TRAINING WOMEN LEADERS IN KYRGYZSTAN

According to the Russian social magazine
"Ogonyok," every third leader in Kyrgyzstan is a woman. Kyrgyz culture is known
for its famous women leaders of the past. One such female leader, Kurmanjan Datka, refused
to live with the husband she was forced to marry and ruled the country alone when her
second husband died. In October 1999, a joint project initiated by American University in
Kyrgyzstan, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), and Scranton University in Pennsylvania
began. The objectives of the project are to conduct comparative analyses of women
leadership roles in Kyrgyzstan and the USA in the past and future. The project will also
increase the effectiveness of women’s activism and competency in the economic sphere,
teach leadership skills and concepts of gender, and spread notions of new roles for women
in the world.

On a highly competitive basis, 64 women from throughout Kyrgyzstan representing over 50
female NGOs, including the widely known "Gender in Development" and
"Women’s Forum," were selected to participate. The project will last for
one year and include training seminars and a conference. Fourteen women from Kyrgyzstan
will travel to Scranton, Pennsylvania, for two weeks to visit local women’s groups
and other places of their professional interest. Jen Kelly and Shirley Adams,
representatives from Scranton University, came to Kyrgyzstan to conduct training seminars
in November 1999 and March 2000.

The training seminars offered in November and this past March each lasted five days
long. The first three days were devoted to discussing various leadership techniques and
ways to reach more women. The last two days were devoted to training eighteen selected
trainers who then went to the villages and applied what they had learned, teaching skills
such as communication, listening, tolerance, all skills that are essential for strong
leaders. Participants had to give a presentation in front of a camera and then their
presentation skills were discussed and critiqued and improvement techniques were proposed.
The project publishes a monthly newsletter about the success stories of its participants.

The participants applied the knowledge gained by the participants in widely varied
ways. They conducted workshops and surveys, wrote articles for the media, held roundtable
discussions and debates with women governmental candidates, helped establish new women
NGOs and even supported women painters. It is estimated that each women who went through
the training seminar will affect at least 300 other women. The seminars between November
and March reached over 2000 women from all over Kyrgyzstan who are now aware of the
concepts of gender and women’s leadership. A concluding conference will take place on
June 10-11, 2000 in Bishkek. Governmental authorities, representatives of various NGOs and
businesswomen will participate to discuss various ways to spread notions of women’s
rights, gender, and equality throughout Kyrgyzstan.

Anna Kirey, Journalism Undergraduate, American University, Kyrgyzstan.