Deadline: January 25th, 2020 Hosting organization: Central Asia Solidarity Groups/Centralasiengrupperna Vacancy: 2 volunteering positions Start date: March (flexible) Duration: 12 months Volunteering opportunity with Central Asia Solidarity Groups The following vacancies are available at the Swedish organization Central Asia Solidarity Groups, through the European Solidarity Project funded by Erasmus+ and managed by the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society. Candidates, who are interested in these volunteering positions must register at European Solidarity Corps portal and submit their CV together with one page letter of motivation no later than January 25st, 2020. Central Asia Solidarity Groups’ OID is E10064468....
[English] Central Asia Days 2019
On November 24th and November 25th Centralasiengrupperna is hosting the sixth annual Central Asia Days conference in Stockholm! This two-event will include seminars, lectures, discussions, and a movie screening, with activists, civil society members and researchers from Central Asia and Europe. Free admission. Please, sign up here: https://simpleeventsignup.com/event/159604 Full program: November 24, 12.00 – 15.30 ABF Huset (Per-Albin room), Sveavägen 41, Stockholm 12.00 – 12.30 Reception 12.30 – 13.50 Lecture: “I am not really a feminist, but …” conducting feminist research among young women in Tajikistan The lecture will be held by Davlatbegim. She will share her experience of implementing a feminist research project...
[English] 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, the...
[English] Interview with an activist from Uzbekistan
Photo caption: Freedom to all immediatly Let us welcome Lola to a board of active youth in Central Asia! Lola has been selected as one of the participants of the summer residency arranged by CAG a month ago. Regrettably, Lola was not able to come to Sweden, because of issues with her visa. Nevertheless, we are in touch with Lola and discuss ways of potential collaborations in the future. Lola was born and raised in one of the remote areas of Uzbekistan (more about Uzbekistan: https://centralasien.org/en/uzbekistan-en/). Her family is not big. She has a little niece, who she likes...
[English] Positive changes through social coffee shop in Osh
“Social coffee shop brings positive social changes among the youth of Osh” Our dear friends, We are here today to share some updates from our partner organization in Osh, Kyrgyzstan – Novi Ritm. Lately, Novi Ritm has been expanding and building opportunities for youth of the country to speak up about the challenges in the society of Kyrgyzstan. And today we are going to talk about a specific core area of the organization – social entrepreneurship. It is a new working area for Novi Ritm, but they already created the first social coffee shop in Osh! This blogpost will...
[English] 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)...
[English] Central Asia Days 2018
On November 25th and 26th Centralasiengrupperna is hosting the fifth annual Central Asia Days conference in Stockholm! This two-event will include seminars, lectures, discussions, and a movie screening, with activists, civil society members and researchers. Free admission. Sign up here: https://simplesignup.se/event/141000 Full program: November 25, 12.00 – 19.15 ABF Huset (Per-Albin room), Sveavägen 41, Stockholm 12.00 – 12.30 Reception 12.30 – 14.00 Lecture: Gender Equality: Soviet vs Independent Kyrgyzstan The lecture will be held by Aisuluu Namasbek kyzy from the American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The lecturer will focus on comparison of gender equality in soviet and post-soviet Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan experienced...
[Englsih] Flashback on the Summer Camp 2018
It’s been almost two and a half months since the third part of the joint project “Strengthening Capacity and Skills among Youth Migrants” between Centralasiengrupperna and Children of St. Petersburg was held in Malmö. It was the final part of the project, which was based on the outcomes of previous events, such as mobility of youth workers in December, that consisted of such events as study visits to organisations that work kids, youth and their families with migrational background; and another mobility of youth workers that took place in April in St. Petersburg, where five trainers from Dotterbolaget and...
Central Asia and the Myth of Radicalization [explainer clip]
Central Asia, Uzbekistan in particular, has been widely discussed in Sweden because of the terrorist attack in Stockholm on April 7th, 2017. Since then, the major news outlets in Sweden such as Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet have linked terrorism to Uzbekistan and generally Central Asia. In other words, it is said that the regime creates grounds for radical extremism. The analysis of how the Swedish mass media constructs Central Asia infers that the region is prone to widespread radicalization, terrorist activities, and fundamentalism. But is this really the case? Do the regimes in Central Asia create grounds for...
[English] LGBT activist is charged for organising peaceful photo session in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan: Zhanar Sekerbaeva, prominent LGBT activist from Kazakhstan and co-founder of feminist initiative Feminita, based in Almaty, was detained on Wednesday, August 14, 2018. According to Feminita, Zhanar, together with Elena Ivanova, Alina Nevidimko and Polina Pollinium, organized photo session at Arbat street in Almaty on August 9th, 2018, dedicated to de-stigmatization of menstruation that attracted a lot of attention both online and during the session itself. Despite that the photo session was peaceful, it was interrupted by men, who pulled out posters in aggressive manner and threatened to take away mobile phone from one of the participant. The...