Announcing FLEX GYSD projects across Eurasia!

As I have already mentioned in my previous post, FLEX alumni are going to organize 28 grant-winning projects around Eurasia!

There are going to be: 

8 projects organized in Kazakhstan

5 projects in Kyrgyzstan

4 projects in Ukraine

4 projects in Russia

3 projects in Armenia

2 projects in Georgia

1 project in Azerbaijan

1 project in Moldova

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan turned out to be the leader in receiving FLEX GYSD grants! Way to go!

It is very impressive how many young alumni are organizing GYSD activities in this country!

Aygul Makhambetzhan from Kyzylorda who has become an alumna only last year is going to organize a talent show at her school.

Another fresh alumna Gulnoza Mansur from Almaty is going to organize 2 projects! One of them is dedicated to teaching English to disabled kids and anotther one is going to help others to give up smoking by exchanging a cigarette fro a candy or a fruit.

Azhar Yerzhanova of 2012 from Almaty is organizing a long-term project "Book club". Alumni are going to organize a book club along with the American Center.

One more alumna of 2012 Laila Ali from Almaty is organizing an eco project "Green Leaf". Alumni will plant trees.

Yerasyl Toleugazinov of 2012 is organizing an ecotrip to a local lake Kapchagai with other 30 volunteers.

2010 alumna Jamilya Jaxybayeva from Astana is going to organize an unusual project "Vitamin Race". It is going to be a fundraising charity concert for buying vitamins for orphans from rural area.

Konstatntin Nogay, an alumnus from 2010, and other alumni from Astana have come up with a great project "Oral Hygiene", which is going to be organized for 1-5th graders in a local school.

Kyrgyzstan

Gulniza Taalaiekova of 2011 from Bishkek is organizing "Eco-bashtik (eco-bags)" with the support of MoveGreen organization. Alumni will organize an ecological fair for the community and bring youth from a local orphanage. By the way, MoveGreen was a great Kyrgyzstan country partner last year, too!

Another 2011 alumna Nasiba Nurmatova will focus on fighting smoking. She is going to hold 52 seminars across schools in Osh about the dangers of smoking, as well as organize a no-smoking poster awareness contest.

A 2009 alumna Yelena Vorobey from Bishkek will raise disability awareness. She is organizing a disability awareness concert and a city-wide flash-mob! 

Nadia Pak and Ignatii Kim of 2010 will promote healthy lifestyle, as well as hold ecological and personal trainings for 20 local orphans! What makes the project even more fascinating is the setting: famous Issukkul Lake and its beautiful landscapes.

Aisuluu Abdyrakmanova of 2009 from Bishkek will hold presentations at schools to highlight the value of community service and have clean up in the community with hundreds of students who do not have service activity clubs set up in their school!

Ukraine

Yuliya Murava, an alumna from 2008 from Ivano-Frankivsk, will organize a local rver clean-up!

One more clean up is organized by Svitlana Buko, an alumna from 1997 (It is nice that older alumni are staying active, too!). She is going to clean a local area around cliffs of Crimea tohether with other volunteers.

Dmytro Say of 2001 from Mykolaiv is organizing a Youth Engagement Forum for youth across Southern Ukraine. Numerous trainings will be organized to help students to put into practice lessons learned and create community action plans.

2010 alumna Lyudmila Krasnytska will organize a Workshop in English Language and Leadership that will offer youth across Ukraine the opportunity to develop language, leadership, and learn more about community and civic engagement.

Russia

Russian alimni have come up with a bunch of creative ideas!

Mila Savelyeva of 2009 from Ufa and other alumni are going to create and print a logical thinking book "Rebus" with the help of various experts. Afterwards, they are going to use it as a teaching resource at local orphanages.

A 2010 Tomsk alumna Irina Barda is organizing a "Multtherapy" project. During 8 sessions alumni are going to create a real cartoon with cildren in a local orphanage. A professional cartoon maker will help them!

Maftuna Samandarova of 2011 is going to organize a project in Kyibyshev, a town outside of Novosibirsk. It is going to be a Human library!

2009 alumna Anastasia Megid is organizing a project "Follow Your Dream". It focuses on educating kids living in the orphanages of Omsk about the importance of community service, college education, tolerance and professional development.

Armenia

Suren Karapetyan of 2009 from Yerevan along with other alumni will paint the hallways of a day care center for 400 children. Additionally, they will hold a toy drive for the kids.

