From 1993-1997 ISAR administered the "Seeds of Democracy" Program, a small grants program sponsored by the US Agency for International Development that awarded $480,000 to over 360 NGO projects. Grants were awarded on a competitive basis, based on recommendations from ISAR's board of local expert advisors. A second grants program, active in 1997-1998, promoted "Expert Exchanges," allowing experienced NGO representatives to work together with newer groups to conduct community-based projects. The success of the "Seeds" program inspired ISAR in 2000 to launch the "Periferia" program, to strengthen the grassroots environmental movement in rural areas of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. ISAR believes that when local activists and grassroots groups that design and implement their own concrete projects, citizen activism and social change is most effectively and sustainability accomplished.
The Farmer's Center in Nukus, Karakalpakstan, near the Aral Sea, offers a
prime example of how the Periferia program works. Concerned about the severe
municipal garbage problem that developed when centralized garbage collection
collapsed, the Farmer's Center used an ISAR grant to buy trash containers and
train citizens to separate kitchen waste from other garbage to make compost.
They hired staff to monitor waste separation, transportation and storage and
stop unsanctioned dumping. They printed educational pamphlets to explain the
goals of the program and used the compost as fertilizer for neighborhood
beautification projects. The Center also recorded their efforts on film in
order to demonstrate their project to other communities. Ultimately, their
"Making Trash Work for You" project won the attention of the Nukus city
government and the makhallahs, or tribal leadership councils, winning
financial support to continue and expand the program.
- The Nukus (Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan) NGO Atamakan received a
$350 discretionary grant from ISAR to provide potable water to the
small town of Khalkabad. Volunteers drilled eight wells to bring
clean drinking water to 210 families, thereby preventing an outbreak
of typhus. The project's success inspired other local residents and
spawned several new activist groups and community projects.
- In Tajikistan, malaria has become a big problem as mosquitoes
have begun to breed in the standing water of the rice fields that
sustain the local population. The NGO Nau, in Khujand, received
$2,520 for its project to introduce the Gambuzia fish to local
waters. The fish, which reproduces quickly and eats mosquito eggs,
was once a highly prized tool in the USSR and in South Korea for
fighting mosquitos in rice fields. Use of the fish also reduces the
need for poisonous chemical insecticides. Nau's project included a
public awareness campaign on anti-malarial health measures. Since the
project began, cases of malaria have decreased sharply and the group
has earned the confidence of the local government and public. They
won further funding from the French humanitarian aid foundation, AKTED.
- A $100 ISAR grant to elementary school teachers in Karakala,
Turkmenistan, allowed them to organize a student trip to a large
illegal dumping site outside of the town. The children then drew
pictures and wrote letters to their parents and city officials,
expressing their dismay that nature was being destroyed so carelessly.
The town council responded by holding a special meeting in which a
bill was passed requiring clean-up of the site and fines for those
caught dumping there.
- In the village of Stepnogorsk, Kazakhstan, the Society of
Disabled People used a $913 ISAR grant to deal with a uranium
tailings storage site located within the city. Two-thirds of the
45 million tons of radioactive waste at the site sits uncovered and
exposed to the wind. Furthermore, without visible pollution or warning
signs, local residents were unaware of the land's toxicity, often
grazing their livestock on it. The Society posted 130 warning signs
around the perimeter, published pamphlets describing the health
dangers, and organized a roundtable for city officials,
parliamentarians, and NGOs to discuss solutions to the problem.
Roundtable participants sent an appeal to the national government,
urging them to close the site off from the public. The government is
now seriously considering the request.
Uralsk, Kazakhstan: An Uralsk NGO called Naryn used a $3,000 seed
grant to lobby the government of Kazakhstan for assistance to citizens
affected by nuclear radiation from weapons testing in their region.
Naryn, a group of local scientists, used the money to monitor the
radioactivity of the test sites and survey local citizens on the state
of their health. They used the results of their research to pressure both
local and national officials to provide reparations to those who had
suffered from the effects of the radioactive testing. for citizens
affected by nuclear radiation from weapons test sites.
Dushanbe, Tajikistan: A $3,400 grant in 1998 enabled the Geoecological
Society of Tajikistan to work with local residents in three Tajik towns
to create a belt of trees to prevent erosion. Three thousand trees were
planted, forming a belt one kilometer long and more than 15 meters wide
along the slopes of the Kharangon valley, an area that has suffered
seriously from erosion-caused landslides. In addition to involving local
communities in cleaning up the area where the trees were to be planted
and in the planting of the trees, Geoecological Society members conducted
a series of lectures to educate the general public about the fragile lands
on which they live. A second series of events, using interactive
techniques, introduced school children to the issue of erosion and the
local environment.
Karakala,Turkmenistan: A $100 grant to a group of elementary school
teachers allowed them to bus several classes of children to the site of
a large illegal dump outside the town. The children drew pictures of the
dump and wrote letters to city officials and their parents expressing
their dismay and anger that people in their town were destroying nature
in such a careless way. Upon receiving the letters, the town council
called a special meeting at which they passed a bill requiring clean up
of the dump site and levied fines against people caught dumping there in
the future.
The ISAR grantee Tajik Society for Nature Protection published an
updated version of the Red Book, a catalog of rare and endangered flora
and fauna. This particular publication is notable as it is the first to
appear since 1991, as well as the first version ever to be printed in the
Tajik language. This edition helps to promote conservation efforts in the
rural areas of Tajikistan, where Russian is not spoken. The book, a well
written and attractive publication, was presented at an open meeting
attended by NGOs and government officials.
The Kyrgyz NGO Taza-Gul, with funding from ISAR, established a
vermiculture compost station at a local farm to process the manure and
bedding of 250 cattle. Through the process of vermiculture, earthworms
break down the waste, producing vermicompost naturally, addressing the
problem of waste without need for large capital investments or landfills.
The organic compost is sold to area farmers as fertilizer, and sales from
the project support the group's environmental education projects. In
addition to building and operating the station, Taza-Gul has organized
government support to conduct eight training sessions for farmers. When
the President of Kyrgyzstan attended one of these sessions, the
vermiculture project received national attention.
In Nukus, Uzbekistan, an ISAR-funded project supported the recycling of
polyethylene waste as low-cost building materials. This pilot project
reduced the town's plastic waste and provided a new roofing material
while promoting the concept of recycling.
In Turkmenistan, two ISAR-funded projects took on the issue of profitable
private farming by concentrating on the pernicious environmental effects
of collective farming. In Dashkawz, an environmental group targeted
state-owned farms by teaching about the ecological and economic benefits
of small-scale sustainable farming. In Ashgabad, an ecology group provided
training on an alternative form of fertilizing gardens. By using biohumus,
a natural worm by-product, local farmers can gain higher yields without
costly and environmentally hazardous chemical fertilizers. After a
television broadcast about this system in which the grantee offered
training and materials to anyone who was interested, the first requests
came from the collective farm, which offered to pay the group not to
share this information with private farmers. The ISAR grant made it
possible to refuse this offer, even in the harsh economic climate of
Turkmenistan.
