Book Launch of Tolyq Adam: Returning the Book Back to People

On 3 April, the Tolyq Adam project reached a different kind of milestone.

Participants travelled from across Kazakhstan to Astana for the presentation of the book 45 Faces of the Tolyq Adam: Life Journeys of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities in Qazaqstan. For many, it was not simply a formal invitation. It was a first encounter with the space where their stories had been written, edited, and assembled.

Until that moment, their involvement in the project had existed through conversations, interviews, and fragments of narrative. On this day, those fragments came together in one place.

The event was structured, but the centre of attention was not the book itself, but the people present in the room. Participants were invited onto the stage, received certificates, and were photographed. For many, this was the first time their experiences had been acknowledged publicly in this way.

Conversations moved easily between participants, organisers, and guests. People met one another not as respondents or researchers, but as individuals sharing a common space. There was a sense of attentiveness — not only to the event, but to each other.

The presence of representatives from government, business, education, and the public sector extended the meaning of the event beyond the university. The discussion moved toward a broader understanding of entrepreneurship — not only as economic activity, but as a space shaped by dignity, responsibility, and lived experience.

The work had returned. And in that return, it changed meaning.