27.07.2015   10:45

For a period of 12 years, volunteers from many countries have come to Kyrgyzstan to provide free, month-long English language courses to both children and adults.

This summer, our volunteers have arrived in Kyrgyzstan from the UK; France; USA; Poland; Latvia and Singapore. Our volunteers have a wide age range; including a pensioner and students entering their first year of university. Assisting the volunteers are local Kyrgyz teachers, who provide valuable experience and Kyrgyz-language skills.

Beginning of the project

In 2004, after hearing about Kyrgyzstan from her daughter Madeleine; a teacher of sociology at the American University in Bishkek, Mrs Claire Reeves began to organise groups of volunteers to visit this beautiful country and teach English in month-long programmes. Madeleine had worked previously on a project about internal migration with the Women’s Public Union ‘Erayim’, who invited Mrs Reeves to teach and each year havefound available classrooms, teaching materials and accommodation for the volunteers in several areas in Kyrgyzstan. This began in the Bishkek suburb or Ak-Orgo, for the children of members of Erayim’s Self-Help Group scheme, with Mrs Reeves working alone; she was later assisted for many years by Pascal Bugnion. Mrs Reeves has worked tirelessly since the start of the project to find and support volunteers who wish to come here and teach. Lessons have not only been focused on English language, but also the sharing of culture. On two previous years, the British Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic has visited the schools to see how the project has been going.

Erayim

Erayim is a registered Women’s Public Union working throughout Kyrgyzstan to facilitate social mobility by assisting in the organisation and support of Self-Help Groups in vulnerable rural and suburban communities. Helping people to form these groups, and learn to effectively manage their resources allows them to work together to generate funds and communicate in a single voice the needs of their communities. There are around 500 of these Self-Help Groups currently operating with the help of Erayim, and the volunteers’ teaching project is just a small part of the great work Erayim does.

Teaching project in 2015

Joe Colleyshaw and Lewis Fairfax, previous volunteers and students of the University of St Andrews, posted advertisements on the internet and messaged British universities that teach Russian, asking for volunteers to teach English in summer skills in the Kyrgyz Republic on behalf of ‘Erayim’.

In 2015, we have overseas volunteers in four areas; Leninjol (Chuy), At-Bashi (Naryn),Bakay-Ata (Talas), and Ak-Ordo (Bishkek).

In Leninjol are;

Francis Hodge, a retired marketing expert from Britain who has worked in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, before continuing his Russian studies at Sussex University.

Eloi Dargent, a student of wood engineering from France, who studied Russian for many years as a child.

In At-Bashi are;

Ismail Shogo, from Singapore, who has been living in Bishkek for 3 months before the project, learning Russian.

Alexandra (Andie) Segura, from the USA, who studies Russian and International Relations in Britain at St. Andrews University.

Karol Luczka, a Polish student at a university in France, who has recently spent a year studying in Ireland.

In Bakay-Ata are,

Jonathan Tai, a Singaporean national who is studying at John Hopkins University in the USA.

Donovan Sellings, a police dispatcher from the UK, who has cycled to Bishkek from Almaty, around Issyk-Kul and further South.

In Ak-Ordo are;

Anastasia Ozerska, from Latvia, who has spent the entire year teaching in Kyrgyzstan after volunteering last summer.

Andrew Burton, a British volunteer from 2013, who studied International Development and Russian at Leeds University, and is assisting the project in an organisational role.

The teaching of language is not the only method of communication throughout the project; volunteers are able to immerse themselves in Kyrgyz culture by living with Kyrgyz families, and provide an insight to their pupils about what life is like in other countries.

Andrew Burton