T E C H A G E G I R L S

Community Service Projects

Tech Age Girls Community Service Projects

Tech Age Girls Promote Peace through

National Cuisines and Art

TAG Finalists Open Door to

Technology for Village Youth

TAG Alumni Prepare Next Generation

of Youth Leaders

TAG Alumni Found

Educational Club in Naryn

Bazar-Korgon TAG Alumna Creates

Video to Promote Dental Health

Tech Age Girls Bring

New Opportunities to Orphans in Talas

TAG Alumna Teaches Healthy

Habits at Her School

Tech Age Girl Brings Generations

Together on Common Ground

IN THIS ISSUE

Community Service Projects

OVERVIEW: Tech Age Girls 2010 In 2010, IREX started the first Tech Age Girls

(TAG) project in Kyrgyzstan with 90 participants se-

lected from 246 applications of young girls ages rang-

ing from 14 to 17. For over six months they attended

Information Technology (IT) and leadership trainings,

designed and implemented community projects, and

documented their experience via blogs. The TAG pro-

ject has been enormously successful as implemented

within the Global Connections and Exchange program.

The 26 most active girls had an opportunity to attend

a two-week summer conference where they partici-

pated in an intensive training program in IT, leader-

ship and project design skills. During the conference,

TAG designed community projects and later applied

for small grants to IREX; 20 received an award and

went on to implement their community projects.

Tech Age Girls Promote Peace through National Cuisines and Art Following their participation at the TAG 2010 Summer

Conference, TAG alumni Zulya Makambaeva, Dilnoza

Umaralieva, and Alina Avazbekova organized an inter-

national festival to promote peace in their commu-

nity, by uniting and celebrating the members of the

diverse cultures in their region.

Girls from the south of Kyrgyzstan are very concerned

about the ethnic conflicts and tension between the

Kyrgyz and Uzbek peoples. Large-scale clashes oc-

curred in the summer of 2010, taking away many lives

and leaving negative sentiments. The tension remains

in the region; sometimes even in schools, fights break

out due to it. In response, the TAG alumni decided to

promote peace by uniting representatives of all the

different ethnic groups and showcasing the best of the

region’s cultures, demonstrating the beauty of their

traditional costumes and styles of dance at an inter-

national festival they organized.

In all, 60 students ranging from the first through the

eleventh grades of Nogoev school and School No. 38,

along with directors from an additional three area

schools, welcomed local government representative

Mavluda Abdullaeva, regional education official Gul-

mira Borbieva, and local parents to Nogoev school’s

gymnasium. As Nogoev school is host to many ethnic

groups and a trilingual community, it was a natural

venue for such an event. By bringing everyone to-

gether to celebrate diverse cultures, the festival

served to strengthen bonds among groups, and pro-

mote multicultural understanding among the partici-

pants and guests.

At the festival, students performed the traditional

dances of the Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tatar, Georgian, Arab,

Turkish, Scottish, and Latin American cultures. The

audience of about 100 people greatly enjoyed the fes-

tival; the mood quickly became one of joy and cele-

bration in the multi-ethnic crowd, and the talent the

community’s children demonstrated particularly im-

Sixth grade students performing a Chinese dance at Nogoev School in Massy, Kyrgyzstan

Community Service Projects

pressed the parents in attendance. At the end of the

international dance performance, the organizers pro-

vided an international banquet of dishes from the cul-

tures represented.

The TAG alumni and the school administration can say

with certainty that the project achieved its objec-

tives. During the three weeks of preparation for the

event, the students of different ethnic backgrounds

became closer to one another, as they spent a great

amount of time together working toward the same

goal. In organizing this festival, the first of its kind at

their school, the students created friendships among

students of different backgrounds.

The alumni plan a second festival for mid-March, and

will then host another in Massy’s town square in April.

Video of the first festival is available at http://bit.ly/

eJtdNQ.

TAG Finalists Open Door to Technology for Village Youth

TAG finalists Svetlana Sheiko, Aijarkyn Aisahunova,

Saikal Murat kyzy and Aizada Ismailova from Karakol

organized ICT training sessions and led workshops on

gender, time management, goal setting, leadership

and journalism for 60 Ak-Suu village students at Kirov

school.

