News & Events

July 2006

Youth Leadership Program on Free Expression  

       The Youth Programs Division of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is offering a fantastic opportunity for Tajikistan high school students and teachers to participate in the new Exchange Program – Youth Leadership Program on Free Expression (YLPFE) which is implemented by Relief International – Schools Online. The Youth Leadership Program on Free Expression is offering fifty youth and educators from Tajikistan, Jordan and Azerbaijan to participate in a one month exchange program to Washington DC, Los Angeles, CA San Francisco and Sacramento, CA. By engaging highly motivated youth and youth educators, the program builds strong relationships between the three countries and the United States in order to promote good governance and positive youth engagement in civil society. Participants will gain understanding and skills in volunteering and community service, leadership, democracy and civil liberties and cross cultural understanding. They will learn about American society, meet American teen-agers, and study the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution with a focus on the freedom of speech. Two exchanges are planned: the first exchange will take place from October to November, 2006 and the second one from January to February, 2007. Selection of the first team of students and teachers was conducted at the end of August. 7 students together with 2 teachers were selected to represent Tajikistan. More information about our finalists will be provided in the next issue of our newsletter.

       In early July School No. 8 for the deaf in Dushanbe received an honorable guest - Ms. Anna Mussman, Program Officer for the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, who met with students and teachers of the school and talked to them about possibilities of the Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX) for the deaf students. Moreover she got the students acquainted with Mrs. Cindy McCann who kindly agreed to help them to develop their English language skills. Mrs. Cindy McCann is a teacher from Washington State, USA and this summer she teaches special English classes for the group of deaf students. It will be a three-month course that will help 15 through 17 year old boys and girls to learn English and try their luck in applying to the FLEX Program. Mrs. McCann knows international sign language and has a great experience in working with students. Through the written English, students will be able to express their thoughts and communicate with schools from USA and other countries. From the very beginning students showed an inexhaustible interest and willingness to study English. In general, they learn two languages: English language which they started with the ABCs, and the international sign language which has some commonality with Russian sign language. After a few weeks students were able to compound sentences, translate small paragraphs, and search the meaning of new words in dictionaries. Students have about three months to learn English, and then participate in the FLEX Program. They have a wonderful teacher – Mrs. Cindy McCann who is kindly volunteering and teaching English classes for the group of deaf students, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank her and Ms. Anna Mussman for their invaluable support.

       The Tajikistan Teacher Exchange 2006 was announced to be open for Lead Teachers of 27 Internet Learning Centers (ILCs) of our country. It was not easy, both for the applicants and those who were selecting the finalists, to take part in this contest in spite of the hottest time of the year – July. Many applications were submitted by the teachers, but only a few of them have successfully passed the first step of the contest and were invited to be interviewed by the Selection Committee. And finally, at the end of July we got the finalists who will visit the U.S. in the spring of 2007 together with their colleagues from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Palestine GCE countries. Tajikistan Exchange Teachers are: 1. Munira Rahimova is the Lead Teacher in Dushanbe ILC of school No. 10 for 3 years since the very opening of ILC at this school. She teaches Russian Language and Literature since 1993. And currently she works 24 hours per week teaching students from 5th through 11th grades. While in the United States, Munira would like to learn innovative methods used by U.S. teachers at their classes, the role of a teacher at school, know more about use of modern technologies in education, online methods of teaching, and collect materials on culture and history of the USA. 2. Sabohat Mamadalieva is the Lead Teacher in Vakhsh ILC of school No. 1. She teaches English Language since 2004 and her current schedule at school makes up 30 hours per week for students of 5th-11th grades. During her trip to the U.S. Sabohat wishes to learn about educational system of the USA, new teaching methods and visual materials used at classes, and the culture and tradition of the USA. 3. Halima Bobohonova is one of the Lead Teachers in Isfara ILC of school No. 1. She teaches English since 2004 at school No. 69 for students of 5th-10th grades, and her schedule is 17 hours per week. During her stay in the United States she would like to get acquainted with U.S. teachers, exchange and share experience, and learn teaching methods used by U.S. teachers. Our sincere congratulations to the finalists of Teacher Exchange who will be presenting Tajikistan GCE in the U.S. next year! We wish them good luck and fruitful work.

       This summer Tajikistan Global Connections and Exchange students had a unique opportunity to meet with Program Officer for the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs – Ms. Anna Mussman who coordinates Global Connections and Exchange and Future Leaders Exchange Programs. Ms. Anna Mussman visited the ILC of special school No. 8 for the deaf students in Dushanbe, ILCs of Vahdat, Fayzabad and Nurek. The students and teachers were very happy to receive Ms. Anna Mussman at their ILCs and talk about program activities, their favorite projects, discuss the future of ILCs, share with their ideas and get useful advice and suggestions from such an honorable guest – Ms. Anna Mussman. Students and teachers expressed their gratitude for GCE Program, and asked Ms. Anna Mussman to visit them more often in the future.

This year the 5th annual Central Asian Teachers of English Conference (CATEC) took place in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan which gathered together teachers not only from Central Asia but also from the South Asian countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, and guests from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and the United States. Twenty English language teachers with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan represented our country in this conference which lasted from June 30th to July 4th. Among Tajikistan participants there were teachers from our Internet Learning Centers: 1. Rano Sultonova – one of the Lead Teachers from Kayrakkum ILC who had a poster session about English Club and its activity in her school. 2. Robiya Majidova another Lead Teacher from Kayrakkum ILC had a poster session about Project Lesson – its objectives, organization and results. 3. Ibrahim Rustamov from Isfara ILC made a presentation about Internet and English Language Teaching (ELT): using E-tools in ELT, and demonstrated new teaching tool Classroom Performance System (CPS) donated by the U.S. partner teacher - Alvin Moses.

June 2006

GCE Students Talk to FLEX and YES Alumni  

       On June 12, Tajikistan Global Connections students from 27 Internet Learning Centers throughout the country were joined by 30 FLEX and YES alumni from Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan for an online chat among some of the region's most active youth. FLEX and YES alumni from the countries mentioned above, together with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, were invited to participate in a symposium about “Respecting Diversity and Building Tolerance: Learning from Each Other” where they explored issues of Tolerance and Diversity, listened to different points of view from experts on various topics related to Tolerance and Diversity, expressed their own opinions, and gained practical knowledge on how to organize projects and write grants.

       During the hour-long online chat, participants discussed the importance of overcoming stereotypes some have of Islam, being tolerant of all different religions, respect for women and prevention of sexual harassment, and being accepting to groups and individuals who may appear to be different.  FLEX and YES alumni also shared the many projects they planned during the symposium which focus on appreciating diversity and promoting tolerance, and shared advice with GCE students on how to plan and fund successful activities of their own. One student encouraged others to being open-minded by remarking, "Tolerance and diversity can make the world better, make the country better. Not only that, it also can make a wonderful life."

Native People of USA

      In early June, the ILC of Islamic University was visited by a guest from the U.S. – Dr. Paula Marie Seniors, an assistant professor of African American Studies at the College of New Jersey. In 2003 Dr. Seniors received her Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego. She also holds a Master of Arts in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego; Master of Arts in vocal performance from New York University, and Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from the City College of New York.

       The visit of Dr. Seniors to the Islamic University consisted of two activities: meeting with students and giving a presentation about the native people of USA and some history of the alliance of Caucasians and African Americans; and an online chat with Global Connections and Exchange students which gave them a chance to get answers to questions regarding African American studies and Native Americans USA from a professional in the field. Students learned many interesting things about the history of natives Americans. It is known that the USA is inhabited by representatives of different ethnic groups and students learned that the most numerous and growing ethnic group in America at present is Spanish-speaking.   Dr. Seniors said that rights of all ethnic groups living in the USA are protected and by law there should be no discrimination towards any ethnic group. Students and teachers learned these and many other useful things during this online discussion.  

        We are very grateful to Dr. Paula Marie Seniors for such an educational and interesting chat because due to such online meetings students learn about the history, culture and traditions of the USA and other countries of the world. 

Project Groups in Summer Time

       This month GCEP students of Tajikistan and Bangladesh participated in two partnership activities. One of them was about the FIFA World Cup 2006. This lesson helped students to improve their knowledge of the English language, develop skills in writing paragraphs in English, and identify and solve common grammatical errors in written English by participating in an online forum. Students prepared a paragraph about the first day of the World Cup 2006 match results and pasted it in the forum. Football matches are often thought to be watched primarily by boys but this activity raised girls’ interest too and made them real football fans: they would watch football matches, and discuss and argue with boys about the results and play of different football teams.

       Through this lesson students learned how to write articles about sports in English, and identify and suggest corrections for grammatical mistakes in written English.

       Another interesting activity which Bangladesh and Tajikistan students participate in was about “Arts and Crafts for Every Day Life”. This lesson was devoted to International Fathers’ Day celebrated on the 18^th of June. It taught students about the history of this day and the importance and value of a handmade gift. Students joined in celebration of this holiday, created their own gifts for their fathers and shared their experience and instructions on making these crafts which can be viewed here:  http://www.connect.tj/en/father's_day.html

GCEP: Plans for the Next Year  

       This month field staff of RI-SOL participated in the second three-day Planning Meeting on June 22-24, 2006. The first meeting was conducted last summer and served as a planning session to start another two years of Global Connections and Exchange Program (GCEP). One year of GCEP has passed and this time ILC Managers came to share the past year’s successes and achievements, areas to change, and discuss ideas. Field staff, now from 27 Internet Learning Centers (ILCs) with two newly opened ILCs in Panjakent and Shartuz, stayed in a camp of Gissar valley.

       During the first day of the meeting participants met with the U.S. Embassy Charge D'affaires Officer Mr. Tom Armbruster and U.S. Public Affairs Officer Mr. Jon Larsen. At this meeting RI-SOL staff had a chance to share their experiences, talk about successes and needs of their ILCs, and ask questions about priorities of the U.S. Embassy. 

       Another important guest of the meeting was Ms. Anna Mussman, Program Officer for the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, who participated in program planning discussions. It was an invaluable opportunity for RI-SOL staff to hear suggestions and ideas from Anna Mussman on planning interesting program activities for the next year, including activities that raise students’ and community members’ awareness on AIDS, rules and procedures of election process, and democratic values. 

        While being together at the meeting ILC Managers worked on planning summer activities as well. In July, project group students together with English Club Members, Web Designers, Photographers and Youth Leaders, will start a pilot national project about Tajikistan Literature and History. Students will be working to design a web page about Tajikistan writers, poets, and scientists using different sources of information for the web page: local libraries, interviews with specialists, and teachers of literature and history. The result of this program will be a web site in three languages - Tajik, Russian and English which will serve as an online resource to be used by teachers and students in their classes. 

       Another project will be developed, inspired by Wikipedia - an online encyclopedia, the content of which will be created by GCE students and teachers – will be started this summer. Interested educators and motivated students will paste their articles and education materials not only in Russian and English but also in Tajik and will be able to add and make changes to it. 

International Children’s Day 

       For 57 years, the 1^st of June has been the day when the whole world celebrates children with International Children’s Day. The history of this holiday is rooted in an oath “… to struggle for creation of conditions for the happy and harmonious development of children and future generations …” taken by participants of the First Congress of the International Democratic Federation of Women in Paris after WWII. Since November 1949 the 1^st of June is announced as International Children’s Day which calls upon everybody to protect children and their rights. 

        Tajikistan GCE students took an active part in the celebration of this event by conducting different community service activities. Members of Youth Leadership Clubs (YLCs) held a contest to for the best drawings of students of primary school, spent a day in neighborhood kindergartens looking after kids, singing songs and presenting them sweets and other gifts. All these activities made the children feel happy and cheerful as there is nothing better in the world than to see smiling children and hear their laughing. 

