Grants Update: What's Been Going On

In case you are still following along at home, here is an update of the grants I have written and am currently working on with the feverish passion of a person leaving this country 3 months earlier than I planned:

The European Commission Grant is starting in earnest after the big press-conference which will take place tomorrow. Credo has been preparing all of the methodological materials that will be used in the prison trainings with prison staff, prisoners, and medical services providers. For example, today we finalized the handbook for medical workers, which includes a great deal of information about HIV/AIDS, ART treatment, psychological issues, rehabilitation and support, and so on. My role in this project is pretty nuanced, but I have given input for these materials, as well as tracked down interactive training materials for multimedia presentations (quite a few prisoners cannot read, so Powerpoint is only minimally effective). It seems like my biggest role is interfacing with EU officials who consistently send emails to Credo in English, asking for samples of the intended materials, which we then translate from Russian into English. When I return to America, I hope to devote more academic energy into research about prison-related issues in post-soviet countries, especially Kazakhstan. The nature of my job does not allow me to do that now, but I am definitely amassing a wealth of information for the future.

The Norwegian Grant has been pushed up in order to accommodate my new COS date. Two weekends ago, I rode the train to Almaty to meet with project partners for the conference and book. We had a very successful conference planning session, and the conference announcement and financial aid documents will be distributed around the country in the next 7 days. The conference is planned for May, instead of August, which means I have a great deal of work to do to network with NGOs around the country and encourage them to participate in the project. The conference includes mini-seminars, panel discussions with donors, PDM (project design and management) sessions, communication sessions, and self-led problem-solving breakout sessions. The result of the conference is the eventual Fall publication of a book authored by locals, which represents the collective wisdom about successful projects, failed projects, development recommendations, local perceptions and priorities, and donor interaction. I will author a chapter in this book in order to set the framework of the vision of the project and my experiences as a Volunteer in Kazakhstan. The website for this project will be live in the next 2 weeks.

Last weekend I went to Abai for the first training in the DemCom Grant project, which builds a model program of social/outreach/volunteer work in the field of HIV/AIDS and drug use prevention and awareness. I facilitated a training with 25 people associated with local prisons or the issue of drug use in the community, talking about general concepts of the project and of volunteerism as related to social and outreach work. I will continue to go to Abai every Saturday until the 11-week training program is completed, though I am not facilitating each session (the majority of sessions will be facilitated by our local experts). This Thursday, I will go to Timertau to give the same presentation to our group there. The project takes place both in Abai and in Timertau in order to prepare a team of workers in each location, who will then complete activities after the training program, such as leading self-help groups with beneficiaries, giving information to beneficiaries, finding new beneficiaries, surveying the community, etc. The final product of the project is a methodological tool for all NGOs and Aids Centers to train up their own teams according to our training regimen. Each training represents one chapter in the book, and the compilation will be all necessary information to duplicate the model, with multimedia materials on an accompanying disc.

And finally, the Aktas Grant is beginning, meaning that I will travel to Abai, Timertau, and Aktas every week in order to facilitate or monitor trainings/activities. I'm afraid that this hectic schedule, combined with my other activities at the American Corner, will make my remaining time in Kazakhstan fly by faster than the blink of an eye. Here's to being over-committed, as if that's something new, wink wink.