DanChurchAid

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Kyrgyzstan & Kazakhstan

Programme work

DanChurchAid has been working in Central Asia since 1996 and thus seen how society has changed, and in particular how the people of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have built up a fragile, but growing, civil society.

The strategic priority in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan is to strengthen civil society. The NGOs DanChurchAid has chosen to work with are all striving to defend the human rights of their constituencies and secure their access to basic social services through a rights-based approach.

DanChurchAid has moved from a project based approach to a programmatic approach. The regional programme for Central Asia is called "Access to Basic Services" (ABS) and was developed jointly with local partners. The programme runs from 2007 to 2010.

A large part of DanChurchAid's work focuses on strengthening local civil society by providing trainings on networking, communication and advocacy skills. The projects are focusing on sustainable development of civil society and are carried out in close cooperation with long term partners .

Three target groups

The partners within the ABS programme work on different levels from meeting the basic needs of their target groups to advocating for structural changes.

Target groups include vulnerable children and their families . The overall aim is to have children and young people who are outside the school system return to education and facilitate their access to the public health and social systems.

Another group is the internal migrants who often live under poor conditions. They are supported in setting up self help groups (SHGs) that can give them opportunities to improve their lives and strength to make the authorities aware of their problems.

A third target group is elderly people . Many of them live in extreme poverty and have no support from relatives, because they often have immigrated to work abroad. The elderly gather in self help groups to provide mutual assistance and care for each other.

DanChurchAid has an office in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, shared with the Dutch sister organisation ICCO . DanChurchAid is officially registered as a NGO by the Kyrgyz authorities.

In Central Asia DanChurchAid works with other European organisations and local networks in the consortium ACT Development .

DanChurchAid’s activities in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are supported and financed by Danish International Development Agency, Danida , the European Commission and private funding initiatives in Denmark.