       Students also participated in different activities and contests devoted to International Children’s Day. They talked about the history of Children’s Day, the convention of children’s rights, how this holiday is celebrated in their city, and many other issues in an online forum. Several contests devoted to this holiday were announced for ILC students: members of English Clubs were invited to show their skills in writing and compose essays about Children’s Day in English; young photographers and artists made interesting photos and logos; students of web designers and programmers club together with project groups created colorful web pages devoted to children.  

       We would like to thank all the students who participated in our contests and congratulate authors of the best works:       Mukhlisa Sohibova from Isfara ILC School No.1 - for the best essay on the lives of Tajikistan children; Photo Club member (Suhrob Sulaimonov) from Kayrakkum ILC of School No. 14 - for the best photo; students Nekruz Shekhmamadov, Firdavs Nazirov, Nozanin Mamadoshoeva from Khorog ILC of School No.2 - for the best web page which can be seen here  http://www.connect.tj/en/Khorugh/index.html .

May 2006

Welcome, Shartuz and Panjakent ILCs!

      We are happy to announce that two more Internet Learning Centers (ILCs), the first located in Shartuz, a community in the southern Khatlon region close to the Afghan border, and the second in Panjakent of the northern Sugd Region, have joined the Global Connections and Exchange Program in Tajikistan! 

     On Friday, May 12^th the new ILC in Shartuz at School No. 1 was officially opened. School No. 1 has an active student population and very involved Parent Committee which provides much needed support to the school and its various programs.   

     The opening ceremony was enjoyed by students and teachers of the school, representatives of the local Hukamat, Education Department, Parent Committee, and Relief International – Schools Online.  After speeches given by the representatives about the importance of the center and the benefit of collaborative relationships between Tajikistan and the U.S., the center was opened with ribbon-cutting and demonstrations by students working on the computers. 

     On May 18, the second new ILC was officially opened in the Panjakent Internaut Lyceum, which is a private boarding school catering to special needs students.  Orphans are among the student population and welcomed in the school, and approximately half of the students, who are from low-income households, receive partial or full scholarships to attend the school. 

     The U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Tom Armbruster, U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Officer Jon Larsen, Head of Education Department of Panjakent Boboev K. Sh., Head of Hukumat of Panjakent Samadov Sh. D., Deputy of Parliament from Panjakent Kamolov J.A., students and teachers from the school, and Relief International – Schools Online all joined in the celebration of the new ILC.  After speeches given by the representatives about the significance of the ILC and Global Connections program, the center was officially opened with ribbon-cutting and a visit in the center.  Tom Armbruster and Jon Larsen joined in a discussion with students of the school about the meaning of the center to the youth, their goals for the future, and cultures of the U.S. and Tajikistan.  For many of the students, it was their very first beginning of friendships with Americans.   

     We are very excited to have the Panjakent Internaut Lyceum and Shartuz school No. 1 join the RI-SOL Tajikistan GCEP team! 

Isfara ILC Opens Doors to Diplomacy 

     Congratulations to the Isfara ILC team - winner of a Doors to Diplomacy Gold Award!  Doors to Diplomacy is a competition sponsored by the US Department of State to recognize the student-created Global SchoolNet Web project that best teaches others about the importance of international affairs and diplomacy.

     Four students from the RI-SOL ILC in Isfara - Naimjon, Mukhlisa, Abdurahim and Zafar - with guidance from ILC Manager Ibrahim Rustamov, created a website on Tajikistan Arts and Culture because "the main thing is to learn Internet by way of introducing ourselves to the world and present information about the richness of our country." 

     While working on the website students used their knowledge and skills which they developed through our ILC clubs such as Web Design, Art and Photography, English Club and of course, Youth Leadership Club. Students from other ILCs supported the Isfara team by giving them useful ideas and comments on how to make the web site better and create a web masterpiece. 

     Congratulations to the Isfara ILC team for a fantastic website and for contributing to cross-cultural understanding and international peace!  We join you in celebrating this great accomplishment.  

     Their Doors to Diplomacy website: Tajikistan Arts and Culture, can be viewed at http://www.tajik.jino-net.ru  

Youth Leadership Clubs in May 

     May is the last month of the academic school year for all the schools of Tajikistan. This month all students, especially those from higher grades, were busy preparing for their annual examinations. Despite this fact, members of the Youth Leadership Clubs (YLCs) did not forget about their community and continued to conduct different community service projects this month.  

     One of the most important and historical holidays in May is the celebration of Victory Day – this year was the 61^st anniversary of victory over fascism on the 9^th of May. Our youth remembers and respects people who participated in World War II and sacrificed their health and life to protect the freedom of our motherland. To congratulate and thank veterans of WWII some youth leaders visited them at their homes and spent time with them. Other leaders decided to invite participants of WWII to their ILCs and conduct festive performances in honor of veterans. Every YLC would meet these elders, giving them a hearty welcome and presenting them with different gifts. This was a great opportunity for young leaders to learn about the deeds of heroes and lives of people during that horrible and unforgettable war.  

     Another interesting and useful activity conducted by YLCs was helping younger students to get ready for their examinations. The 25^th of May is the last day of instruction for schoolchildren, so after that day students have to pass exams on different subjects. YLCs provided assistance to younger students who had difficulties with certain subjects.  First YLC members announced their assistance project, and then gathered students at their ILC to hold a tutorial class for them.

     YLCs also conducted discussions between students of higher classes and their teachers. They talked about different issues such as: Is it important to continue education after the completion of secondary school? Why? What are your plans for the future? 

     This activity was really important, because some graduate students who didn’t want to continue their education and believed that it is not an important issue in their life. But points of views of other fellows about the importance of higher education changed their minds and finally they came to one conclusion: higher education overall is important for all! 

     To sum up discussions about the importance of further education, students and teachers had a chance to participate in an online forum and exchange their ideas and opinions about education in Tajikistan and abroad with students from other Tajikistan ILCs, and share useful information about national and international institutions of higher education and discuss their future plans.  

Media of School Communities 

     This month GCEP students participated in this school year’s final partnership activity about Media. By means of this lesson students acted as journalists and publicists creating interesting articles and giving the latest news and events happening in their school communities.   

     One of the main and common events in May and June for schools of the U.S. and Tajikistan as well as other countries of the world is school graduation. On the 25^th of May all schools of Tajikistan celebrate the “Last Bell” – the last day of study for graduates. On this day the whole school including teachers and parents, congratulate 11^th grade students on this special event and wish them success in their future university and adult life. Graduates prepare farewell performances, and thank their teachers and parents for their patience and support. At the end of the performance one of the 1^st grade students, together with a graduate, perform the last ring with a hand bell. This moment brings tears to those who leave school, which has been their second home for many years.   

     This year graduation day for Delano High School will happen on the 2^nd of June. “Graduation is one of the ceremonial events that recognize seniors that have completed their four years of high school. It is the most anticipated event for parents to show off their child’s accomplishments and that of their own. All graduating seniors must dress in a navy blue cap with a class tassel on it and a gown. From graduation, seniors are now able to move forward into the future and bring themselves a step closer into adulthood” – reported senior students in their newsletter. 

     Besides this common event our ILCs and partner schools had other interesting news to talk about.   

     Fayzabad school is proud of its 5^th grade student Ehson Saifuddinov – a very young boy who is talented in the subject of physics. Though Ehson studies in the 5^th grade he is able to understand and learn curriculum for 10^th-11^th grades and perform successful experiments in physics. This year Ehson participated in the contest of physics model creators and was awarded 2^nd place. Teachers and students of Fayzabad school hope that Ehson will become one of the well known scientists in the field of physics in the nearest future. 

     One of the active project group students of Khorog ILC, Shahnoza Ashurmamadova, became a student of Bishkek University. Along with 30 students of Khorog region, Shahnoza participated in the selection process and successfully passed three steps of the contest and now she is preparing to be a university student!  

     Our students show their abilities not only in science but also in sports. Schoolboys and schoolgirls win the best places in volleyball, basketball, Greco-Roman wrestling, chess and table tennis and represent Tajikistan in other countries such as Iran, Turkey, and Italy.

     Kathryn Leslie, a student from Oroville High School in Oroville, Washington says: “Sports are important to the students at Oroville High School, because in a small town there isn’t much to do during the school year. When the students are in school the only thing there is to do is go out for a sport to keep students out of trouble after school. The sports we play here at Oroville High School are Baseball, Boy’s Basketball, Girl’s Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Track, Volleyball, and Wrestling. Oroville is known for their 2004-2005 Boy’s Basketball Team who made it to State Competitions”.   

     Young journalists of Gissar ILC reported that the 3^rd of May for their school was a very happy day. The Ministry of Education and the Hukumat of Gissar city donated two brand new computers and a printer for School No. 2 in addition to those which the school has due to the GCE Program.   

     The May Media partnership activity helped students to develop their journalism skills through the research they conducted in their school community. With the Media activity students learned to write interesting articles about their school community and had the opportunity to read about what is going on at their partner schools. Students saw differences and similarities in their schools, and understood the importance and power of media in our communities.  

April 2006

Who Will Spend 2006 - 2007 in the USA? 

         For some GCE Tajikistan students, April was a month of great expectations. Students who applied for the Future Leaders and Exchange (FLEX) scholarship program were expecting to hear the results of the final stage of this opportunity at the end of April. The FLEX Program is sponsored by the U.S. State Department of States, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which also funds and supports the GCE program.  

         At last, the long-awaited moment came and the finalists were informed of the exciting news: they would spend the next academic year studying and living in the U.S.! Many of our most active GCE students from project groups and clubs  are now the future Tajikistan FLEX students of 2006 – 2007:

• from Isfara ILC – Zafar Atlasov, Firuza Bahodirova, Rukhshona Mirsoartikova, and Sherali Yunusov

• from Kanibadam ILC – Shakhnoza Ibragimova

• from Kulob ILC – Shifo Sharifzoda

• from Sarband ILC – Manon Yusupov 

       These students thank the Global Connections and Exchange Program which gives the opportunity to enlarge one’s world view, develop leadership skills, and learn and improve English language skills – all which help open up new windows of opportunities to youth in Tajikistan. 

      We congratulate our winners and wish them great success in their coming year of studying and living abroad in the U.S.!  

U.S. Exchange Teachers in Tajikistan!  

     Finally, the long-awaited day came: the day when the Teacher Exchange participants – Andy Dean from College Preparatory School in Oakland, California; Alvin Moses from Robert E. Lee High School in Magnolia, Texas; and George Thornton from Oroville High School in Oroville, Washington – arrived in Tajikistan!

     Before coming to Tajikistan the teachers already had some knowledge about our country. But they learned much more during the 16 days spent in Tajikistan, as there is no better way to understand a country and its people than to visit it and see everything with your own eyes.  

       In the course of their trip the teachers visited many of our ILCs, mainly their partner schools with whom they usually exchange partnership presentations every month. In general, the teachers’ trip was divided into three stages: 

1.     first, teachers went to the ILCs near Dushanbe – School No. 10 of Dushanbe and the ILC of Gissar

2.     then, teachers visited ILCs of the Khatlon region in the south: Nurek, Kulyab, Chorbogh, and Sarband

3. the closing tour was to ILCs of the Sughd region in the north: Isfara, Istaravshan, and Khujand.   

     Each of the centers gave the American guests a warm and hospitable welcome, including meeting the teachers with bread and salt, and of course music and dancing. Not only ILC students but members of the entire school ranging from primary school students to teachers and the school director were involved in this bright event. Students introduced the guests to national traditions and customs. For example, students of School No. 10 in Dushanbe and students from Chorbogh ILC performed a Tajik wedding skit with traditions characteristic of the region. In Istaravshan students decided to show “gavhorabandon” which is the celebration of the first time a newborn baby is put into the “gavhora”, or national cradle. In Kulob, girls made a fashion show of the national cloth “chakan” – a female dress with colorful rounded embroidery. Students prepared welcoming speeches, presentations and poems about their city and country not only in native languages but also in English.

