Location: Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan, a very big country which could stretch from London to Moscow. It is also a country of extremes, with weather that reaches 35C in Summer and -35C in winter.

Membership: we are the first U3A in our country, but we are sure there will be many more. Membership is open for retired senior citizens, men and women. We also would like single women, without children and young pensioners, who receive a minimum pension, living without a support team or forced to look for additional income to join us.

Activities: Astana U3A is organized by Gulbarshin Kassimanova, an active NGO member, director of Community Foundation of Life-long Learning, NGO with 20 years of civil education experience. Besides learning English Astana U3A activities list includes yoga classes (we attend free yoga classes at Indian Embassy in Astana), going out to Astana Opera, Theater and Philharmonic Concerts, meeting for the public holidays.

Astana U3A activitely promotes civil participation and solving socio-economic issues. Last year our U3A group initiated a public action"Plant a Tree!" to solve an important issue: every winter the road from Koshkarbaev town (satellite) to Astana sweeps with snow during the snowstorms. Together with the volunteers of the American Corner Astana U3A students have planted 200 trees on the both sides of this road.

Comment:

This page will only be a start for our University of the Third Age. I hope to have help and advice from people who have experience -- please send an email to g_kassimanova@mail.ru