News

Students from Kyrgyz mountains attend webinar

14.03.2014

The three-month, online training course called, “Sustainable Mountain Development in Kyrgyzstan,” concluded with 25 school-aged participants in its final webinar on 11 March 2014. The certificate course was organized by Ekois with support from the Central Asia Mountain Partnership Hub.

The purpose was to use innovative an extra-curricular, inter-active learning method combined with an awareness-raising, outreach effort to convey the importance of mountains and drivers for mountain development.

This innovative initiative was officially launched during observance of International Mountain Day on 11 December 2013 with virtual participation of applicants, high school-students sharing their expectations of the course.  The participants, 30 high school students aged 12 to17 were selected from all seven oblasts of Kyrgyzstan for balanced representation of the regions. Several rounds of pre-orientation technical sessions and technical support were provided to those enrolled as the children come from remote mountain villages where frequent load-shedding and limited access to internet caused considerable challenges.

The course integrated a diverse range of topics under four main topics, exploring the roles and functions of mountain ecosystems, goods and services provided by mountains, climate change and other challenges for the mountain regions;  the concept of sustainable mountain development (SMD) and SMD good practices and lessons learned. Thus, participants could delve into highland country sustainability and awareness was raised of the unique roles and functions mountain ecosystem goods and services provide for up and downstream communities.
Each of the four training modules offered an opportunity for extensive literature review, on-line classroom discussions, webinars, essay writing and follow-up assessments. Through their essays, the children shared their views on importance of mountain ecosystems, analyzed and did comparative mini-assessments for sustainability of their community practices; conducted focus group discussions and key informant interviews on documenting empirical evidence of the major drivers of change, such as climate change; outmigration and their impacts on mountain communities and identify community vision of maintaining the integrity of mountain regions and communities.
Dmitrii Vetoshkin, the lead tutor, said, “The course was innovative and opens up new possibilities for promoting SMD education in remote and difficult-to-access mountain regions where communities are guardians for mountain ecosystems and the future of sustainable mountain development rests with local decisions.”

Elbegzaya Batjargal of the Central Asia Mountain Partnership Hub, who took part in the final webinar on 11 March, warmly greeted participants and highlighted the importance of having strong knowledge and thorough understanding of the problem in order to find solutions. She also shared her hope that the training course contributed to laying the foundations for informed decision-making at the local level. 

“I liked the course; learned so much and a lot of new info on the unique roles of our ecosystem in Kyrgyzstan. Though it was difficult for me to conduct an interview and write an essay, the  overall experience was rewarding and I’ve got not only new knowledge, but new skills and new virtual friends as well,” said Bektur Erkinali Uulu, who lives in remote Batken province.

The course also benefited the parents of the course participants. “Our family has been looking forward to every new webinar with great eagerness. My daughter surprised us by formulating her thoughts so logically and systematically with new confidence and competence working with science. We’ve experienced the importance of technological advancements and IT progress for people like us in remote mountain villages and as such we request the organizers to continue this activity,” said Astra Kishenbaeva, mother of Tancholpon, a 12-year-old course participant.

The Central Asia Mountain Partnership Hub plans to replicate the experience and scale it up to regional level in the mountains of Pamir and Altai. In April, the Hub plans to conduct one of its regular series of Shared Learning Sessions in which the lessons learned and challenges faced during this initial pilot experience will be presented to those interested.