       The teachers also prepared themselves for meeting with students and teachers. Each of them conducted interesting presentations about their schools and students, and about their cities and families. Moreover, teachers conducted trainings both for students and teachers. Andy Dean conducted many meaningful activities which Tajik students and teachers participated in with great pleasure. Not only were the activities fun, they taught them to overcome challenges by means of having good communication within a team and the importance of being a good listener. Alvin Moses presented a new game that is popular in the U.S. and Europe among people of all ages - a Letterboxing game which students joined with great enthusiasm. Thus, the very first letterbox in Tajikistan was created in the Chorbogh ILC of School No. 40, which is another historical event in the life of our students.  

     Alvin Moses and George Thornton conducted seminars on integrating IT into the classroom which gave their Tajik colleagues a chance to learn more about Internet resources and how to use them in teaching. Besides these useful trainings, the Exchange Teachers prepared many wonderful and unforgettable surprises for our ILCs. One of them was done by Alvin Moses who donated a Classroom Performance System (CPS), with a laptop to his Isfara ILC partner school. The CPS is a new and exciting way for students to get involved and engaged in the classroom while focusing on a particular subject.  

      Reflective of the new bond formed, Moses also gave a personal gift of his own laptop to his partner, ILC Manager Ibrahim Rustamov! As Moses explained, “It was like a dream come true to come to Tajikistan. So I asked my partner teacher what his dream was. And now, I’ve made his dream come true.” Ibrahim gratefully responded, “It’s a great, great event, it's a dream come true. I didn’t believe that one day my partner teacher would come to meet me, and spend 2 days with us. So students, be sure to have dreams, because one day it can come true...” This was a very touching moment that left many expressing tears of joy and happiness. 

      Understanding the great impact more materials could have on the program, George Thornton donated a laptop to RI-SOL Tajikistan! In his generosity and commitment to the program, George expressed his desire to have the laptop be put to use in whichever way would be most beneficial to the program and participants.

          And of course, Tajik students and teaches didn’t lose their chance to talk to their guests in English and ask them many questions about their impressions of Tajikistan and its people, the education system of the U.S., American schools and students, life of American people, differences and similarities between American and Tajik cultures and many other questions. Besides live discussions, two online chats were conducted at the beginning and at the end of the teachers’ stay in our country. These chats gave a chance for all the 25 ILCs to greet, talk and ask questions to our dear guests. 

      You can read the teachers’ thoughts and impressions on their experience in Tajikistan through their e-journals at http://www.connect-tajikistan.org/forum/, which teachers posted on almost daily.   

     While visiting Tajikistan ILCs, the teachers also went to historical places and sights of our country to better understand its rich culture. These places included the famous Gissar fortress, the mausoleum of Mirsaid Ali Hamadoni in Kulob, beautiful mosques of Khujand and Dushanbe cities and many other interesting sights reflecting the history of Tajikistan.

      During home stays with Tajik families with our ILC staff and families of ILC students, the teachers received another experience. These home stays gave them a chance to learn more about the lives of Tajik people, our customs and traditions, to see the differences of southern and northern parts of our country, and observe and try to prepare national meals like “Non” – Tajik bread and “Pilav” – traditional meal.  

      Unfortunately, the teachers’ stay in Tajikistan had to come to a close and thus everybody – Tajikistan students and teachers, RI-SOL Tajikistan staff and especially the U.S. teachers themselves were very sad but also happily gathered together on their last day on May 1^st, spent at the School for the Deaf. Here teachers gave presentations on their Exchange experience and future GCE to an audience of students and teachers from the School for the Deaf and School No. 10, and Embassy guests Mr. Tom Armbruster, Deputy Chief of Mission and Mr. Jon Larsen, Public Affairs Officer. Teachers prepared interesting presentations talking about their impressions of Tajikistan and its people, the ILCs and its students, and about future GCE plans: joint science projects on physics and biology, translating and combining stories/folk tales into English, Russian, Tajik and even Spanish, joint Club activities as U.S. partner schools will establish their own Photography and Web Designers clubs, international contests, an international recipe book, and many other collaborative activities.       

      Words cannot express how much we enjoyed having the teachers here on the Exchange and how much GCE participants gained from their visit. Many lessons were learned, many friendships were formed, and we all look forward to the strengthening of these lessons and friendships in the future!

Meeting with Psychologists 

      After a three-week online forum with a team of psychologists it was planned to conduct a one-day training for one of the GCE ILCs. On April 6^th, the ILC of Gissar city received the trainers-psychologists Firuz Davlatov and Tojiddin Valiev who came to meet students to further address the topic of “conflict”.

      Students were very excited to meet in person the people who answered their questions and helped them online. At the beginning of the training, the psychologists conducted an introduction game in order to help the students overcome their shyness and have a free discussion. After the game psychologists spoke about conflict stating its causes and origin, and touched upon the following aspects of conflict: ethics of communication, notion of conflicts, causes of conflicts, types of conflict persons, and ways of solving conflicts. Students gave examples from their every day life, and received answers listening and conceiving new knowledge with widely opened eyes: they discovered the peculiarity of human character, the physiological properties of the human brain, types of human mentality and many other issues. To increase involvement and solidify the knowledge gained, students also participated in skits.  

      The final part of the training was very bright and interesting because students were asking questions not only on conflict but also on different issues which trouble them every day. Students became so enthusiastic about the training that they did not notice how quickly time passed. 

      This is the first but not the last of communication between students with psychologists. The next forum that started in the middle of April is devoted to the very important problem of alcoholism and drug abuse. This problem has a negative and unhealthy effect on society, and unfortunately, often on young people. 

       Communication with psychologists plays an important role in the life of teenagers. Given that not every school has its own school psychologist who could help students during difficult times, psychologists’ advices and answers is extremely important in helping a teenager understand oneself and their surrounding society. 

Work in My Community 

       April was an especially exciting month for ILC project group and club students as this month’s activity was devoted to Global Youth Service Day (GYSD). Throughout the month, students had the opportunity not only to learn about volunteering, but also to become real volunteers themselves and ready to do what they could to help members of their communities. Though GYSD was appointed for April 21^st – 23^rd, students decided to carry out several projects during the whole month of April, with the number of students involved in the community service activities sometimes reaching up to 100. 

       The purpose of the “Work in My Community” activity was to give students a chance to work together to do something positive for their community, especially for disabled persons and orphans. Students assessed school needs and set realistic goals that they met as a class, to be sure that the project they designed would be a project that they could actually carry out for the benefit of their community. Students developed projects of assisting disabled people in their community in different ways: some students decided to collect money, food, and clothes; others helped to clean rooms or take away trash from yards, whitewash fences, and plant trees. In general, students tried to help as much as they could. For example, students from Chkalovsk ILC made a game with their own hands and presented it to kindergarten children. The children were very happy for the new game that helped them to think logically and learn to work as a team. 

       “Though most disabled and old people of our community live with their own families and thus they have enough kindness and care, still they were very happy to receive our attention and help” – say students from Kayrakkum ILC. Those who received help from our students thanked them and said: “The most important is that youth does not forget about their old people, as care is the dearest thing in the world”.  

       Students from Academy of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA consider that volunteering brings a community closer together. It makes communities safer, happier, and more secure. 

       Volunteering is an empowering tool for young people. By designing and carrying out service projects youth learn that they do have something to add to their community and that they are capable of making improvements in the place they live. 

       Students believe that this activity helped them to understand the importance of volunteering and work in a community. We look forward to more community service projects from GCE students! 

Muslims in the USA 

       The Internet Learning Center of the Islamic University in Dushanbe had the pleasure again of hosting an online chat. On April 7^th Mr. Ahmed Younis, National Director for the Muslim Public Affairs Councils, paid a visit to the Islamic University and to our ILC. The Muslim Public Affairs Council is a public service agency in the U.S. working for the civil rights of American Muslims, for the integration of Islam into America, and for a positive relationship between American Muslims and their representatives.    

      First, Mr. Younis met with students of the Islamic University and talked to them about various issues surrounding Islam and practicing Islam in the U.S. Then, students of all ILCs joined a one-hour online chat with Mr. Younis to ask him their questions.  

      Questions asked by students and teachers were various. For example, some students were interested in the attitude of American citizens towards Muslims after September 11^th. Mr. Younis answered that Muslims try interpret Islam in the right way so that others do not mix acts of terrorism with the Muslim religion. Students also asked how the attitude of Americans changed towards Muslims after Mr. Younis published his book American Muslims: Voir Dire [Speak the Truth]. “I hope that Americans’ attitudes have changed. I think that Muslims will change the attitude of other people themselves once they take an active role in the society”. 

      Through the chat students also learned that in the U.S. there are approximately 6 – 8 million Muslims; and that there are several translated versions of the Quran into English. Mr. Younis believes that there is no terrorism in Islam as there is no terrorism in Christianity. There are some groups which interpret the Quran for their own political purposes.  

      At the end of the chat Mr. Younis gave students his email address so that students and teachers could send more questions. We thank Mr. Ahmed Younis for the time spent with our students and the informative answers to the students’ many questions.    

ILC Becomes an International Center 

      For about two months, the Internet Learning Center of Chkalovsk have been hosting schoolchildren from Batken and Ovchi-Kalacha, boundary regions of Kyrgyzstan. Every Tuesday students from the neighboring country visit our ILC in order to learn basic computer and Internet skills. To help Kyrgyz students to achieve this goal, project group students from Chkalovsk ILC conduct weekly trainings for them with great pleasure in spite of language difficulties. The language of communication between Kyrgyz and Tajik students is Uzbek, as some of the project group students can speak the language which makes their job easier. 

       This is a unique example of how the Internet Learning Centers unite students from other countries, not only online but also in person. We wish good luck for Kyrgyz students and say “Welcome!” to other students from around Central Asia and the whole world!  

Young Leaders Serving their Community 

     This month in celebration of Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) our Youth Leadership Clubs (YLCs) carried out very useful activities with great responsibility and enthusiasm. One of the main goals of the YLCs was to do as much community service as they could and with involvement of other community members. But before the start of GYSD events, young leaders conducted presentations at their ILCs and created very informative wall newspapers telling their community members and students from other schools about GYSD, its history, volunteering and volunteers, and how they can help their community. Students also talked about upcoming activities that YLCs and project groups planned to conduct for GYSD. Young leaders also participated in the GYSD forum, where they had an opportunity to discuss health problems, disability issues and share their ideas on GYSD events. This way they involved a larger number of volunteers from the community to help them organize and implement community service events. 

       Many YLCs decided to help protect the environment by cleaning their school yard, and planting trees. The motto of Gulyakandoz ILC was: “By Helping Other People We Are Helping Ourselves”. These activities helped build teamwork, which is crucial for future leaders. Other YLCs visited disabled people and people living in elderly houses. Some students invited orphans and children from poor families to their ILC to show them what an Internet Learning Center is, teach them basic computer skills, and just spend a good time together by playing different interactive games. At the end of the meeting young leaders presented their guests with some gifts which were collected by project group students. 

       Last but not certainly not least, were the activities carried out by YLCs with support from Small Grants provided by the RI-SOL head office. These grants gave financial support to those who were willing to help their community but needed funding to implement their great ideas. Sarband School No. 1, Vakhdat School No. 139 and Khorog School No. 2 were awarded with these small grants. Sarband and Vahdat ILCs will purchase school uniforms for orphan children and schoolchildren from poor families, Khorog youth leaders will help mentally disabled children with different kinds of games as chess, checkers, tennis-rackets, and etc. so that these games will promote their mental development.  

     We thank all the YLCs and project groups for their hard and useful work during this month, and hope that they will have Service Day not once a year but everyday.

March 2006

U.S. Teacher Exchange to Tajikistan!

