From March until December 2022, CAG in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Development Strategy (ISDS) had been implementing a project “Securing wetland ecosystems of Lake Son-Kul in the Kyrgyz mountains”. Together with Cholpon rural municipality, ISDS focused on supporting the rights of local communities to protect and manage wetlands and natural resources of the Son-Kul basin of Naryn region. You can read the first blog post about this project via this link. Son-Kul Lake performs a number of important environmental functions, such as maintaining the stability of the region’s climate, accumulation and storage of fresh water, maintaining the...
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...
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,...
Women-led permaculture initiatives in semi-desert villages of Kyrgyzstan – part 1
Since 2018, CAG has worked within the thematic areas of climate and environment in Central Asia. This year we are piloting permaculture initiatives among rural communities in Kyrgyzstan as an intervention to deal with the problems of food insecurity, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss as well as gender inequality and community health. The pilot project is being implemented with local partner El-Too and was launched in March. This is the first of a series of blog posts about this exciting and innovative project. The villages on the south-west of Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan, that are located in semi-desert areas are...
Youth Workers from Sweden and Poland visit Kyrgyzstan
“Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – once Margaret Mead said. Such a meaningful statement, isn’t it? We believe that changes come through people; open discussions about challenging issues, exchanging ideas on making the world a better place for each and every one of us. Central Asia Solidarity Groups, (Sweden) together with its partner organizations Novi Ritm (Kyrgyzstan) and KobieTY (Poland) organized mobility of youth workers that involved more than 20 participants in Kyrgyzstan in January this year. The purpose of the mobility...
Residence for Climate activist in Kyrgyzstan
Central Asia Solidarity Groups (Centralasiengrupperna) is co-organizing an activist residency in Kyrgyzstan, together with the youth organization Novi Ritm. The residence will take place during 2 weeks in November, primarily based in the southern city of Osh with Novi Ritm as the hosting organization. We are currently looking for suitable candidates for this residence. During the residence the activist will work closely with Novi Ritm and conduct a series of activities, including lectures, workshops, planning sessions and meetings. As Novi Ritm and its young members and volunteers are rather new to the thematic areas of environment and climate,...
Youth workers from Kyrgyzstan and Poland visit Malmö
“Youth Agents for Change – Combating Discrimination Based on Gender Age and Ethnicity” Mobility of youth workers in Malmö, Sweden Dear folks, how did you spend your last few days? For us, these were very intensive and at the same time productive days. CAG together with our partner organizations in Kyrgyzstan – Noviy Ritm and in Poland – KobieTY had a week (May 20-May 26, 2019) of the mobility of youth workers together with civil society organizations working with youth in Sweden. Participants of the program during an introductory session (Day 1)...