Help for single mothers in Central Asia

According to the latest census in Kazakhstan, there are almost 424,000 mothers living alone with minor children. In Astana, a businesswoman has started a volunteer organisation that helps those who give birth without anyone by their side. Her idea has now been replicated in Uzbekistan.

Astana (AsiaNews) - A group of women in Kazakhstan has started a large movement to support single mothers, with volunteers visiting maternity wards to meet young women who have no one by their side, neither partners nor relatives, who often reject them.

They buy nappies, clothes and everything else they need for their newborns and accompany them home. If they do not even have a roof over their heads, they look for accommodation for them with private individuals or institutions. The initiative has been so successful that it has quickly spread to Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Belarus.

One of the promoters of the volunteer activity is an entrepreneur from Astana, Ajgerim Bižigitova, interviewed by a correspondent from Radio Azattyk while she is helping a very young mother with her newborn baby in her home, offering her a hearty meat soup and teaching the mother how to bathe her son.

She is not a relative, but as she had nowhere to go, Ajgerim took her into her flat, where she lives with her seven-year-old daughter, and together they chose a name for the baby. “I simply told her: you are not alone, you have a child, and we will help you... the first help is the most important,” says Ajgerim.

The movement is called “If no one comes to pick you up, I'll come,” and it started in Kazakhstan in 2025, organising small parties for single mothers, bringing flowers and balloons, as well as necessary supplies for newborns, taking photographs and accompanying them where necessary.

Ajgerim says that the inspiration came to her by chance last spring while she was waiting for a friend in her car outside a maternity ward. Through the window, she saw a girl come out with her baby in her arms, sit down on the pavement and start crying.

‘She had put the baby on the ground next to her, and I thought, “What, on the ground? I went to ask her if everything was all right, and she replied, 'Yes, everything's fine,” bursting into tears as if she were desperate,’ recalls Bižigitova, who took the girl out for tea ‘and she became my first mummy to protect’. She took her home for a couple of days, then found her a place at Dom Mamy, a private maternity support centre funded by Kazakh entrepreneurs.

Over the past year, Ajgerim has taken in five other ‘mums’, without judging anyone or asking why they had been abandoned, because her aim is simply to provide ‘first aid’ without further burdening their state of mind.

Just seeing the flowers and fireworks outside the ward is already a great comfort. The things new mothers need are collected via social media, and many people are happy to share what they can; not only women respond, but also men who offer their help to accompany and deliver nappies and baby food.

The initiative was then publicised in a post on the Threads messenger by psychologist Saltanat Muradova from Almaty, who wrote, “I live next to a maternity hospital on Basenova Street. My female friends, if no one is coming to pick you up, write to me and I will take you to the address you need”.

The post went viral in a matter of hours, and offers of help came in from all over the country, immediately forming the “Maternity Help” community on WhatsApp, with hundreds of members.

Saltanat was also struck by a young woman who left the ward with her newborn baby and a large bag and stood at the bus stop waiting for the bus. She thought, ‘The least I can do is stop and try to help her.’ The contrast between other new mothers, welcomed joyfully by large groups of relatives and friends, and those who can only count on unknown volunteers is striking.

According to the 2022 census, there were almost 424,000 mothers living alone with minor children in Kazakhstan, and the situation is no better in neighbouring countries. In Uzbekistan, a resident of Tashkent, Džamila Ibragimova, after seeing the post on Threads, formed her own group, “Help for New Mothers in Uzbekistan”, starting with a young wife who had given birth while her husband was in a coma. Muradova recalls that “in our culture, women were always helped, and the whole aul [nomadic village] took care of newborns; young mothers should never be left alone”.