               The Teacher Exchange of Tajikistan GCEP will start in April with the visit of teachers from the United States to Tajikistan! This spring, Tajikistan ILCs will meet teachers from their partner schools. The Teacher Exchange participants are: George Thornton from Oroville High School in Oroville, Washington; Alvin Moses from Robert E. Lee High School in Magnolia, Texas; and Andy Dean from College Preparatory School in Oakland, California. In the course of their tour teachers will meet with students and educators from most of their partner schools, conduct lessons and activities, learn the customs and traditions of different regions of our country, and visit historical and interesting sights of Tajikistan. We are all very excited to welcome our guests and hope all the ILCs will join us in showing them the beauty of Tajikistan and great benefits of GCEP. The Exchange will be an interesting and valuable experience for all involved. As Steve Bsharah, one of the U.S. teachers from the last Teacher Exchange Program in 2005, says: "I will never be able to thank RI-SOL for the opportunity to visit this part of the world. It is hard not to apply again for this opportunity as I know there was still more to learn when my time in the country came to an end. But I also realize that it is important to expand this unique opportunity to other teachers who need to be exposed to this unique learning opportunity". Make sure not to miss the April issue of our newsletter where we will highlight the teachers’ visit from the United States! You can start reading about the Teacher Exchange now from the teachers’ e-journals at www.connect-tajikistan.org/forum.

School Olympiads

               Every year Tajikistan schools host traditional Olympiads on humanitarian and academic subjects. School Olympiads are contests where students compete to show their knowledge on various topics. Usually the Olympiad is held in several steps: first it is conducted among students of all schools from one district or city, then the Olympiad takes place at the regional level, and then only the top students proceed to the national level.
Citizens of Kulob city are very proud of their Lyceum No.1 named after Ismoili Somoni, and consider it the best educational institution not only in their city, but also in the Republic. The lyceum has had an Internet Learning Center for more than two years which helps students and teachers improve their knowledge and skills on different subjects, and students often get top places at the Olympiads. The lyceum is proud to share that this year 22 students who won first places in the city Olympiad of Kulob were representing Lyceum No.1! These students then took part in a regional Olympiad which was conducted in Kurgan-Tyube in March. At the regional Olympiad, students of 9th through 11th grades from Kulob Lyceum and School No. 40 of Chorbogh village took 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in almost all subjects: informatics, algebra, physics, chemistry, biology, history and law, Tajik language and literature, and English and Russian languages. Here students demonstrated a high level of preparedness that opened doors to the next level of competitions – the Republican Olympiad. These results come from the hard work of teachers and the impact of the Global Connections and Exchange Program which gives students the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in different academic subjects. Many of the participants and winners of the Olympiads are members of project groups and clubs of our ILCs.
Students from all the regions of our Republic who won top places at the regional Olympiads will come to Dushanbe to represent their schools. We warmly congratulate our students with the successful participation in the regional Olympiad and wish them success at the upcoming final Olympiad.

British Ambassador Visits Kulob

               In early March, the British Ambassador to Tajikistan Mr. Graeme Loten paid another visit to our Kulob Internet Learning Center during his trip to the region. One of the goals of his visit was to see the status of education in the region and the quality of learning and teaching the English language in particular. The Ambassador met with students, teachers and the school administration of Lyceum No. 1. Mr. Graeme Loten was pleased to see that students can easily communicate in English, a skill which has improved among GCE students as they communicate with peers from the United States and other countries of the world.

International Garbage

               In March project group students of Tajikistan ILCs and their U.S. partner schools participated in the “International Garbage“ activity, conducting research on a sometimes ignored, but important global problem – the problem of trash. Students within the bounds of their city/village conducted research on trash in their communities and explored what they do with the trash that is produced, learned about what happens to trash after it is collected, and discussed the impact this has on the community and environment they live in. Through conducting research, interviewing various workers and community members, and thinking about one’s own habits, participants studied the large effect simple everyday actions have in our communities. Students took to task with great enthusiasm and conducted this activity in a creative way. For example, students from Khorog ILC put on a skit designed by the students themselves and demonstrated to the whole school how trash influences the environment and mankind. Students took on the role of unique characters and played different games which helped to show the audience the importance of keeping the environment clean, as trash can cause different infectious diseases which are dangerous for people. Other Tajikistan students met with representatives of ecological centers of their district and received answers to many questions of their survey. Publications of U.S. partner schools showed that recycling is active in their cities. For example, students from Delano High School say: “The city does recycling on its routine sweeps around Delano. However, some people like to recycle on their own accord and get rewarded by it. Cans, plastic bottles, and glass can be taken to a recycling center a couple blocks away from our high school and get paid money for the recyclable items they return. The practice of recycling brings back more resources towards the city and the nation. It takes less energy to reuse a can of Pepsi than it does to create a brand new can out of scratch. Recycling also brings to use some of the functions of our daily lives. For example, recycling plastics can be used to create gazebos with more capabilities than if it was to have been made from cloth. There are even such items as pencils that have been made from recycled items.” Other students discussed harmful ways of treating garbage. For instance, students from Oroville High School consider: “There are many pluses and minuses to burning garbage. Burning garbage is a good way to get rid of old papers, cardboard, and other burnables that clutter your garbage can. A minus is the stinky smoke and the pollution. Burning garbage stinks and it pollutes the air. Some people even try to burn rubber, plastic, metal, and other non-burnables. Burning these kinds of materials creates poisonous fumes”. Seeing the impact trash has everywhere students ask themselves: “How much more could Mother Earth take before all of her landfills get filled up and actually take half of the world’s land?” After this activity, students realize their own responsibility and power to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Ask Psychologists Online

               A follow-up to the February partnership activity on “Conflicts in Our Daily Life” was a long-term online forum between GCEP students and psychologists. Starting from the 9th of March and lasting until the end of month, students had the chance to participate in online consultations with a team of three qualified psychologists who answered various questions on conflicts happening in students’ everyday lives. To make the forum more effective students were suggested to pose their questions in the following topics: conflict between a person and a group, intra-personal conflict and conflict between individuals. Each of the forum topics was coordinated by one of the psychologists who talked about different reasons of conflict, its consequences, and ways of addressing it. It was pleasant to see the outburst of interest not only from teenagers but also from their parents who would ask advice to help solve conflicts with their children, as the generation gap is a problem which has existed for hundreds of years. Parents from Khorog ILC were concerned about things which keep them from understanding their children, and asked questions about how parents should act if relations with their children become more and more difficult. Teenagers’ psychology is very hard as adolescence is a time when a boy/girl grows up and believes that s/he is old enough to make decisions on their own. But for parents these “adults” are still helpless children who can make wrong decisions, and in these cases teenagers take offense.
The psychologists’ advice through the forum has a very positive influence on teenagers, and explains the formation of personality as a person becomes an individual starting from his early ages. For instance, there are such students who can not stand against another person or a group of people and thus feel themselves weak and dependent on others. For such students, the psychologists advise student to always stand up based on their beliefs and values, but only in peaceful ways. For others, the psychologists recommend to be less self-critical and accept who you are as a person. The ability to listen, speak, and discuss openly, by psychologists’ opinion, is very important because most conflicts arise due to misunderstandings, and a lack of respect for others’ points of view. We can tell many interesting and useful pieces of advice from the psychologists for students, but you can read more on the forum for yourself at http://www.connect.tj/forum/viewforum.php?f=20"

The three-week course of the online forum will be summed up by a training for students at one of our ILCs.

Young Photographers

               The first week of March brought a photo essay contest organized by Relief International – Schools Online, for all involved GCEP countries. This contest was devoted to International Women’s Day which is traditionally celebrated on the 8th of March all over the world. Students submitted several interesting photos but those which delivered the idea of women’s role in Tajikistani society in the best way were prepared by project group students from Chorbogh, Gulyakandoz and Isfara ILCs. Another opportunity to reveal and display students’ skills in photography presented our traditional spring holiday Navruz, which is celebrated on the 21st of March. People start to celebrate Navruz 2 or 3 days before the holiday itself and make thorough preparations to greet the coming of the new year. But the biggest festival takes place on the 21st of March all over the country, in every city and village, and lasts for the entire month. Our students recorded the best moments of this interesting spring holiday. We congratulate our young photographers on their successful art creations!

February 2006

Addressing Conflict in our Daily Lives

               During the February partnership activity, GCE students learned about different types of conflict, and addressed some of the top conflicts faced by teenagers around the world. Through research and interviews among fellow classmates, students analyzed the impact conflict has on young people, identified various sources of conflict, and discussed positive ways of addressing conflict. Students created publications based on the results of polls taken, and expressed their thoughts about conflicts in the daily lives of young people.
               Conducting research on conflict gave students a variety of information: for example, conflict can be caused by different feelings and human moods such as envy, jealousy, hatred and etc. Some students compared the frequency of conflict between girls and boys and found that boys more often encounter conflicts than girls and usually they address conflicts with fighting. Students of Gulyakandoz ILC believe that conflict has positive and negative sides. From the positive point of view conflicts can help to improve communication skills, solve problems and develop strong character if the conflicts are addressed in a healthy manner.
               Delano High School created interesting publications with diagrams on the most abundant sources of conflicts: gangs, pollution, lack of education, single parenting, poverty and many others. Other students from Delano High School believed that: “Most conflicts that teens face with their parents at home are conflicts concerning independence; the issue of independence arises when a teen feels that their parents are too strict and therefore never lets them participate in things that they find enjoyable. Parent’s lack of trust on their teens also rises as a conflict, often time when a parent refuses to let his or her teen do something because they believe that they will just get themselves into trouble”.
               An online forum with qualified psychologists was set up for students to delve deeper into the issues surrounding conflict and healthy ways of addressing various conflict in youth’s lives. This forum creates a safe space for students to ask psychologists about daily conflicts happening in their lives. The forum can be accessed at: http://connect.tj/forum/viewforum.php?f=20

Keys to Public Speaking

               An important skill for leaders is public speaking. Strong public speaking skills enables a person to deliver his main point or idea and engage listeners. It is very important for members of our Youth Leadership Clubs (YLCs) to have such skills as they often conduct seminars and trainings, and have discussions with younger students and community members. Nearly everyone has a sense of fear when talking in front of a big audience and a good orator should overcome this fear. In order to help young speakers overcome this fear of public speaking and improve their skills, in February YLC members underwent activities focused on public speaking.
Trainings held by ILC Managers helped leaders to learn and practice how to speak in public and deliver speeches. YLC members learned major key points for engaging the audience and communicating effectively in public, and practiced giving speeches with their peers. Youth leaders now know how to prepare themselves for a speech or presentation, and can more easily and with confidence communicate with people. Taking into account that public speaking is an important skill for every leader, YLC members plan to share their skills with others and pass on “the keys of successful public speaking” further and further.

Health: Tajikistan and Beyond

               This month GCE students started to address major health challenges in Tajikistan and throughout the world. By participating in this activity students learned and taught others about different health issues confronting their communities and the world. Among the health issues that students researched were serious and widespread health risks including HIV/AIDS, bird flu, iodine deficiency, tuberculosis, pneumonia, intestinal diseases, cancer, mental diseases, interfamilial marriage, alcohol abuse, smoking and using drugs.
               During 2 weeks project group students studied an assigned health issue with the help of information found through the Internet and interviews with doctors and specialists, and prepared informative presentations. Based on the presentations created by GCE students, participants voted for the best publications that addressed the problem accurately and then selected one important health issue to further study and discuss. Students have decided that the issue of suicide deserves greater attention and focus, and will explore it further by conducting research online, discussing with experts, and conducting interviews. Students are currently working to collect and prepare materials which will be used to create a unique website addressing this sensitive consequence of conflict – suicide in the world and in Tajikistan, causes of suicide, statistical data, and resources for prevention and help.
Check back soon to view the website about suicide created with the help of students.

