Young.Global.Active

December 6, 2013

December 5 is International Volunteer Day, celebrated around the world by the millions who give their time to others. AUCA hosted a full day conference and exhibition called Young. Global.Active.Over 200 volunteers from around the country participated in a series of panel discussions and volunteering workshops to develop projects for 2014. The conference was organized in cooperation with The Roza Otunbaeva Initiative, UN Volunteers in KG, US Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The main goal of the conference was to raise awareness in the Kyrgyz community about volunteering, and to give people the tools and organization they need to successfully volunteer in their communities.

According to The Roza Otunbaeva Initiative, “There are several factors that have prevented volunteerism from really taking hold in the country. One is certainly our Soviet past, because volunteering really meant free labor. Another reason is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union there was mass migration and urbanization, so many natural community structures were broken up, and have not been replaced. Now we are slowly building new communities, and the young people who have no memory before 1991 are leading the way in promoting these communities and volunteerism.”

The conference featured a wide variety of volunteer actors, from well-known organizations like Red Crescent and Doctors without Borders to local organizations such as Bio-KG, an organic farming NGO, and Geo Pay, a local mobile banking operator. The participants participated in panel discussions that covered topics such as the professional development aspect of volunteering, sustaining projects and programs, and the intricacies of corporate social responsibility.

In the afternoon sessions each volunteer participated in group work in one of four areas: Health, Youth and Vulnerable Groups, Education,and Community and Environment. Each group was supported by an NGO with active projects in that sector, and encouraged to develop and commit to new joint projects.

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