Democracy Camps empower students across Kyrgyzstan to take on their country’s challenges
Yulya Protopopova and Erkinbek kyzy Janat are 9th grade classmates at the only school in the village of Grigoryevka, which lies on the edge of Lake Issykul in the mountains of eastern Kyrgyzstan. The landscape is picturesque, but opportunities for learning are limited. Rural schools like theirs suffer from a dearth of qualified teachers and modern textbooks, as well as inadequate facilities. It is a difficult environment in which to train the country’s next generation to be able to tackle the political and socio-economic challenges facing Kyrgyzstan’s emerging democracy.
Early in 2009, at a time when more than half of all schools in the country were forced to close for two months because of an energy shortage, Janat and Yulya found a unique opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills outside of the classroom. Both girls participated in a 10-day Democracy Camp organized by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) with the support of USAID.
Since 2000, over twenty winter and summer iterations of IFES’ Democracy Camps have aimed to instill in Kyrgyzstan’s youth population an understanding of democratic values, leadership skills, their role as citizens, and how they can advocate for change in their society. The camp methodology is highly interactive, featuring group discussions, simulations, small-group exercises, games and competitions, cultural activities, and sports.
Janat, as a member of the school election commission, works with voter lists.
Each camp concludes with a difficult question: “How can I apply my new knowledge and skills? What can I do for my school, street, village and town?”
The first wish of Janat and Yulya was to share their discoveries with other students at their school. The two conducted several projects, including teaching classmates about democracy camps and helping to organize elections of a school president and school parliamentary deputies. Most impressively, the girls successfully organized and led a 1-hour training on “Responsible and Sustainable Leadership” during a meeting of school directors, vice directors, and regional education officials.
Camp alumni have carried out dozens of similar projects throughout Kyrgyzstan. This year, USAID support allowed 309 high-school students from all regions of the country to attend IFES’ six Democracy Camps. The message of the Democracy Camps is that by changing ourselves we can change the world.
Yulya and Janat have certainly taken that message to heart. Yulya’s mother has noticed, saying, “My daughter started to read more after the camp. She is getting more educated and she has started to talk like adults.” Yulya agrees: “After democracy camp I became proactive and more responsible in school and in life.”
Theirs is a refrain all Kyrgyzstanis should hope will be repeated frequently among the country’s youngest citizens.