Youth Leaders Protecting the Environment

               In February, Youth Leadership Clubs investigated their environment with the aim of better understanding the issues that surround them. There are many problems that people all over the world face, and one of these is environmental destruction. The environment plays an important role in the life of every human. Increasingly, humanity is confronted with many diseases and natural disasters which are caused or related to environmental degradation. People usually pay less attention to their environment and do not think about the consequences of environmental pollution and how the world will look like in the future if we do not take care of it now.
Realizing the importance of environmental understanding and protection, YLCs conducted research on the top environmental problems specifically in their own region or city. Then, they invited students from other schools into the ILC and held discussions with them on the following themes:

• What are some consequences of environmental pollution?
• How can we address these consequences and work towards solutions?

These meetings facilitated discussion and emphasized the importance of youth to be involved in addressing the problems of their community and setting goals to improve the environmental situation in their communities.

January 2006

Live and Let Others Live

               This was the subject of the meeting on the 20th of January between students of Khorog ILC of School No.2 and various representatives: school teachers, officers from the local education department, and representatives of the youth center and local NGO “Madina”. The initiators of this meeting were project group students but it was the January partnership activity “Youth in Action” that inspired students to organize this event and to learn more about the work of different organizations addressing youth issues. During the meeting students asked guest-speakers questions about unemployment, drug addiction, and other problems found among some teenagers. Unemployment is a top concern in the GBAO region and in the country in general. Most sociological and socio-psychological surveys indicate that unemployment causes negative consequences for the whole society and its separate social groups, families, and individuals. Negative consequences lead to different illnesses such as: increase of heart diseases, large number of suicides and murders, and high number of patients in mental hospitals. This discussion provided students with valuable insight about the issues surrounding their community, and further demonstrated the need for young people to be aware and take action on these social issues.

Youth in Action

               In January GCE students continued their program activity with another interesting project that allowed them to show the role of youth in their own community and world’s society. Students learned about themselves and other young community members by conducting interviews and research on youth of different ages. They defined common images and adjectives used to describe youth by different groups of society, and discusses the impact youth actions have on society. Students highlighted the young people of Soviet times who were brave schoolchildren and struggled against fascism during World War II. Nowadays young people also struggle but this struggle comes in different forms. As for students from Khujand ILC, they see their contribution to the society as conducting environmental activities to protect nature. Youth from Gulyakandoz believe that to be young means to be full of energy and desire to develop the world and be developed, to educate and be educated, to help and be helpful, and to be more than a member of its local community but to be a citizen of the whole world - a global citizen. Other youth saw their role as providing support, care and attention for those who need it. For example, during the holidays youth in Delano, California collect food for the less fortunate, while some give their time to performing for the elderly in the local convalescent hospital. Many U.S. students volunteer their time by helping the elderly at nursing homes. Youth also contribute to the community by tutoring others in a range of subjects. Youth will go to other schools and help out students in after-school programs, encouraging them to live a positive lifestyle without the influence of drugs, alcohol, and violence. At the end of this activity students created publications showcasing the role of youth in society and their power to create a brighter future for themselves and for future generations.

Students’ publications can be viewed at http://www.connect-tajikistan.org/en/youthinaction.html

Youth Leaders in the Community

               The first month of the New Year was really interesting for Youth Leadership Clubs (YLCs) and useful for the community. Community members were given the opportunity to learn basic computer and Internet skills. As knowledge of computer basics is becoming increasingly important, many students not only from neighboring schools but from orphanages as well received training in our centers in the month of January. Members of the Khujand center YLC invited orphans and gave a general introduction to computers, programs like MS Word and Paint, and Internet skills. At the end of the training some of the students opened their own e-mail accounts, ready to start exploring the world and communicate with people across the globe. Students were very pleased to have opened a new window in their life. Other YLCs conducted community service projects through volunteering. They helped school librarians to sort the books in the library and clean the room. Other volunteers visited the elderly, held seminars for the community to raise awareness about diseases, and helped the school administration to holding events and school activities. Students and YLC members have said that day by day, the community, teachers, and students from other schools are expressing their gratitude and happiness for such club that is willing to help and teach others, without asking for anything in return. On behalf of those who have benefited from the work of the YLCs, Thank you Youth Leaders!

Welcome to the Maryland School for the Deaf!

               Students from the Maryland School for the Deaf will be partnering with the School for the Deaf in Dushanbe to work collaboratively on projects and engage in international dialogue. We welcome Mr. Martin O'Brien and his students to GCEP Tajikistan!

ILC Manager Ibrahim Rustamov on Becoming a Webhead

               Just after finishing the Critical Thinking distance course at the American English Institute of the University of Oregon, I was informed about Electronic Village Online (EVO) sessions. EVO has different sessions which English language teachers and educators around the world can sign up to participate in at no cost. So I signed up to learn more about “Becoming a Webhead 2006” and “Creating Webquests”. Other ILC Managers from Gulyakandoz, Kayrakkum, Aini and Kulob also joined sessions such as “Just in Time Teaching” and others. As a member of the “Becoming a Webhead 2006” session I wish to tell briefly about what we do and what I have discovered during the past three weeks. Starting from January 16th to February 26th teachers and educators in the session explore Web communication tools and share the best ways of using them in teaching practices, engaging with students, collaborating on projects, and participating in conferences. This collaboration takes place online, connecting all participants who are otherwise geographically apart.
Participants are learning collaboratively and hands-on to:

• use various web tools for learning and teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL)/ English as a Second Language (ESL);
• interact through e-mail, text chat, voice chat, voice e-mail, and distribution lists, among others;
• reflect on ways of applying tools to their teaching, either online or face to face;
• create web pages and web logs (blogs), online worksheets, surveys, interactive exercises and rubrics related to their own contexts.

Weekly chats are held to discuss content and pre-defined topics, strengthen relationships and create a sense of community.
Information for this article came from http://dafnegonzalez.com/baw-06/index.html Much of the content resulting from the discussions will also be continuously posted on this site.

December 2005

Happy Birthday, Internet Learning Centers!

               Two years ago in December 2003 Relief International – Schools Online opened its first Internet Learning Centers in Dushanbe School No. 10, Vahdat School No. 139, Gissar School No. 2, Rudaki Russian-Tajik Lyceum, Kulob lyceum No. 1, Chorbogh School No. 40, Kurgan-Tyube School No. 12, Gulyakandoz School No. 16, Khujand gymnasium No. 4 and Chkalovsk School No. 4. And, of course, our students, volunteers, teachers and ILC managers could not forget about this important event and celebrated the birthdays of their ILCs with invited guests from neighboring ILCs and office staff.
We want to congratulate our Internet Learning Centers on this occasion and wish a long life to them as our ILCs help everybody to improve their education, enlarge their world vision, see the world and be seen by the world.

World AIDS Day in Our ILCs

               HIV is one of the biggest social, economic and health challenges in the world today. It is a global emergency claiming over 8,000 lives every day. Although difficult to believe, 5 people die of AIDS every minute. To raise needed attention of the whole world to this problem, the 1st of December was declared International Day of Action on HIV and AIDS at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programs for AIDS Prevention. Since then, it has been taken up by governments, international organizations and charities around the world.
On this day, students of the ILCs took an active part in different activities and learned valuable information about this health and social risk. Given that not only young students but also some of their parents and other community members do not know about this disease, students decided to make presentations about HIV/AIDS. By researching this issue through the Internet, students learned the history of this disease, when it was discovered and when World AIDS Day was marked for the first time, and about the Red Ribbon which people wear on this day as a sign of support for people living with HIV and as a symbol of hope for the future.
In other ILCs students had meetings with doctors and other specialists whom they could ask questions about this disease. For example, in Chkalovsk ILC students participated in a seminar conducted by Population Services International (PSI) representatives. To better understand and remember ways of self protection and avoid the risk of being infected, students participated in activities that forced them to think and make wise decisions in order to protect themselves from this disease. Students conducted different performances to show the community a clear vision of this problem. Youth Leaders have recognized that these lessons and activities are crucial in helping to raise the awareness of different diseases among people living in their community and how to prevent and understand these health risks.

http://www.worldaidsday.org/about.asp

Christmas and Happy New Year!

               December is a month of interesting and exciting holidays: first comes Christmas - a holiday observed in much of the world on the 25th of December or on the 7th of January in most Eastern Orthodox Churches. Christmas is celebrated by most Christians to mark the birth of Jesus, and many people celebrate it as a time to spend with family and friends. The second holiday is the New Year celebration, one of the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. Both holidays are known all over the world but there is variety in ways of celebration. Besides these two major holidays, there are other holidays that people across the world celebrate in the course of wintertime. To learn about and honor these holidays, students participated in a short activity that allowed them to present winter holidays celebrated in their country and learn about the holidays of other countries of the world.
This activity about winter holidays introduced a new U.S. partner school to our program – College Preparatory School from California. Students had a lot of fun while doing this activity as Christmas and New Year are both holidays which bring presents and make the most dearest wishes come true.
Students from Khujand, Kayrakkum and Chkalovsk had a chance to have a joint activity about New Years that included dances, singing songs, congratulations and many other entertainments.
You can view these winter holiday presentations at http://www.connect.tj/en/newyear.html
               Many New Year activities were also held by Youth Leaders. The Youth Leadership Committees (YLCs) of each center were encouraged to visit local orphanages and make a New Year performance for the orphans. For those who didn’t have an orphanage in their region, performances were given in their own schools for disadvantaged children. YLC members also gathered money to buy presents for the participants of the New Year’s show. Also, YLCs helped teachers to decorate the classrooms and prepare different activities for the New Year for and with the students of middle school. Teachers were grateful for the help and students and teachers worked together for the start of a new, great year.

Regional English Language Officer Visits ILCs

               Mr. David Fay – Regional English Language Officer, and guest of the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan, visited two of our southern ILCs, School No.1 in Sarband and Lyceum No.1 in Kulob. ILC Managers of both centers are participants of English Language Programs Office of the U.S. Department of State “E-Teacher” Program, and Mr. Fay congratulated Zebo Murodova and Abdulhamid Sharipov on their successful study and completion of the online courses for English Language Teachers. Mr. Fay and our ILC Managers discussed the benefits and use of this course and the participants added that they would share the skills and knowledge they obtained during this course with other English teachers and students. At the end of his meeting Mr. David Fay generously presented to our ILCs different books and magazines in English about the life of American Muslims in the U.S., encouraging students and teachers to practice their English while learning interesting facts and concepts about our interrelated world.

November 2005

International Education Week

               Five years ago in 2000, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education announced the launching of International Education Week, which gives the opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. Since that time, every year people from almost all over the world celebrate this week in the month of November. This year International Education Week was celebrated on November 14th – 18th.
The official opening of IEW in Tajikistan took place in Dushanbe on November 14th 2005 at the Committee on Youth Issues by the initiative of the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan, RI-SOL, American Councils, and IREX representatives. Ambassador Richard Hoagland of the U.S. greeted attending students from many schools including those from Dushanbe ILC of School No.10. Students came to the event to participate in the opening ceremony of IEW and had a chance to ask questions to the organizers of this event. During the whole week these organizations conducted different educational activities for Tajikistan students: meetings with FLEX alumni, online chats, educational trainings and many other activities emphasizing the importance and opportunities of international education.

