About Erayim
Women’s Public Union Erayim is one of the first NGOs in Kyrgyzstan and is well known in the NGO sector, government agencies, donors and the community. All this is due to the implementation of projects and programs aimed at fighting poverty, mitigating ethnic conflicts, developing skills and talents of the younger generation, improving infrastructure and promoting the interests housing estate communities.
Women's Public Union Erayim was created in 1995 (along with the socio-political movement Ashar) as a women's committee Kurmanjan-Datka. This period was particularly difficult for large families and single mothers living in residential estates. The women's committee Kurmanjan Datka was established to help these women and was registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic as WPU Erayim on March 19, 1998.
Currently WPU Erayim works to enhance the lives of vulnerable people living in remote villages and disadvantage suburbs so they can solve their problems through self-help groups (SHGs). One may ask: "Why SHG?" – there must be other kinds of self-help in Kyrgyz Republic, where members involved in one structure help each other and achieve success by acting collectively.
Since 2000 WPU Erayim has introduced and promoted this concept in housing estates in Bishkek and in the rural regions of the country as one of the methods to alleviate poverty. WPU Erayim use the ideology of transition from passivity and inaction of the beneficiaries to one of empowerment in addressing local issues in all its projects.