45 Faces of the Tolyq Adam: Life Journeys of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities in Kazakhstan
NURCE has published a new book — 45 Faces of the Tolyq Adam — documenting the life stories of entrepreneurs with disabilities in Kazakhstan.
The Tolyq Adam trainings began with a simple but demanding premise: entrepreneurship cannot be separated from the moral and social conditions in which it unfolds. As participants reflected on values, responsibility, and dignity, one question kept returning: Who is still missing from our conversations about entrepreneurship?
The forty-five life stories gathered in this book complicate familiar frames. They show how, for many disabled people, entrepreneurship becomes not a lifestyle choice but a structural necessity. When workplaces exclude, infrastructure fails, and expectations remain low, building one's own enterprise becomes a way to claim visibility, agency, and social participation.
In Kazakhstan, disability is still frequently framed through dependence, welfare, or absence — what cannot be done, rather than what is constantly being done under unequal conditions. This book insists that entrepreneurship, when viewed honestly, is also a question of justice: who gets to participate, at what cost, and under whose terms.
📅 Book Launch: 29 March 2026, 3–5 PM, Atrium, Block C3, Nazarbayev University
