Red Cross Blogs

Guest post from Kyrgyzstan: Not just about disaster relief

By Sarah Oughton
December 2, 2009 at 11:44 am

Like Emily Blewett, Adam Oxford was chosen as a finalist in the Guardian’s International Development Journalist Competition, which is sponsored by the British Red Cross. “Women’s rights wronged”, his article about how women in the central Asian country Kyrgyzstan are struggling for basic rights, was published by the Guardian last week.

Back in September I was priviledged to be invited to visit some of the projects for vulnerable women run by the Red Crescent in Kyrgyzstan, which are supported by the British Red Cross. I spent a week travelling to Bishkek, Osh and Jalalabad on behalf of the Guardian as part of its International Development Competition, for which I was a finalist.

When I told my friends and family where I was going, most of them responded in the same way: “Ah, that’s where Borat’s from isn’t it?”

Once the conversation about the cultural and geographical differences between the beautiful, mountainous home of the Kyrgyz people and its neighbour, Kazakhstan, to the northwest was out of the way, I’d explain some of the problems that women face there: domestic abuse, social exclusion, extreme poverty and the perils of being kidnapped for marriage off the street.

The next question would almost always be “How will you cope?”

The women who volunteered to talk to me and my companions from the Red Cross told us about the beatings they’d had at the hands of their husbands or the police, and the endemeic corruption which left them without access to water, healthcare, legal protection or education for their chidren. Their stories were harrowing, inhumane, impossible and tragic. No wonder my friends were concerned.

But these women didn’t offer to share their stories because they wanted to shock or upset us. They wanted visiting journalists to listen, to understand, to empathise, and go home to tell the world that they’re just ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, that given the opportunity, their lives wouldn’t have to be this way.

Their stories must be treated with the serious, dispassionate examination of the root causes that they deserve.

When you’re surrounded by the kind of poverty that’s almost unimaginable, but is commonplace in Kyrgyzstan, it’s not the tales of betrayal and violence that provoke the strongest emotional response. They are just a fact of life. It’s the success stories that make your eyes well up with tears.

We met many women who had been through the Red Crescent training programs, designed to empower them with information about their legal rights, healthcare advice and practical skills workshops. These women explained to us how having the knowledge, confidence and ability to take their lives into their own hands had helped them pull themselves out of poverty and won them the respect of the authorities and their men.

Like Gulmira, who spoke with pride about her sewing co-operative, which not only brought work for the women from her village, but was keeping alive traditional Kyrgyz craftworks too.

Or Gulsan, who boasted that the microcredit banks that had helped finance her group’s business couldn’t believe she no longer needed loans from them to expand.

Or Syrga, the unstoppable headteacher of a kindergarten near Jalalabad which had been closed after the Communist government collapsed, but which she’d managed to re-open against the expectation of the community and education authorities. This middle-aged lady’s energy was the most unbelieveable thing we encountered on the whole trip: every time I thought we’d run out of questions, Syrga would volunteer another story about another local organisation committee or self-help group she was involved with.

Before I left for Kyrgyzstan, I was puzzled about the types of projects I’d be visiting. The Red Cross and Red Crescent were synonymous in my mind with disaster relief and emergency medicine.

But in this country, which is almost unheard of outside its own borders and still reels from the economic suckerpunch of the collapse of Communism, the Kyrgyz Red Crescent is engaged in a longer term action. It’s one that changes whole communities forever, and is playing a key role in protecting the Kyrgyz’ future.

Watching so few people make such a big difference is humbling, and throws our own lives into perspective far more sharply than the crippling poverty and its effects which exist all around the country. It forces you to ask yourself: if I was in their situation, would I do the same?

Images © Claudia Janke/British Red Cross

---

Comment (0) »

---

Tags: International, Kyrgyzstan, livelihoods, women

The Red Cross values comments both complimentary and critical. However, we will not tolerate the following: aggressive or personal criticism of the blogger, breach of copyright, obscene, defamatory, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive or likewise objectionable comments.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 11:44 am and is filed under Health and social care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

---