Sharing Experiences through Online Chat

               During International Education Week (IEW) students, teachers and Managers of our ILCs, through a 2-hour online chat, got acquainted with Lori Fredricks – the U.S. Embassy English Language Fellow. Lori is from the USA, Atlanta, Georgia and is currently working at the Institute of Foreign Languages in Dushanbe. She teaches English to 3rd, 4th, and 5th year Institute students. Besides her expertise in English, Lori also knows Persian and some Arabic. She is also fond of painting and thus she works as an illustrator part-time in addition to teaching.
Students asked many questions to Lori and wanted to know her opinion on many issues like her impression of Tajikistan and its people. Lori considers Tajik people very friendly and family-oriented. And as for Tajik culture, she likes national holidays especially Navruz and celebrates it with pleasure.
Students learned interesting things about Atlanta, and that there are many immigrants in Georgia. The reason is that immigrants or students who are Georgia residents and who earn high grades can attend college for free.
Teachers were interested in the education system and wanted to hear Lori’s opinion about the differences in the education systems of the U.S. and other countries. Teachers asked questions about the grading system of U.S. schools and suggested to have chats with more teachers to share experiences in assessment of students’ knowledge. And it was very kind of Lori to leave them her email so that Tajik teachers could ask her about assessment or other questions anytime.
Talking about teaching methods Lori mentioned: “I try to use interactive teaching methods to get students to practice using English as they learn to improve their communication and encourage them to think in English instead of translating. Of course, beginners have to translate and use bilingual dictionaries, but as they improve, they should try to use more English and rely less on Russian and Tajik when writing or speaking in English, for instance”. Students and teachers suggested many ideas such as to have English learning and resource centers in the Tajikistan universities and schools. Lori with one of our ILC Managers planned to have a seminar for English teachers in Chorbogh. This is a great beginning of cooperation, so let’s wish them good luck!
At the conclusion we would like to thank Lori Fredricks for the opportunity she gave to our students and teachers to learn a variety of new and useful things during International Education Week.

Best Essays and Posters Devoted to IEW

               Within the framework of International Education Week, two contests were announced for students of our ILCs. One contest was writing an essay in Tajik, Russian or English, answering the question “What would the world be like without international education?”
Several informative and interesting essays were submitted by students from Gissar, Chkalovsk, Kanibadam, Sarband, Isfara, Kurgan-Tyube and Chorbogh ILCs. Each student expressed the importance of international education in his own way. “International education promotes friendship and cooperation between countries” – believes Farzona Saidova from Sarband. Ravshanoi and Firuza from Chkalovsk think: “Each of us make up a part of a bigger society and if we come together and join all the efforts, our society would be much more educated. And we as representatives of the younger generation want to see our country Tajikistan become an economically and culturally developed country.”
All the essays were reviewed by Maya Vakhobova, Public Affairs Assistant of the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan, who kindly provided memorable gifts for all our participants on behalf of the U.S. Embassy. The top essay writers will receive books and CDs about the U.S. in English and Russian.
The second contest revealed students’ drawing and creative skills as they depicted the value of IEW through visual posters. Students demonstrated all their enthusiasm and ideas about education in posters and the best ones can be viewed here.

FLEX Students Share Experiences during IEW

               What a great opportunity to study in the U.S.A.! Hello, my name is Firuza Djabbarova. I am a FSA FLEX (Freedom Support Act Future Leaders Exchange) scholarship recipient. I traveled to the U.S. during the 2003-2004 academic year. During my study there I had a great chance to learn much about American culture, traditions, and lifestyle.
Now I’m back in my home country, sharing my experience and impressions about the U.S. with interested students and teachers. During IEW, it was my pleasure to visit the ILCs in Dushanbe, School No. 10 and School for the Deaf, No. 8, and share my experience with our Tajik students and hopefully change some stereotypes they may have about the U.S.
Kamina Shamsieva a fellow FLEX alumni, willingly joined me in making a PowerPoint presentation and giving a talk about the U.S. as well. The themes we discussed were: education, culture, historical places, history, the concept of “the melting pot” and diversity, our experience about being in the U.S., living in a totally different place; and we also talked about the FLEX program, how it works and how to participate. After the presentation students asked many questions as they were eager to learn about this opportunity to live and study in the U.S. Both students from School No. 10 and No. 8 were actively participating in the discussion and hopefully gained useful information for their own future ambitions.

ILC Opens Doors to Junior World Chess Championship

               Muhammad Khuseinkhojaev, an 18 year old student from Isfara, has been fond of playing chess since his childhood. Muhammad’s first teachers are his parents who used to participate in national chess tournaments. Like any other chess players, Muhammad’s goal and dream was to take part in the World Chess Championships. And due to the Internet Learning Center in Isfara, Muhammad’s dream came true.
In early October, Muhammad and his father came to the ILC to search for some information about the Junior World Chess Championship that was to be conducted in Istanbul, Turkey. With the help of the ILC Manager, they contacted the committee of this Championship to request an application for participation. After submitting the application via email to Turkey, Muhammad received an invitation to go to Istanbul.
Muhammad’s father tried to find support for his son’s trip to Turkey. At last they succeeded to send Muhammad to the first World Chess Event in his life. While Muhammad was in Turkey, his father and mother would visit the ILC every day to read the latest news about the Championship and results of Muhammad’s play.
It was through the ILC that they learned of the great news: that their son got the highest score (2274) at the Championship and became a winner.
Muhammad returned home as a Young Tajik Chess Champion with Champion Rating that opened more doors for him to compete in chess events across the world. All people of Isfara are very happy and proud of Muhammad’s success in the World Championship and wish him all the best in representing Tajikistan in future World Chess Championships.

More About Human Rights through the Internet

               The Internet is a useful resource to find information on virtually any subject. This valuable tool was used during a training held for 18 teachers of History and Human Rights and members of the NGO Center of Defense and Cooperation. Training participants received 3 hours of training that was conducted by Ibragim Rustamov, Manager of Isfara ILC.
Teachers were trained in basic Internet skills: how to use Internet Explorer and search engines. Through their ability to search for and locate relevant information, they read materials on Human Rights through the UN website www.un .org and Tajik Human Rights website www.tjhr.info – a project of UN. Some other materials in Tajik and Russian languages (including http://tjhr.info/ssilki. html) were provided by NGO director Amonullo Musoev and distributed to all participants at the end of this training. The teachers and NGO members are able to utilize this new information in classroom teaching and projects with the communities to spread knowledge about and advocate Human Rights.
               The participants found this training very useful and expressed hope to have more trainings to advance their skills of using the Internet to access valuable information on topics related to Human Rights.

Foreign Fashion

               In November GCEP students of Tajikistan and the U.S. learned about the values and cultures of their partner country through the Foreign Fashion activity. This project allowed students to prepare interesting presentations about the clothes they wear at school, and explore their partner country through the clothing worn by their foreign peers. In other words, students found out what teenagers on the other side of the world wear.
               There is one common uniform for students of all Tajikistan schools which is standard throughout the country. Tajikistan schoolboys usually wear black trousers, white shirts with a tie and jackets. Girls wear white blouses and dark skirts but in the winter time girls can and do prefer to wear pants.
Tajik national clothes are usually worn at wedding parties or other national holidays. Oftentimes girls prefer to wear national dresses in everyday life as well, especially in the summer time since national dresses are very comfortable as they are prepared from thin fabric. As for boys, they do not always like to wear their national clothes that consist of a long caftan (long robe made of dark color fabrics) and skull-cap. Instead of these clothes they prefer to wear jeans and sports clothes. U.S. partners prepared interesting presentations giving detailed explanations and photos of clothes and particular patterns that are popular in fashion today at their school and at home or in the streets.
Henry Foss High School gave a short and clear presentation and described the common and popular styles of clothes at their school. Students from Sam Huston High School uploaded information about fashion on their website http://leehighschool.blogspot.com
A unique and very informative presentation was prepared by a new U.S. partner school – Oshkosh West High School in Appleton which joined GCEP in November. Students displayed different patterns of clothes, colors, styles, and jewelry that is popular among boys and girls at their school. They also explained the stereotypes that are often attached to the people who wear certain kinds of clothing.
We want to welcome Oshkosh West High School to our program and our wish for a strong partnership!

October 2005

Deaf Students Welcome American TEA Teachers

               During their trip to Tajikistan, U.S. TEA Program teachers Ms. Cynthia Bloom and Mr. Ken Hooper visited the ILC of School No. 8 for deaf students. Despite the students’ difficulties with hearing and speaking, the meeting passed in a very warm and friendly atmosphere because of students’ openheartedness and kindness.
               Once our guests introduced themselves, many questions arose. Students wanted to know about American pupils, their life and study. They were surprised to hear that deaf students in the U.S. often times go to the same school and study in the same class as hearing children, and later have the opportunity to receive a higher education studying in a special university. After spending time and easily making friends with the students, the TEA teachers presented stickers, a world map, and a globe for the deaf students so they would remember their visitors and continue learning about the world. They also left some emails of American boys and girls for our schoolchildren to keep correspondence and make friends with them, perhaps the best gift of all. Our students thanked the TEA teachers for their visit, and wished to have more guests in their ILC because every time they meet new people, they discover a new world for themselves. They want to have the same rights and live in the same world as others do. And we will try to do everything we can so that they can live happily.

GCEP Students Choose Healthy Food

               Besides “The Global Recipe Book” activity, Tajikistan students explored food in its other aspects. Students have learned the differences between healthy and harmful food, the importance of the correct way of eating, and the significance of useful products and vitamins. Some ILCs examined their school canteens and community stores to check the quality of foods they are selling to people. Others invited experts on foods or doctors to ask them questions about healthy food and discuss the importance of hygiene issues. Students of Youth Leadership Clubs conducted lectures for junior schoolchildren about healthy food, helping students lead healthy lifestyles and prevent the threat of many diseases.
At the conclusion students prepared presentations about the research they conducted and shared them with other ILCs.

GCEP Chefs

                   This October, the second partnership activity for GCEP students took place. Through “The Global Recipe Book”, Tajikistan and U.S. schools had a chance to learn about national foods of each other’s countries and demonstrate their cooking skills. After research on their national recipes, students prepared presentations on the most interesting, favorite and popular foods of their family, community or country, and exchanged the recipes with each other. Presentations can be viewed at http://www.connect-tajikistan.org/en/gcep.html                    The most amazing part of this activity was the process of preparation of meals. Students had a lot of fun while preparing different foods of their partner schools. Girls from the Gulyakandoz ILC together with their Lead Teacher chose and prepared rice cakes from recipes sent by their partners - students from the Academy of the Pacific. Konibodom students decided to cook Fried Lumpia, while boys and girls from Kulob tried their cooking skills in frying chicken, from recipes sent by Henry Foss High School students.

Trick or Treat!

                   At the end of October, ILC students and teachers had a jolly and at the same time a frightening activity – they celebrated the Halloween holiday! This activity introduced students with traditions of the ancient holiday which is still celebrated in some European countries and in the U.S.                   
               First, English Club students made presentations about the history of Halloween and its activities: trick or treating and carving Jack O’Lanterns. Then students and teachers were divided into groups to participate in amazing competitions and games. Most of all students liked to play the game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” with closed eyes and race while carrying balloons on trays. At the end of the celebration students demonstrated their skills in carving pumpkins, and the audience decided on the best and scariest ones. For all the participants it was a fun – and spooky – Halloween.

Online Chatting Became a Tradition

                   This month our project group students had another opportunity for online connections – an online chat for all 25 ILCs at one time. The guest of the chat was Mr. Brent Beemer, U.S. State Department, Educational and Cultural Affairs Officer.
                   Mr. Beemer was invited to visit the Islamic University of Tajikistan in Dushanbe, and especially to see the Internet Learning Center at this university. First Mr. Beemer had a discussion with Islamic University students who were very interested about Muslim people in the U.S. Mr. Beemer spoke about the large Muslim population in the U.S., and there was a lively discussion about varying practices in Islam in different societies. Following the meeting with university students, the chat with all other ILCs commenced.
                   Young students were mostly concerned about the duration of the U.S. State Department Exchange Programs and English teachers wanted to know about the future of the TEA program. Some students suggested having such exchange programs that would include visits of American students to Tajikistan and provide an opportunity for them to study in Tajikistan schools and universities. Students were just as interested to host American students as they were to study abroad themselves. Mr. Beemer agreed about the value of such exchanges: “Currently, we have few programs that send U.S. students to other countries and schools... but we are working on new programs to change that... we need American students and teachers to see the world more.” While participating in the chat, students from the Islamic University have learned that there are millions of Muslims in the U.S., and that there are programs that are trying to bring Muslims in other countries and in the U.S. into an ongoing and open dialogue. At the end of the chat Mr. Beemer wished success to GCEP students in their studious life and all the best for Muslims of Tajikistan in the holy month of Ramazan. We thank Mr. Beemer for participating in the chat and actively getting involved in a program which creates the connections he had recognized as valuable among Muslim and international communities.

