Turkmen NGOs: Off The Beaten Track

by Gabriela Schwarz photo by Kate Watters

It is painful to see how little support citizen initiatives receive in a country such as Turkmenistan, which many have branded as hopelessly authoritarian and without prospect of reform. Little grant money and training flows to Turkmen citizens, condemning them to isolation. Exceptions have been USAID-funded NGO development organizations based in Almaty, which have made contacts with Turkmen grassroots activists, including them in training on proposal writing and providing their groups with small start-up grants. Some foundations have strict rules about funding groups that are not registered, but others, realizing that a registered group in Turkmenistan would not be a true grassroots initiative, have supported groups based on previous activities and successes.

Turkmenistan's political situation is well-documented. Many compare President Niyazov's leadership style to that of Brezhnev or even to Stalin's cult of personality. Niyazov's portrait is everywhere: 20 by 15 ft. in a prominent square, in every public building, even in airplanes; school children are obliged to pledge allegiance to him every morning. Poverty and repression are daily factors of life for most citizens. Many people earn a salary that would hardly enable them to buy three kilos of meat a month. Clothes, hardware and other necessities are either not available or of the worst quality. Often, the people seem hopelessly resigned and apathetic.

Despite the odds, Turk-menistan's grassroots movement shows signs of life. Due to a handful of energetic and visionary leaders, citizens, particularly in Ashgabat and Dashowuz, are beginning to participate in projects to improve their lives, rather than waiting for the goodwill of the authorities to solve their pressing problems. For the most part, these are environmentalists, but several other organizations have been active including a recently established women's group.

A Sampling of NGO Activities

Andrei Aranbaev, who heads Catena and the Ashgabad Ecology Club, has been one of the key activist leaders. Emphasizing collaboration and networking, Aranbaev has supported and offered advice to other initiatives and groups. The Ecology Club shares space with four other groups and has a library with USIS publications, ecological literature, information about funding sources, newsletters from international organizations and newspapers and magazines otherwise not available to the public in Turkmenistan. A cooperative grant from ISAR has enabled Aranbaev, through a partnership with the Sacred Earth Network, to set up an Internet server which any NGO can access at no cost.

In a recent speech, President Niyazov mentioned the Ashgabad Ecology Club in passing, joking that they were one of the few organizations that were not asking his government for money.

Another project of the club is Elena Aranbaeva's biohumus work. Behind her house, Elena, a biologist, and her husband, an agronomist, cultivate a half acre of land, every inch of which is bursting with life. Lemon, cherry, peach and fig trees grow amidst numerous varieties of vegetables and flowers. With the help of a Ukrainian vermiculturist, over the last three years she has developed her biohumus system, based on the use of worms to break down wastes and replenish soil. Judging the growth of plants raised with the biohumus system against a control group of plants raised conventionally, Elena has seen a marked increase in growth rate and fertility in plants grown with biohumus. She has published articles about her work, and given details of the process as well as free worms to anyone who wishes to come see her garden.

The Ecology Club of the Turkmen University has had great success in bringing a diverse group together to design an ecology curriculum. They have received grant money to hold roundtables on the curriculum with a wide variety of people, from ministry representatives to educators and students. The Youth Leadership Center of Turkmenistan-Dialog has also been addressing educational issues. They have tackled democracy education and democratic institution building in schools, working with student councils on leadership training and with directors and principals to raise the level of democracy education. Among their accomplishments has been the publication of a civic education handbook for teachers.

Another approach has been taken by the Flamingo Club in Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk), which is working to bridge the gap between the government and nongovernmental organizations. Among its activities are month-long political science courses taught to small groups of residents. The club is also active in information dissemination, and works with print and broadcast media to encourage responsible journalism.

The NGO community in Turkmenistan is growing steadily. Even though the number and variety of activists lags a few years behind those in Tajikistan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan and even Uzbekistan, the NGO concept has been introduced and society is gradually opening up to new ideas and possibilities.

Gabriela Schwarz was the Central Asia program manager at ISAR.