From October 1 to November 1, 2010, three times a

week, students from the 9th, 10th, and 11th grades

attend their training program. The TAG alumni, want-

ing village youth to have the same opportunities as

their urban peers, taught the students how to access

important information via the internet. While educat-

ing students on resources available to them on the

internet, the girls directed students’ attention to

K y r g y z s t a n ’ s E d u c a t i o n a l N e t w o r k

(http://gcekyrgyzstan.ning.com), as this site had be-

come an integral part of their own lives. The students

enjoyed exploring the Network, finding interesting

forums, blogs, and making friends with other youth

from Kyrgyzstan.

In addition to their training activities, the Tech Age

Girls also conducted an outreach effort for the TAG

project in Ak-Suu village, preparing 40 girls for the

new round of recruitment.

Grateful for the TAG alumni’s visit to her village, Ak-

Suu student Akylay Nurlanova commented, “I am

really happy that here in Ak-Suu we have such oppor-

tunities. We would like to thank [the] TAG girls for

providing us new information and teaching computer

literacy, as it is very important in today’s world. We

also want to become like the TAG finalists – confi-

dent, knowledgeable and enthusiastic to achieve new

things.”

TAG Alumni Prepare Next Generation of Youth Leaders

Aidai Asanbekova and Begaim Saparalieva created a

club at their school where they conducted a “training

of trainers” series on information technology for ten

The TAGs used goal-setting games in their training activities.

Community Service Projects

student volunteers. Asanbekova and Saparalieva met

six times over two weeks – 12 hours, in all to teach

the volunteers how to train students at their school in

technology.

The student volunteers then went on to work with

Asanbekova and Saparalieva to pass along what they

had learned to their fellow students. Overall, 80 stu-

dents at school No. 5 in Bishkek received internet re-

sources and leadership training over the course of Oc-

tober, 2010.

In addition to IT training at their own school, the club

led two separate one-day events at the Davka School

for Disabled Children and Orphanage No. 3 in Bishkek.

They organized IT training sessions, leadership work-

shops, contests, and musical performances for 40

youth at the two events.

The Tech Age Girls’ presentations inspired the youth

to think about how technology can change their own

lives, as Asanbekova emphasized the importance of

disabled children’s contributions in every community.

The youth took the opportunity to show their own tal-

ents during musical performances at the events, and

thanked the Tech Age Girls for their work. A video of

the club’s project can be found at the following link:

http://bit.ly/eYZVrJ.

TAG Alumni Found Educational Club in Naryn “If you build it, they will come.” This was the motto

of three Tech Age Girls who decided to open an edu-

cational club in Naryn. TAG alumni Zina Kabylbek

kyzy, Aidai Muratova, and Nazik Asranbekova observed

that there was nowhere in Naryn where students, chil-

dren, and adults could learn IT skills. In the cases

where Naryn’s community members were learning

about technology, what they studied was all too often

theoretical; the girls wanted to provide practical

knowledge of the internet that would help people dis-

cover new things, and open new worlds.

The girls conducted a series of IT training sessions on

Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter, along with additional

workshops on gender equality, time management, and

business etiquette at the resource centers of Naryn’s

Schools No. 7 and No. 8. During their sessions they

paid special attention to the issue of bride kidnap-

TAG Alumna Aidai Asanbekova conducts a seminar on leadership

TAG alumni host a presentation to children at the Davka School for Disabled Children

Community Service Projects

ping, still a big problem in Naryn. Bride kidnapping,

also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by

capture, is a practice in which a man abducts the

woman he wishes to marry. The girls explained to par-

ticipants that there are laws on violence against

women, and taught girls their rights in defending

themselves. To date, 50 students have taken part in

the training sessions.

Educational club participant Amanda Japarova com-

mented on the club’s training sessions, sharing that

“After participating in all of the IT trainings and ses-

sions on various topics I became inspired. There are

so many opportunities out there. On the internet you

can learn individually about any sphere that you

want, you make friends and get information on new

opportunities for development. The sessions on gen-

der equality helped to get confidence. Thanks for

TAG alumni for doing all this.”

Bazar-Korgon TAG Alumna Creates Video to Promote Dental Health Staying healthy is very important – especially taking

proper care of one’s teeth. In Kyrgyzstan’s provinces,

many people do not pay enough attention to dental

care, resulting in numerous problems with their teeth

later in life. TAG alumna Nurjan Turdumatova has

been concerned about this issue for years, and after

winning a grant from IREX, she took the opportunity to

do something about it in her community.

Using the internet,

Turdumatova col-

lected information

on dental issues and

how to resolve them,

and created a bro-

chure explaining the

i m p o r t a n c e o f

proper dental hy-

giene, and the con-

sequences of ne-

glecting one’s teeth.

