News & Impact

Stacey Padilla, a student at Maryville College in Tennessee, and 2011 Global UGRAD alumna Aidai Kozhalieva from Kyrgyzstan partnered to enrich the lives of Kyrgyz children in the rural village of Ananievo. After two weeks of learning English and participating in theater workshops in the Ananievo Children’s Theatre (ACT) summer camp, children traveled to the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek. There they performed Pushing up the Sky, a Native American play about working together despite cultural differences to overcome a shared problem.

KICK emphasizes sports as a medium for conflict management and promoting mutual understanding. Through the program, coaches and youth from different regions and ethnic and religious backgrounds in Kyrgyzstan engage in conversations about gender and sports and come to acknowledge that many of the benefits for boys are just as relevant for girls.  In addition, they identified the impact that increased physical ability and confidence can have in reducing girls’ vulnerability against attack and abuse from a stranger or a loved one.

Seven years ago, Anastasiya Buchok of Uzbekistan took the first step to learn about technology and participated in IREX’s Tech Age Girls (TAG) program. Today, thanks to that initial spark, she has a successful career working for a major software company.

While not all TAG alumni go into IT careers, all of them gain better skills and access to technology for everyday use at school and work. This project helps to close a “gender digital divide” that is sometimes attributed to girls’ reports of less positive attitudes and self-efficacy toward ICT than boys.