Wednesday, january 17, 2017 inside nation healthcare minister reports on new infrastructure development plan A2

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017

PEOPLE

B2

NATION&CAPITAL

The Kazakh artist 

emphasised the 

importance of the 

foreign policy 

initiatives of President 

Nursultan Nazarbayev 

in the field of 

disarmament and  

non-proliferation.

ATOM project honorary ambassador takes part 

in Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony

By Dana Omirgazy

ASTANA – Kazakh artist and 

Honorary Ambassador of The 

ATOM Project Karipbek Kuyukov 

took part in the Dec. 10 ceremony 

in Oslo, Norway where the Inter-

national Campaign to Abolish Nu-

clear Weapons (ICAN) organisa-

tion was awarded the Nobel Peace 

Prize for 2017.

ICAN is a Geneva-based global 

civil society coalition made up of 

468 partner organisations, includ-

ing The ATOM Project, in 101 

countries.

Kuyukov congratulated the win-

ners of the Nobel Peace Prize, not-

ing that the non-proliferation effort 

is at “the beginning of a long way 

ahead of which there is still much 

to be done.”

He also took part in event with 

representatives of the victims of 

the atomic bombings in Japan’s 

Hiroshima and the ICAN cam-

paign. In his remarks, the Kazakh 

artist emphasised the importance 

of the foreign policy initiatives of 

President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 

the field of disarmament and non-

proliferation. Those initiatives 

resulted in Kazakhstan becoming 

the  first  country  in  the  world  to 

voluntarily renounce the world’s 

fourth largest nuclear arsenal and 

shutting down the infamous Soviet 

Union’s nuclear test site at Semi-

palatinsk, providing an example to 

other world powers.

“I participated in the meeting 

of the Norwegian public with 

20 surviving victims of atomic 

bombings (Hibakusha) from Ja-

pan. … I listened to the speeches 

of live witnesses of the Hiroshima 

and Nagasaki bombings. I was re-

ally touched by the words of one 

Japanese woman who said that 

Japanese women were very afraid 

of giving birth to children for a 

long time, and there was panic 

and fear, when they learned that 

they would have a child. … Peo-

ple kept silent about many things, 

and only now they began to speak 

about some events that led me to 

a shock … I met there a victim 

who remembers me young when 

we were together and participat-

ed in the Nevada-Semipalatinsk 

movement,” Karipbek wrote in a 

Facebook post.

The Nobel committee awarded 

ICAN the peace prize for ICAN’s 

“work to draw attention to the cata-

strophic humanitarian consequenc-

es of any use of nuclear weapons 

and for its ground-breaking efforts 

to achieve a treaty-based prohibi-

tion of such weapons.”

ICAN has played a key role in 

campaigning for the UN Treaty on 

the Prohibition of Nuclear Weap-

ons, which was adopted by 122 

countries in July 2017.

Beatrice Fihn, ICAN’s executive 

director, urged states possessing 

nuclear arms to sign the agree-

ment.

“It provides a choice. A choice 

between the two endings: the end 

of nuclear weapons or the end of 

us,” she said in her speech at the 

Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

Gabidullina receives 

special award from 

International Paralympic 

Committee

By Dana Omirgazy

ASTANA – Zulfiya Gabidullina, 

Kazakhstan’s first-ever Paralympics 

gold medal winner, is one of the 

country’s 100 New Faces. The in-

spirational story of the 52-year-old 

international class Master of Sports 

in swimming, silver and three-time 

bronze medallist in the 2013-2015 

World Championships, 2014 Asian 

Para Games winner and 13-time 

world record holder motivates and 

encourages people around the world 

to achieve their dreams and goals 

despite physical limitations.

As a 5-year-old in 1971, Gabid-

ullina was in an accident which 

resulted in spinal, head, hand and 

foot injuries, multiple limb frac-

tures and severe brain trauma. She 

spent most of her childhood in 

rehabilitation centres, where her 

parents brought her every three 

months. While Gabidullina needed 

to learn how to cope with the diffi-

culties, she never failed to believe 

in a bright future.

“When I found out that I was 

among the project participants, I 

was very surprised. You know, we 

are usually critical of ourselves. We 

think that others are better. When 

the voting began, my daughter was 

very excited and proud of me. I am 

very pleased to be among the 100 

New Faces project winners,” she 

told The Astana Times. 

Gabidullina has been involved 

in  sports  since  1990,  taking  first 

place the following year in the 

first presidential wheelchair races. 

She enjoyed participating in tour-

naments and competitions and in 

1994 became the best in athletics 

and swimming contests.

In the 2012 Summer Paralym-

pics, Gabidullina entered the 

50-metre backstroke, placing 12th 

in the S3 category. Four years later 

in Rio, she beat the world record 

in the 100-metre freestyle, bring-

ing  home  Kazakhstan’s  first-ever 

Paralympic gold medal.

Gabidullina is among the 

world’s eight strongest swimmers 

in several rankings. She has taken 

fourth place in the 50-metre free-

style and fifth in the 100-metre dis-

tance and is fifth in the 150-metre 

complex swimming and seventh in 

50-metre backstroke.

“Sport is the most interesting 

activity for me. Enthusiasm and 

victories brought an interest to my 

life,” she said.

In December, Gabidullina be-

came the world swimming cham-

pion at the Mexico City 2017 

Para-Sport Festival and received a 

special prize from the International 

Paralympic Committee at the 2017 

World Para Swimming Series.

