Be Educated Make a Difference

Asel Matieva ’13 (Kyzyl-Adyr, Kyrgyzstan)

Event Location: Talas region, Kyrgzystan

$378 FLEX Alumni GYSD Grant Funding

$413 cost share from: American Corner in Talas, local schools, Language School 'Moving Forward', Peace Corps Volunteers, FLEX and ACCESS alumni volunteers.

A group of four alumnae: Asel Matieva ’13, Nargiza Kanybek kyzy ‘13, Meryem Karakhasanova ‘13 and Ayday Amankulova ’14 held trainings and discussions at the schools in Talas region: Ak Dobo, Sasyk Bulak, Ak Korgon and Talas city. 170 secondary school students from 9-11 grades took part in the project. ACCESS Program Alumni (Micro-scholarship Program for students) in Talas helped alumnae to run the discussions and interactive part of the project. On the first day each alumna delivered presentations on following topics: challenges of education in villages, ways of empowering oneself through education and educational opportunities for students. The topics of the sessions also covered the important information about research skills, self-development, and community service.

During the project Peace Corp volunteers spoke about the role of education in American society and how education personally effected on their lives, which gave project participants a chance to compare the role of education in two different countries. During the project participants watched a video made for them by Aizada Marat kyzy ‘08 FLEX alumna currently attending Harvard Law School in USA. She talked about her educational experience and gave very important advice to project participants.

On the second day participants put the theory into practice. They worked in teams of six people to make research about different learning opportunities and programs in Kyrgyzstan. Participants created poster that had information about their research topics.

Global Youth Service Day Matching Grant 2015 Application Is Available!

Eurasia FLEX Alumni Global Youth Service Day Matching Grants Program 2015

Annually American Councils for International Education holds the Global Youth Service Day FLEX Alumni Matching Grants Initiative, which is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the United States Department of State. 

Groups of alumni of the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program are invited to apply for matching funds in the amount of up to $500 to implement local community service projects as part of the Global Youth Service Day Initiative weekend: April 17-19, 2015. 

Matching Grant - By offering a matching grant, ECA will leverage additional funds for GYSD.  In order to receive this grant, alumni must conduct local fundraising efforts to secure contributions from other donors.  Those funds must be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis. For example if you have 298$ worth of cost share/in-kind contribution from other donor you can request maximum 298$ for your project from us, but if you get more than 500$ in cost share from other donors, you cannot request more than 500$ from us.

Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is an annual international event that:

·         Mobilizes youth and adults to identify and address the needs of their communities through service;

·         Recruits the next generation of volunteers;

·         Educates the public about the role of young people as community leaders by highlighting the contributions they make to their communities year-round.

To learn more about Global Youth Service Day, go to http://www.gysd.org.  or http://flexgysd.blogspot.com/

Eligibility: in order to participate in this program, alumni must

·         Be successful participants of the FLEX program;

·         Be in compliance with the two-year home residency requirement following the program;

·         Update their information in the alumni database, which may be done at any American Councils office or electronically;

GYSD Timeline:

·         Applications Available – November 1, 2014

·         Applications Due – February 15, 2015

·         Notification – March 15, 2015

·         Funds Transferred – Early April 2015

·         Reports Submitted May 31, 2015. 

The application deadline is Sunday February 15, 2015 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
For more information contact the FLEX Alumni Coordinator in your country/ region or email flexalumni@americancouncils.org. Proposals may be funded in part.  American Councils may request that applicants modify their budgets in order to accommodate partial funding.

Please note that these grants are not intended to fund purchases of computer equipment, Internet access, any salaries, and political activities working for or against any specific candidates.

Global Youth Service Day Matching Grant Application is available at: ais.americancouncils.org/flexalumni