Over 2024 the Almaty Marathon has grown to become the largest marathon in Central Asia and has effects far beyond the finish line. The event, one of the select few charitable marathons globally, aims not only to promote health and an active lifestyle but also works to tackle broader societal challenges.
Read more about the Almaty Marathon and its impact on the local communities in BNE Intellinews.
In 2024, the seventh edition of the Almaty Half Marathon took place, organised by the team behind the Almaty Marathon. Founded in 2012 by the businessman and philanthropist Galimzhan Yessenov, and the mastermind of the race, Aizhan Yessim, the Almaty Marathon team has since run over 100 mass participatory sporting events, and the Marathon itself has grown to become the largest running event in Central Asia. Approximately 200,000 people have participated in the races over the years, and 8,000 participants took part in this April’s Almaty Half Marathon.
Read more about this in BNE Intellinews.
Late April 2024 saw a milestone event for sport in Central Asia as Virtus, the global sporting federation for athletes with an intellectual impairment, brought the 2024 Virtus World Half Marathon and 10K Road races to Almaty, Kazakhstan. 28 Virtus athletes from 8 countries competed in the events.
Read more about this in Trend.
In 2012, Kazakhstani entrepreneur Galimzhan Yessenov founded the “Courage to be First” corporate foundation. The foundation has now held more than 100 events attended by more than 200,000 people from all over the world. The flagship project of the foundation – the Almaty Marathon – has become an important driver of Almaty’s economic development, attracting tourists to the city and stimulating the growth of local businesses.
The marathon raised a record $143,000 for charity in 2023. Every year, a part of the registration fee charged to take part is allocated to children with special needs. Over 12 years, the foundation’s team has implemented more than 30 charitable initiatives worth over $610,000 and encouraged more than 3,000 children into sport.
Recently, Jusan Bank received another award for its latest Sustainability Report. KASE, the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, commended Jusan Bank for the report, as part of an its annual reporting contest, an exercise assessing financial and non-financial reporting from a range of Kazakh companies. This comes after PwC Kazakhstan listed Jusan Bank’s report as the strongest of all sustainability reports by financial institutions in Kazakhstan in December last year.
ESG and sustainability has been a big focus for Jusan Bank in recent years and I’m pleased to share further recognition of our progress in this area.
You can read more in the press release here.