“Famous sportswoman, cham-

pion of the 2016 Summer Para-

lympics  Zulfiya  Gabidullina  won 

first place at a distance of 50 metre 

freestyle. Along with this, Gabid-

ullina received a special award 

from the International Paralympic 

Committee. Four more athletes in 

para swimming from other coun-

tries earned a similar award. It is 

gratifying that our athlete was on 

this list of honorary swimmers,” 

reported the Kazakh National Par-

alympic Committee press service.

“Unfortunately, I could not par-

ticipate in the Dec. 1 forum with 

the participation of the President. 

I really wanted to be there and get 

to know those people who entered 

this project. However, I had to 

miss it, because I went to the Mex-

ico competitions,” she said.

Karipbek Kuyukov (C) meets with international anti-nuclear activists.

Zulfiya Gabidullina and her daughter. 

Astana cat café invites feline friends to spend 

holidays with pets, opens first cat hotel

By Zhanna Shayakhmetova

ASTANA – Pet businesses are 

an emerging trend. While their 

uniqueness can be both attractive 

and challenging to find their niche 

and customers, doing what one 

loves is one of the key elements of 

a successful business.

Miki Piki Cat Café founder Aig-

ul Kurmanaliyeva is enthusiastic 

about running an establishment re-

lated to her favourite animal.

“My husband and our children are 

fond of cats and we always have cats 

at home. We knew about cat cafés 

and two years ago when we were in 

South Korea, we went to the famous 

animal cafés. We really liked this idea 

and had a great desire to open a simi-

lar café in our city,” said Kurmana-

liyeva in an interview for this story.

It took almost two years from 

inception to opening and the entre-

preneurs launched their eatery in 

July during EXPO 2017.

“We were glad to find this perfect 

location with a separate entrance 

and everything here meets our re-

quirements. Then, we immediately 

bought nine kittens of different 

breeds. It is important not only to 

gather cats, but to make them feel 

comfortable with each other. Our 

cats grew up together as a family 

and now they are like brothers and 

sisters. We named the café after 

our tenth cat. My son called her 

Miki Piki and we still do not know 

what that means,” she said.

Kurmanaliyeva believes their 

café attracts visitors because they 

have social friendly cats. They are 

on cloud nine when people come 

to them.

“Many people think that this is 

a café only for children; in fact, it 

is a café for everyone. Now, we 

have 15 cats. We have more Brit-

ish Shorthair cats and Scottish 

Fold cats. There is also an Abys-

sinian cat, Bengal cat, Elf cat, Ex-

otic Shorthair cat, Kurilian Bobtail 

cat, Norwegian Forest cat, Maine 

Coon cat, Oriental cat, Persian cat, 

Sphynx cats and a Siamese cat,” 

she noted.

The concept café works as an 

anti-café with a drink and pastry 

menu. There is table hockey, a bil-

liards table and piano. The two-

hour entrance fee is 2,500 tenge 

(US$7.50) for adults and 1,500 

tenge (US$4.50) for children.

Visitors are not permitted to 

bring their own pets. Guests are 

prohibited from running and shout-

ing, because cats are very sensitive 

and like a quiet environment.

“All our cats are neutered to 

prevent unwanted behaviour. 

They have passports and received 

all mandatory and additional vac-

cines, because many people come 

to us and we need to protect them. 

We keep everything clean and ask 

visitors to put on shoe covers and 

treat their hands with an antisep-

tic. Our café is much more like a 

kindergarten,” said Kurmanali-

yeva.

“Children should learn to play 

gently with pets. They should 

know how to pick up and hold pets 

the right way, otherwise it is not 

safe to play with them. We try to 

gather different cat breeds so that 

our visitors come and get closely 

acquainted with them. Many peo-

ple come to work as volunteers 

and help us to look after the cats. 

We wanted to create a home en-

vironment and a young designer 

helped us implement this cosy in-

terior. Cats are associated with the 

house and we have soft carpets and 

sofas. There’s a separate area for 

food and drink,” she added.

The café also has a small cat 

hotel. A passport and vaccinations 

are required and the cost is 2,000 

tenge (US$6) per day.

“Our cats are given gifts and 

volunteers bring some food. Some 

visitors have their favourite pets 

and they come to certain cats. 

We do not do advertising, as it’s 

expensive; we promote our café 

through social media,” she said.

Veterinarians by occupation, 

the Kurmanaliyeva family was 

involved for a long time in cow 

breeding and farming.

“There are some challenges in 

running this kind of business to 

achieve  self-sufficiency.  We  have 

a lot of expenses including food, 

fillers,  vaccines,  sterilisation  and 

vitamins. This is more like a social 

project for us now. Children and 

students are our regular customers. 

People also come from neighbour-

ing cities on weekends. We want 

to collaborate with the city admin-

istration and to include our café in 

Astana’s sightseeing map,” she said.

The company also welcomes 

new volunteers to join their team.

“Some say that dogs are loyal, 

but I think cats are also very de-

voted friends. When we come in 

the morning, they run to greet us. 

They are gentle and kind. They 

have their instincts. They feel peo-

ple who love cats,” said Kurmana-

liyeva.

The café’s hours are 3 p.m.- 9 

p.m., weekdays, and it opens at 3 

p.m. on weekends and holidays. 

Visits should be booked in advance 

to control the number of guests.

Address:  58A Kabanbai Batyr 

Street, Building 1.

Contact number: +7 778 347 

1277.

Photo by Oksana Kor

olenko

Photo cr

edit: sports.kz

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