Volunteer
alongside Altyn Uya
This is not work an organisation can do alone. The teacher at evening study, the team setting up stands on fair day, the volunteer translating a field report, the engineer reviewing a well survey — all of it is one piece of work.
Volunteer application form
What your work is for
We always give volunteers a clear role: what you will do, who you will work with and what the result is, stated from the start. Seeing where your effort goes is the right of the person giving it.
How you can contribute
Teaching and study support: supervised evening study at the Care Home, English, mathematics or computer literacy.
Field and logistics: setting up stands at the back-to-school fair, running the size-and-colour selection, logistics for winter distributions.
Technical and engineering: professional input on geological surveys and filtration systems for deep wells.
Translation and communications: Kyrgyz, Russian, Turkish and English versions of our field reports, donor updates, social media content.
Institutional support: accounting, law, grant applications and reporting.
The work in Kyrgyzstan is run by Kyrgyzstanis; partners and volunteers support but do not replace. What emerges is not aid arranged from outside, but solidarity built on fellowship.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
In line with our commitment to transparency, we have gathered the most common questions here. If you cannot find an answer, write to us and it will be added in the next update.
Altyn Uya is a public foundation whose roots go back to the Altyn Uya Care Home, founded in 2009. It was registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic on 27 November 2020 and re-registered on 2 September 2024. It runs a residential Care Home in Novopokrovka and delivers nationwide programmes in education, food, health, clean water and winter support. The most common misunderstanding is to describe Altyn Uya as an organisation that hands out parcels. We are an education and child-protection institution; distribution is only one part of the work.
Our mission: to give orphaned children, children without parental care and other vulnerable children in Kyrgyzstan a safe home — meeting their needs for shelter, food and health in full, while opening the way to education and to standing on their own feet.
Our vision: to be a trusted, sustainable and exemplary institution in child protection, education and transparent accountability in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia.
A vow (nazr) sacrifice is one a person pledges on the fulfilment of a wish. Neither the person who made the vow nor their immediate family may eat any of the meat — all of the meat is distributed to those in need.
Aqiqah is a sacrifice offered in thanks for the birth of a child — a prayer for the newborn's health and wellbeing.
A healing (shifa) sacrifice is a voluntary offering made with the intention of recovery and healing.
A thanksgiving (shukr) sacrifice is a voluntary offering made in gratitude for a blessing received, a hardship overcome or a prayer answered.
A voluntary (nafl) sacrifice carries no obligation. It may be offered on any day of the year, purely as an act of goodwill.
Zakat is the annual payment of one fortieth (2.5%) of a person's wealth to those in need, due from anyone whose assets reach the nisab threshold (80.18 grams of gold or its equivalent in cash or trade goods) and have been held for a full year.
Ushr is the zakat due on agricultural produce. Where land is watered by rain or river at no cost, one tenth (10%) is due; where irrigation requires labour and expense, one twentieth (5%). It is given at harvest.
Drilling a well is not simply digging. A geological and site survey comes first; instead of vulnerable surface water, deep drilling reaches a clean aquifer. The borehole is cased, a filtration system installed, and only once laboratory analysis (including arsenic and contamination tests) confirms the water is drinkable does the well go into service.
“I Want to Study Too!” (Men dagy okuunu kaalaym!) runs every year in August and September, as the school year begins. Each kit contains an ergonomic backpack, a year's stationery, a school uniform and winter shoes. The average cost per pupil is around 6,000 som.
Distribution is not by parcel but as a fair: stands are set up in sports halls and children choose their own size and colour. We do not line children up and hand over boxes in front of a camera.