well as providing good medicines for them by the Government, these kind of families need financial and moral support. This was the reason, according to the South Kazakhstan region admistration, that the organisers of this concert and his partners (including Air Astana, plus Kazakh show business with the participation of famous Kazakh stars) took the initiative to hold the gala concert commited to supporting these children. Of course, such kinds of events cannot heal suffering children, but the task of this concert was to attract the attention of society to this tragedy and assure that the destiny of these children is not forgotten by the people of Kazakhstan.”

Air Astana together with other Companies gave all possible help to respond to the consequences of the flood that occurred in the Southern region of Kazakhstan. Due to the partnership between the Government and commercial companies, houses and infrastructure destroyed by the flood were restored.

The President of Air Astana, Peter Foster, says ”We helped together with Companies such as Kazmunay, KTG, Kegok, at the request of Vice-Premier Minister O. Shukeiv and Chief of State Holding Kanat Bozumbayev. We consider our Company not only as a commercial Company, but also a Company responsible for society, in particular we help children suffering from cancer to travel on our Airline to get treatment.”

Air Astana also supports ecological programs. At the end of April Air Astana offered one hundred thousand dollars to the Fund maintaining biological variety. This is the first special non-governmental Fund that exists, not only in Kazakhstan but also in the CIS countries, which has a goal to support ecological issues. The Fund was founded in 2007 in the context of a full-scale program of the U.N.O. General Ecological Fund and in the context of the program of the Government of Kazakhtsan, to maintain the waterways and marshlands of Kazakhstan. The President of Air Astana, Peter Foster, announced the contribution of finances to the Fund at the conference concerning issues affecting the constant development of Kazakhstan, on 16 of April 2007 in Astana "The partenship between the government and business and non-governmental organizations: new approches and challenges". Besides providing finances to the Fund, with the objective of extending the social responsibility of Air Astana, the company also plans to show ecological film advertisements during their flights.