Gayane Mkrtchyan of 2005 is organizing a big project "CLEAN Care". Gayane would like to work with the government, youth, and the community of village Burastan to bring up the issue of not having any means of trash removal and take steps to resolve it through seminars, a flash mob, discussions and clean up events. 

Hasmik Tonapetyan of 2009 will work with a rural community center and local youth to put together a schedule of events for the center, because currently there are no activities there. The youth will take part in a variety of activities that they can then share with their community.

Georgia

Natia Sharikadze of 2008 is organizing a very interesting project "I Got The Spirit". It is aimed to teach youth the value of community service and national heritage sites. Participants will take part in sessions with local experts and then renovate a national heritage site.

Davit Dopidze of 2011 is organizing a project "Youth For The Cleaner Environment". It is going to be a large scale clean up in a community outside of the capital. 

Azerbaijan

Sevinj Huseynova of 2011 is going to hold sessions to alert people about the problem of human trafficking in Azerbaijan and raise media and public attention to this issue, which has become an issue highlighted event.

Moldova

Alexandr Hriptun of  2012 from Chisinau is organizing World Map Project Tocuz which aims to spruce up a local boarding school with a special world maps program. Alumni and a team of local volunteers will take part in trainings on community activism and volunteerism followed by a service project where they create maps on the walls of rooms in the boarding school. 

Remember that anyone of you can join those alumni in organizing their great projects or come up with your own ideas for a brighter community! There is still a month left till GYSD, so instead of hesitating you can undoubtedly participate in this great event and probably even make some of your dreams come true!

If you have any questions, you can watch a video from Chris Wagner, the Manager of Outreach at Youth Service America. He will answer all your questions about registering your project, using GYSD website tools and the event in general!

Good luck and get ready for GYSD with the inspiration of our blog! :)

What is this blog and why do you need it?

Hello and welcome to our one and only FLEX GYSD blog! My name is Elina Mukhametdinova, and I will try my best to keep you updated on FLEX GYSD activity for the next month! :)

First of all, I would like to tell you more about myself:, since it is quite obvious that you must have questions like "Who is this person?" and "Why is she writing this?". I am a Global Youth Service Day Assistant at American Councils for International Education office in Moscow. Moreover, I am a FLEX alumna of 2010, that's why FLEX activity in GYSD is especially exciting for me! Just in case you are interested, I am majoring in journalism, study German and French and enjoy running! :)

And now I would like to tell you a little about American Councils for International Education, as you might not be aware of what it is. Founded in 1974, this organization develops partnership programs between the United States and the countries of Eurasia and Eastern Europe. It actively contributes to the development of Eurasian language and area studies in the United States. You can learn more about us on our website. 

Our organization is a GYSD Eurasia/Eastern Europe regional partner. That means we are responsible for Global Youth Service Day in a number of countries such as Russia, Greece, Georgia, Kazakhstan and a dozen of other great places!

Okay, now you see the conection between me, American Councils and GYSD. Let's get further! What is FLEX? And why does it take such an important place in this blog? The Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program provides scholarships for high school students (ages 15-17) from Eurasia to spend an academic year in the United States, living with a family and attending an American high school. The program has been around for 20 years, and more than 20000 students have already become FLEX alumni! However, when alumni get back to their countries, their FLEX lives are actually just starting! Being a FLEX alumna myself, I can prove that with a great pleasure! :)

I am pretty sure that if you have somehow ended up on that page, you must know what Global Youth Service Day is! However, you never know! Global Youth Service Day is a worldwide event focused on community service development and it was set up by Youth Service America. Last year more than 100 countries with thousands of volunteers took part in GYSD. Probably, the sweetest thing about GYSD is that this year is its 25th anniversary, so it would be great to celebrate it on April 26-28 (GYSD 2013 days) with even more projects and participants all around the Globe!

FLEX alumni have taken part in GYSD actively for quite a long time! For already 10 years, alumni have had a great opportunity to organize GYSD community service projects and get grants up to 500 dollars from American Councils. This year is not an exception, and there are going to be at least 28 projects organized all over Eurasia by our FLEX alumni! Those projects are going to be the heart and the soul of my blog, and I will try to report about them as much as possible!

So, now you know about relations between me, American Councils, FLEX and GYSD! :) Got interested? Just keep up with the blog and see how ideas and wishes are turning into real projects! Or maybe you want to take part in GYSD yourself? Then here are some ideas of how you can make the World brighter on April 26-28!

Keep in touch! :)