In addition, Turdu-

matova created a

video on dental

health, using the

skills in video editing

she developed at the TAG conference. In support of

her video project, she visited a dental clinic and in-

terviewed a dentist, who gave tips on proper dental

hygiene in the video.

Sixty-five discs of this video were distributed in the

Bazar-Korgon community; as a result of her work,

many students became better informed about correct

dental care.

Zina Kabylbek kyzy conducts a seminar on Business Etiquette

Students participate in a team building activity at a TAG-founded educational club in Naryn

Nurjan from Bazar-Korgon prepares discs with her dental hygiene video to distribute in her community. The video is

available at: http://bit.ly/gXeAgM

Community Service Projects

TAG Bring New Opportunities to Orphans in Talas After returning home from the Tech Age Girls Summer

Conference, Symbat Asanova started a community

project to impart the knowledge and skills she learned

at the conference to kids at a Talas orphanage.

Asanova visited the orphanage, met with the kids, and

took the opportunity to explain the importance of ICT

in today’s world, and the opportunities available to

them through the internet. During her first visit,

youth were inspired to learn computer skills and were

eager to start the training. She held a series of IT

training sessions for the 23 orphans at Nanaev School,

where the youth learned about Google applications,

opened email accounts, and learned about social net-

working sites such as Facebook with great enthusiasm.

The training was a door-opening experience for the

orphans, as they had never thought that ICT could be

the bridge to so many opportunities for them. Jyldyz

Japarova, a girl from the orphanage, expressed her

gratitude: “I would like to thank Symbat for providing

us this useful information and teaching us computer

skills. I liked that with the internet, you can make

friends and share your impressions, and get really

useful information.”

Another TAG alumna from Talas School No.2, Burul

Sabyr kyzy, also visited the orphanage. She and her

friends prepared booklets, posters and Powerpoint

presentations on using ICT in everyday life. The girls

also provided leadership sessions for the youth, and

organized activities on how to become leaders. Burul

created a video about her event at the orphanage,

available at http://goo.gl/8qdZ4.

TAG Alumna Teaches Healthy Habits at Her School In Bazar Korgon’s Bokonbaev school, there were no

hand-washing stations. TAG alumna Elina Madan-

bekova was very concerned by this, as she knows that

regular hand washing is an essential factor for main-

taining good health and hygiene. Hand washing re-

quires only soap, water and a hand washing stand.

With a TAG small grant, Madanbekova purchased a

hand washing stand for the school, and using skills she

developed at the TAG Summer Conference, presented

a Powerpoint presentation on the importance of hand-

washing and created hygiene booklets and posters to

distribute to 125 students.

Youth at an orphanage take part in ICT training

Thanks to TAG alumna Elina Madanbekova,

students fight illnesses with their new

Community Service Projects

Bokonbaev school’s administrators were amazed at

the initiative their student demonstrated and thanked

her for helping the school community. Now, after the

presentation and posters that Madanbekova created

and hung around the school, everybody tries to wash

their hands frequently.

TAG Brings Generations Together on Common Ground In her community project, TAG alumna Anna Leon-

tyeva concentrated on working to solve conflicts be-

tween generations; a problem she chose due to its

relevance in her community. Leontyeva recognized

that people from different age groups usually view

issues from different points of view; youth often see

matters from a point of view which may be limited

from lack of experience. Adults, however, have seen

the world from many perspectives and have become

wiser, but sometimes disregard newer, younger views

on issues of importance. Differences of opinion be-

tween generations can thus often occur, sometimes

with the potential for conflict. Anna set about to find

a way to lessen misunderstandings and bolster positive

communication.

Anna prepared questionnaires for students at her

school to find out the percentage of students facing

such conflicts. Collecting data from the 40 students

who participated in this survey, she found that 80% of

the participants have experienced conflicts between

themselves and older generations. Motivated by her

findings, Anna organized round table discussions for

students and parents at her school, to explain the

problem of inter-generational conflict and misunder-

standing. In a series of four round table discussions of

ten participants each, she gave a PowerPoint presen-

tation on ways to minimize conflicts, and handed out

take-home brochures with additional information

(available for download: http://goo.gl/i7F9n). Follow-

ing the round table series with students, she held a

second series for parents, giving them similar tools to

help them communicate with youth, having fewer

conflicts.

Using video editing skills she developed at the TAG

2010 Summer Conference, Anna presented a video she

created on social conflicts at the end of each of her

round tables. The video can be viewed at http://

goo.gl/ckJW1.

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Anna Leontyeva from Kant is con-ducting a seminar on generational