Serving the Community

                   Every month Youth Leadership Clubs engage in community service which may include helping poor people, cleaning the school or community area, or visiting orphanages. All 24 YLCs of our program were involved in such activities during the holy month of Ramazan.
                   Leaders of the Sarband ILC decided to help an elderly lady in their community. They gathered money and visited this old and disabled woman. She was very happy to learn that there is such a club where students in her community care for and support the elderly.                Students of Jabor Rasulov decided to continue helping the nursing home of their community which they used to visit last year. During their last visit they prepared hot meals for disabled persons of the nursing home. Also, YLC members and project group students decided together to provide patients with warm clothes and shoes. Students’ parents and other community members supported the idea of the young leaders and helped them to collect clothes which were then given to the patients.
YLC members want to involve all the students and people from their city to provide more support for the nursing house. Next time leaders will visit the patients together with students from School No.1 of Proletarsk.

Young Leaders Help Build Peace

                   In October students of the Youth Leadership Clubs showed their leadership by learning new things and spreading the skills and knowledge they received to other members of their community. Young leaders researched methods of conflict resolution, as there are many problems in our society which should be prevented at an early stage. A small quarrel between several persons can turn into a large conflict which has a negative impact on others and even between entire countries. That is why it is important for everybody to know and understand how to behave and act in different conflicts.
                   With this importance in mind, YLC students conducted trainings for community members and prepared performances for better understanding important methods and skills in solving different types of problems.

Teachers' Day

               One of the remarkable days in early October was the celebration of Teachers’ Day. The first Sunday of October is considered to be the Day for Teachers - an important holiday for all schools of Tajikistan and the former Soviet republics. Every school celebrates this event in its own way. But there is one thing all the celebrations have in common - students congratulate their teachers and wish them a happy holiday!
Project group students of the Sarband ILC decided to invite their teachers and celebrate this holiday in the ILC. They made an interesting program, giving performances about the celebration of Teachers’ Day in ancient times, and about a typical day in the life of a teacher. Then students recited poems in Tajik, Russian and English honoring teachers and the valuable work they do.
               The culmination of the program was an activity with the participation of the school director. Students enacted a TV program where the director was asked different questions, which probably would not be asked on a typical school day. The most interesting question was: “What would you do if you had a magic stick?” The director answered that he would build a new school and equip all the needed classrooms for students.
               During this holiday many schools have a common tradition - students take the place of their teachers and conduct lessons in junior classes. It is a very good and important tradition as it makes students to understand and respect the difficulties of their teachers’ jobs. This year more than 17 project group students of the Sarband ILC became teachers of their school for one interesting day.

September 2005

Getting to Know You

                The very first Global Connections partnership activity between the Tajik ILCs and American schools gave students from both countries the chance to introduce themselves and present interesting things about their country and community.
By participating in this activity Tajik students prepared presentations about themselves, lessons in Tajikistan schools, famous things about their cities, different craftsmanship that still exist and are popular in their country, and rare animals and plants of Tajikistan.
             Once Tajikistan and U.S. schools exchanged their presentations, and ”met” each other through the information shared, they participated in an online forum to ask more questions and discuss presentations. Based on information the students learned in the forum, each ILC project group made informational boards about their partner school.
            U.S. Students throughout the nation began a new school year ready to collaborate with their peers in Tajikistan! Their teachers participating in Global Connections had the opportunity to get to know their partner teacher abroad before the beginning of the school year by exchanging teacher profiles and contact information with the help of RI-SOL. This initial contact before the starting of the school year allows for teachers to develop a strong relationship and prepare for a full year of collaboration. U.S. Teacher Steve Bsharah reports he and his partner teacher in Tajikistan communicate 3 to 4 times a week! With this the first U.S. – Tajikistan introduction project got under way successfully.
          Camino Nuevo High School’s students in Los Angeles California, a new school to the program this year, did a great job on their introductory presentation. The student’s final product was a very informative PowerPoint presentation, with well developed personal introductions on each students participating in the program. What a great way to introduce themselves!
         With new schools such as Camino Nuevo High School and the great group of other school participating for a second year a row we are excited to start this school year off! We are all looking forward for the projects and exchanges to come. Presentations can be viewed at http://www.connect tajikistan.org/en/getting_to_know_you.html.

Youth Leadership Clubs

           During the whole month of September, ILC managers worked on organizing student clubs in the schools, including English Club, Web Design, and Art & Photography. Another one of the clubs that was established are the Youth Leadership Clubs where student leaders each school work together for the better life of their school and community.

            Each YLC elected its “Leader”, who is responsible for organizing different activities. The effectiveness of the future work of the club is supported by its leaders, so the election of the YLC leaders was important. Guidelines for election processes was followed by students under the ILC manager supervision. Finally, the leaders were chosen and everybody now is delighted to start the work!

            The plan for September was to try to find out about Leadership. Participants conducted research on famous Tajik and foreign leaders, and described why they have chosen this leader and what specific things they have done for their country. This way students learned what leadership skills they need to obtain, and have started to conduct trainings on Leadership in other schools.

Youth Leaders Collecting White Gold

            Autumn in Tajikistan is a harvest time when everything – fruit, vegetables, wheat and cotton are getting ripe and need to be collected in time. And there is often a lack of hands in the fields, so collective farmers always welcome the support of students.
            This September students of the Youth Leadership Club from ILC of Chorbogh School No. 40 helped farmers of their village to collect cotton. It was an idea of Sarvinoz Akhtamova, YLC senior leader.
            Every day after school, from September 20th, a youth leaders in the 9th-11th grades would go to the village farm to work with others collecting cotton. The head of the collective farm and the farmers were very happy to know that there are such active students in their community.
            Every day youth leaders collected 400-500 kg of cotton and totally they harvested 2 tons of cotton which was a great support for the village farm.
           Youth Leaders are very happy that they found a way to help their community and in the future they will be coming with more and more ideas to help the community they live in.

 

Announcement for GCEP logo:         Design the new GCEP logo! You can submit your works in any size (ex.8x10, 3x3, 1x2); 300dpi or greater resolution; designed in either Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or InDesign; saved as PSD, AI, or Indd file; Grayscale or color         The deadline for submission is November 1st, 2005. Selection of winners will be done by November 7th, 2005 – prizes go to the first, second and third places.

U.S. Public Affairs Officer Visits ILCs

            At the beginning of the new academic school year two RI-SOL ILCs received an honored guest from the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan – Mr. Jon Larsen, new Public Affairs Officer.
            Mr. Larsen visited ILCs in Dushanbe, School No. 10 and Kulob, Lyceum No. 1. In both ILCs Mr. Larsen met with project group students and had a discussion with them. Mr. Larsen told students from the Kulob ILC about American Corners - a resource center at the State University of Kulob. It is a place where students can find a range of information about the U.S. through different books, magazines and CDs. Mr. Larsen presented some of those magazines and CDs to the students so that they can enlarge their knowledge and widen their world vision about the USA.

            Hurricane Katrina was the topic of activity for students at the Dushanbe ILC. Students were searching for information about Louisiana and Mississippi states, trying to identify the reasons and scale of this disaster. They were also learning about previous hurricanes which impacted these States, and also looking for other countries in the world which are affected by such disasters. This project group asked Mr. Larsen about U.S. students in Louisiana and Mississippi, their morale and health, emphasizing that they share their grief with them.

U.S. Consular Officer Connects with ILCs

               The Consular Officer for the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan - Mr. Evan McCarthy visited one of our more remote ILCs located in Khorog city at School No.2. During his visit, Mr. McCarthy met with RI-SOL field staff and project group students who showed their best presentations prepared during program activities.
              That day Mr. McCarthy engaged in discussions not only with Khorog students but also with all the GCEP students of Tajikistan. This was possible through an online chat. For about one hour Mr. McCarthy answered several questions from inquisitive students who were surprised by his excellent knowledge of Russian.
              At the beginning of the chat, students offered condolences for the people in the Gulf Coast, and especially from New Orleans who fell victim to the hurricane. Then they began to ask different questions as students were interested to know Mr. McCarthy’s personal point of view about Tajikistan, his opinions about our democracy, and education system: “I think Tajik schools are very strong. Of course, schools need lots of money and resources, and this will always be a problem. But the teachers and the schools are very good.”
             And of course students wanted to know more about schools and universities in the U.S.: how many American students after graduating a school or a college continue their study in the universities, what are the possibilities for students from other countries to get higher or distance education in the USA, and other such questions about higher education.
             Another question was about what Tajikistan and the U.S. have in common. Talking about similarities between the U.S. and Tajikistan Mr. McCarthy expressed that : “There are many similarities between America and Tajikistan. America has been a democracy and a republic for over two hundred years and we had many, many problems. America also had a Civil War for four years and it is still the worst war in our history. It was long ago but Tajikistan is also like America. Soon it will grow into a strong, true democracy.”
           At the end students thanked Mr. McCarthy for the interesting and informative chat and wished to meet him online again. Immediately after the chat had ended, students and teachers requested more online chats to be conducted to increase interaction with others. We thank Mr. Evan McCarthy for his active participation and for helping to launch a new season of interactive online chats.

E-Teacher Program

        Our warmest congratulations to Zebo Murodova, Ibrahimjon Rustamov and Abdulhamid Sharipov - the ILC Managers from Sarband, Isfara and Kulob cities who have been accepted to participate in the new “E-Teacher” program, a unique distance-learning initiative sponsored by the Office of English Language Programs of the U.S. Department of State. The competition was open for English Language teachers who were to choose one of the following courses: English for Law, English for Business, Teaching English for Young Learners, Assessment for EFL, and Teaching Critical Thinking. And as a result three teachers from Tajikistan have been selected to participate in this program who decided to take “Teaching English for Young Learners”, “Critical Thinking” and “English for Law” courses.
        The program introduces the most recent English language teaching methods and techniques, offers the opportunity to engage in an innovative distance-learning program that employs the latest in modern technology, and provides direct access to U.S. experts.

Zebo Murodova will be participating in the “Teaching English to Young Learners” course, offered through the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  This course is designed to provide an overview of the latest research on TEYL and demonstrate effective classroom techniques by specifically addressing the needs of learners aged 7 to 12.
          Ibrahimjon Rustamov will be participating in the “Critical Thinking” course, offered through the University of Oregon. This course is designed to develop critical thinking skills and demonstrate how the techniques and materials of critical thinking can be applied to English-learning classrooms in the country.
         Abdulhamid Sharipov will be participating in the “English for Law” course, offered through Nashville State Community College and the University of Memphis. This course will provide him with an extensive overview of the concepts behind the legal system in the United States and give a framework for teaching English to professionals in the legal field by introducing the best current practices in the English for Specific Purposes field.
       The course began in September and will run for 10 weeks. Participants who successfully complete the course will receive a certificate. So, we wish good luck and high results to our “young” students!

British Ambassador in Ayni

      On September 16 2005 British Ambassador in Tajikistan Mr. Graeme Loten traveled to the mountainous Ayni district of Sugd region and visited the ILC that was opened with the support of the British Embassy, DFID Project. This ILC has been opened for a year, and the Ambassador observed the results of the work in the ILC, and its benefits for students, teachers and the community.

