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Interview with Anita and Sara, new CAG interns

The picture above is of Anita and Sara, who visited CAG’s office in Malmö as a part of their preparation for an internship in Kyrgyzstan to work with our partner Novi Ritm, a youth organization based in Osh. We asked Sara and Anita a few questions about themselves and about their expectations from the internship.  Tell us a bit about yourself.  Anita: I’m doing my masters right now in Security and Crisis Studies at the Swedish Defense University. I’ve already been involved in civil society for quite a long time, primarily through the Swedish United Nations Association, so I...

Applying a family approach and the traditional knowledge of permaculture in semi-desert and high alpine villages in Kyrgyzstan

In 2021, CAG in cooperation with local partner organization El-Too implemented a pilot project on permaculture initiatives among women in North-East Kyrgyzstan. Within the framework of the project, local women learnt how to develop kitchen gardens using the permaculture initiatives and gained knowledge about their land rights by meeting with the local duty bearers and through judicial consultations (you can read more about the project activities in 2021 via this link). Based on the needs of the project participants and our monitoring activities, we decided to adopt a family approach this year. This approach is considered effective, as all...

Promoting gender equality and equal access to education in Kyrgyzstan with our local partner Novi Ritm

For several years, Centralasiengrupperna has closely cooperated with our partner organization Novi Ritm in Southern Kyrgyzstan to promote active and meaningful participation of young people in the civil society sector. CAG has supported Novi Ritm in the implementation of activities that aim to increase the capacities of young people to influence their own lives and the lives of the communities they come from. One of the goals of the running project with Novi Ritm is to create equal education opportunities for young people and to inform local youth about their civil rights.  This blogpost is dedicated to the most...

Securing wetland ecosystems of Son-Kul Lake in the Kyrgyz Mountains

Since March 2022, CAG together with the Institute for Sustainable Development Strategy (ISDS), our partner organization in Kyrgyzstan, is implementing a project “Securing wetland ecosystems of Son-Kul Lake in the Kyrgyz mountains”.  The main goal of the project is to support the rights and strengthen the capacities of local communities to protect and manage wetlands and natural resources of the Son-Kul basin of the Naryn region. Context: Son-Kul Lake is an alpine freshwater lake located at an altitude of 3016 m above sea level in the Inner Tien Shan. Since 2011, the lake has been included in the International...

Centralasiengrupperna söker en praktikant som vill arbeta med hållbarhet och miljö hos en av våra partnerorganisationer i Kirgizistan

Centralasiengrupperna (CAG) är en ideell, volontärdriven organisation som är baserad i Malmö. Vi verkar huvudsakligen i postsovjetiska Centralasien inom tematiska områden som mänskliga rättigheter, konflikthantering, ungdomsfrågor, genus/HBTQ och miljö/klimat, men har också projekt i Sverige. En stor del av vårt arbete innebär kapacitetsstärkande aktiviteter för partnerorganisationer i Centralasien. Vi söker nu en person som vill arbeta med kommunikation och fundraising kopplat till klimatanpassning och biologisk mångfald hos en av våra partnerorganisationer i Kirgizistan. Praktiken är ca 5 veckor lång och kommer ske under sommaren 2022 (relativt flexibla datum). Du kommer huvudsakligen vara baserad på huvudkontoret i Bisjkek. Där kommer...

Tatiana joins Central Asia Solidarity Groups!

Hi, my name is Tatiana and it is my absolute honor and pleasure to join the Central Asia Solidarity Groups! I am from St. Petersburg, where I completed my master’s degree in International Relations in Post-Soviet space. I’ve always had a strong interest in human rights and democratization, and a big part of my master thesis focused specifically on the developments around civil society in the former Soviet republics. Becoming part of CAG is a great opportunity to learn how the civil society in the region operates in practice! Having studied in Poland and in Austria as an exchange...

Central Asia Days 2021

Central Asia Days took place on 25-26 November 2021 at ABF in Stockholm. We also had a movie screening at Zita Bio on 25 November. The event was well received and we had some fantastic speakers and participants widening our knowledge, providing excellent questions, and generating some very fruitful discussions about gender, climate, education, social cohesion, finance, and development cooperation projects in Central Asia. Participants found the event to be: ‘Det var fantastiskt, väl avvägt mellan olika samhälleliga aspekter och superintressant. ‘I enjoyed it very much and learnt a lot’ ‘Very informative’ The feedback showed a strong interest in...

Sustainable management and conservation of biodiversity of wetlands of Son-Kul Lake by the local community

Back in 2020, Central Asia Solidarity Groups have launched “Strategic Resource Fund” to support civil society actors in Central Asia. It aims to provide resources for civil society actors for strategic interventions in their respective contexts. The fund primarily focuses on financial resources, but can also provide various forms of capacity building, international networks, and partnerships, long-term funding schemes, etc. Over the course of the past year, we have supported three projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. All three of our partners within this funding scheme are grassroots and are closely tied to local communities – something that CAG...

Women-led permaculture initiatives in semi-desert villages of Kyrgyzstan – part 2 (From seeds to harvest)

Since March 2021, CAG together with a local organization El-Too is implementing a project to introduce permaculture initiatives among 60 rural women of 5 villages in Kyrgyzstan. The goal of the project is promoting the womens’ role in land management, building sustainable livelihoods, facilitating gender equality and creating food sovereignty through permaculture kitchen gardens in semi-desert areas that suffer from land degradation. This is the second blog post about the project (you can find the first blog post here). Taking into account the level of knowledge of farmers and geographic conditions described by the lack of water and precipitation,...

The Swedish Forum for Human Rights 2021

Central Asia Solidarity Groups (CAG’s) aims to promote a strong and inclusive civil society that contributes to protection of human rights and achieving social justice in Central Asia. We primarily work within the thematic fields of youth, climate, gender and conflict transformation through long-term solidarity work and capacity building activities. Our geographic focus is the five post-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.  To support its main mission, CAG is actively involved and participating in events addressing human rights issues from different perspectives to raise awareness about the human rights situation in Central Asia. One of these...