Exploring Education at Annual Fair

       It has become a tradition of international organizations which run educational programs to meet once a year for the Annual Educational Fair. The goal of conducting such an event is to attract all interested people and organizations at one time and in one place to share necessary information about educational opportunities at home and abroad.
        To offer this opportunity for people from all over Tajikistan it was decided to conduct the fair in Dushanbe, Khujand, Kulob and Kurgan-Tyube cities. Citizens of Dushanbe and Khujand have already participated in the fair on September 29th and October 1st respectively. As for the students of Kurgan-Tyube and Kulob, they are invited to visit the fair on October 27th and 28th.
      The event is coordinated by the Open Society Institute (OSI), and this year participating organizations included (KIMEP), ACCELS, IREX, US Embassy, DAAD (German Embassy), Aga Khan Humanities Project, and Relief International – Schools Online. Representatives of these organizations presented information about their activities and programs, provided the visitors with handout materials and brochures and conducted lectures about international education. The visitors had an opportunity to meet with alumni students of different scholarship programs. Most importantly learners and educators alike were able to discover the various educational opportunities available in the country.
       RI-SOL is participating in this fair for the second time. We presented our program, its goals and opportunities for pupils, university students and all the interested persons. Following the presentation of the Global Connections program at the fair the number of users at our ILCs has already increased, as was seen from the eager new students who arrived at the ILC of School No. 8 in Dushanbe after hearing about the program at the fair. Welcome new ILC users!

Success Story

       Former project group member of the Internet Learning Center of Istaravshan, Abduahad Bokiev, is now spending an academic year in the USA.
        Beginning from September 1st, 2004 Abduahad along with other students was encouraged to join the project group of Istaravshan ILC. Motivation and enormous desire of learning and gaining up-to-date knowledge obviously could be seen in him. As soon as we gave students a chance to express their goals and needs, Abduahad emphasized one of his greatest goals, which was becoming a finalist in the FLEX scholarship and experiencing academic and cultural life in, as he called it, “the country of my dreams”. The target was clear, but he needed some concrete ways to improve his knowledge and skills, which could contribute to his initial educational objectives.
      Gradually everyone was witnessing his discoveries and progress during the activities held in the ILC. He constantly was looking for unique opportunities to broaden his understanding and knowledge. He was quite sociable and an active team player. His attention to improve his American English increased day after day.
      Taking into consideration his effort, interest, activeness, and reliability we decided to welcome him as a volunteer and gave him the chance to help in accomplishments of the ILC and not surprisingly he successfully fulfilled given projects.
Eventually, on one remarkable day Abduahad was notified that he was chosen as a FLEX finalist. Our enjoyment and happiness knew no boundaries as we heard of the news. Personally he recognizes the ILC as a wonderful resource center for enhancing his knowledge and helping him get to where he is today.
       From that time on school students began to visit the ILC more often and their numbers were increasing. In the near future we are planning to provide a possibility for students to talk with Abduahad via the Internet and explore his experience and life in the U.S. We believe our ILC will continue to help school students, teachers, and community members to achieve their goals.
     At last we, on behalf of the project group members and other students, wish Abduahad a successful stay and experience and many other achievements in his personal and studious life.

 

June 2005 - August 2005.

 

Dear friends,             Congratulations to all for the successful Connectivity program and for the start of the new Global Connections and Exchange Program!  My first involvement with the program started early last year, working from the office in Los Angeles and only being able to imagine what Tajikistan is like.  And now over a year later, here I am – lucky to be in a beautiful country with sincere people and still part of a fantastic program.              I am very much looking forward to spending the next year with you all.  Please always feel free to approach and contact me with your questions and ideas about the program, about the U.S., about anything.  Tajikistan is now my home and I hope we can all share and work together to continue a meaningful program for all.  I am certain the next two years will bring great skills and close friendships to many, and hope that you will all join the RI-SOL family!  Sincerely, Susie Chang Program Director

 

As the new Education Coordinator I am glad to greet all the students and teachers who will be with us in the next two years. First of all I would like to congratulate all of you with the extension of our program that is now called the Global Connections and Exchange Program (GCEP).             For the next two years we will be working with you on different educational projects. The students will participate in partnership projects as they did before. Moreover there will be national long-term projects and different contests for ILC students. Additionally, a pleasant surprise of the new program is that besides a Teacher Exchange we will also have an exchange program with the U.S. for the most active students of our ILCs.            As for the teachers they will have a chance to develop teaching modules and share it with other educators through the Internet.             So, as you can see there will be a variety of interesting activities for you. As usual, you can read the latest news and events happening in our ILCs through our monthly newsletter.  Feel free to submit ideas for articles as well! Sincerely, Gulshan Toshbekova Education Coordinator

            

Closing of Connectivity Program and Opening of Global Connections and Exchange Program

              Two years of the School Connectivity Program are behind us. What has been done during this time? To list all the achievements would take a lot of time, but in general we can say that the goals of the Connectivity Program were achieved and even more work was done than was planned.
             The two years of the Connectivity Program has greatly changed the life of each boy and girl of our ILCs. The Internet has showed them the possibilities to improve their education, made them more literate, eager to learn new things, debate, express their point of view, and allowed them to make a lot of new friends. In general their world vision has changed and expanded.
             For our teachers the Internet led to the integration of new interactive methods with the classroom. It allows them to find through the Internet many materials and innovative teaching methodologies that make their lessons more colorful.

             On September 1st, 2005 RI-SOL’s new program began - Global Connections and Exchange Program. Let’s welcome it and wish success and long life for this program.

                                                 Internet for the Islamic world

                We warmly welcome the 25th ILC that was opened by RI-SOL in the Islamic University of Tajikistan. It is a special project financed by the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan. The U.S. Ambassador Richard Hoagland, representatives from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tajikistan, rector of the university and RI-SOL all participated in the opening ceremony on July 19th, 2005. This ILC will help students of the Islamic University reveal the potential of the Internet and use it for the benefit of their education. As U.S. Ambassador Richard Hoagland remarked, the center will “help build links with American Islamic schools to promote a better understanding among our communities”.

Our partners – Junior Achievement and Ittifoq

    By August 2005 trainings on economics and entrepreneurship conducted by one of our partner NGOs, Junior Achievement, were conducted at all of our 24 ILCs. These were trainings for teachers of Economics in our ILC schools.

          Ittifoq will accomplish its activity in September this year. This will be series of exchange visits between communities and schools of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Since the beginning of the partnership Ittifoq has conducted trainings on conflict resolution for teachers of our schools.

Announcement for GCEP logo:         Design the new GCEP logo! You can submit your works in any size (ex.8x10, 3x3, 1x2); 300dpi or greater resolution; designed in either Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or InDesign; saved as PSD, AI, or Indd file; Grayscale or color         The deadline for submission is November 1st, 2005. Selection of winners will be done by November 7th, 2005 – prizes go to the first, second and third places.

Connectivity Students Participate in the First Youth Leadership Summer

         CampDuring one month starting from July 8, the most active students of the Connectivity Program for Tajikistan had a chance to spend their holidays at the first RI-SOL Youth Leadership Summer Camp.

         Youth Leadership Camp gave 103 students from 24 ILCs across Tajikistan an excellent opportunity to learn leadership skills, know more about U.S. culture and history and improve their English.

         The very first day of the camp brought a pleasant surprise for camp participants. The U.S. Ambassador Richard Hoagland greeted the future leaders of the Global Connections Program and wished them success and high achievements at leadership camp.

             To conduct program trainings the camp involved our enthusiastic On-Site Educators from different ILCs and English teachers that have participated in the Teacher Exchange Program last year. Perhaps the greatest examples of youth leadership were the young trainers - FLEX students that played an important role in camp activities. As one of the main goals of the summer camp was to prepare leaders for the next two years of the Global Connections and Exchange Program in Tajikistan, FLEX alumni were a true and excellent example of young leaders. At the same time FLEX students fulfilled the second goal of Youth Leadership Camp: introducing students to American culture and history. They made presentations about the school system, higher education in the U.S. and the life of American teenagers. To practice and improve the English of our students, FLEX alumni conducted their trainings in English. During breaks FLEX alumni would conduct very interesting energizers and different entertainment games which were full of fun.

             Besides leadership trainings and lectures on U.S. culture students had other entertainment activities. As the camp was conducted in two different regions of Tajikistan – one in Kayrakkum and another in Gissar, the participants of the latter camp had a trek to the mountains and were taught by a group of local alpinists basic mountain and climbing skills. Students of Kayrakkum camp participated in a cruise around Kayrakkum sea.

          During the ten days of the summer camp students received very important and interesting knowledge about leadership such as how to become a good leader, roles of a leader, speaking skills, conflict resolution and other skills which will help them to become future leaders for our ILCs and the country in general.

A Helping Hand

             Earlier in the year, RI-SOL announced a proposal writing contest to the ILCs.
              The focus of the proposals was about how to make our community a better place to live through helping the school and members of the community. The deadline for the contest was the 31st of May. There were 7 proposals submitted. All of them were very well written, and the independent selection committee worked hard on choosing the top proposals. The best three proposals were selected. These are from Isfara School #1, Gissar School #2 and Gulyakandoz School #16.

              Below you will find out how the proposal was implemented by one of the winners - SAC from Isfara School #1.

             After having visited the local orphanage on Global Youth Service Day, the Student Action Committee in Isfara city School #1 wrote a proposal “A helping hand to Orphans”.
They wanted to bring more joy and help to children by inviting them into their Internet Learning Center and giving them basic knowledge about the Internet, discussing some of the benefits of a democratic society, and teaching them that WE – the youth – are the future of our country.
           The idea of the proposal was to let children know that they aren’t alone in this world. Though their parents are not near, it doesn’t mean that nobody cares for them anymore. There are organizations, and people that do care about them. So the SAC not only held trainings and led brainstorming sessions, but also had games and snacks to give a fun time to the children and invite them to new friendships!

Trainings included:

1. Life of today’s students
2. Designing a project
3. Knowledge of foreign language today
4. Most famous schools in Tajikistan
5. Role of NGOs in the country
6. We, the Youth – the future of Tajikistan

Student Action Committee Fair

              The SAC Fair was held by IFES on 28-29 of July in the beautiful place in Varzob, which is called “Guli mayda”. All presidents and potential leaders of the SAC including some adult mentors from all over the country were invited to this event. 19 SAC Presidents and potential leaders from schools with RI-SOL ILCs actively participated and gave presentations exhibiting their best projects.

         After voting on the best presentations, SAC President from Khorog won second place and SAC President from Jabor Rasulov took first place and both received prizes useful for the future work of the SAC. .
           Not only competitions and presentations were in the program, but also different activities for participants, which helped them to get to know each other better. Also, trainings on Democracy and Leadership were taught to participants. Thanks to this Fair, SAC presidents and their potential leaders also had a great opportunity to discuss their work in the committee and their shared successes and struggles, and improve their skills as young leaders.

Summer in Tajikistan: Hot Weather, Hot Contests

                Summer is generally the time to rest and search for new and interesting things. To keep our students involved and active during summer time, RI-SOL conducted two contests for the ILC students. These contests sought to find the best artists in computer graphics and the best chess players.
               Both contests took place in August and captured the interests of our students. Participants in the Computer Graphics competition sent in several beautiful and amazing graphics which were created in Paint software, a skill learned through trainings in the ILCs. The high number and variety of impressive submissions reflected the popularity of the activity, and made it nearly impossible to choose only 3 winners. This difficulty was also noted by the judge itself – Ms. Manzura Uljabaeva, teacher from the Art College in Dushanbe. However, the rules of the contest required selecting the best ones, and the judge eventually decided between all the fantastic pieces of art and announced the following three winners:
                                  1st Prize - Sadi Anvarzoda from Gissar
                                  2nd Prize – Sayli Narzulloeva from Nurek
                                  3rd Prize – Suhrob Kurbonov from Jabor Rasulov
              After the first contest of exhibiting the talent for art, ILC students were invited to participate in another competition to challenge the ability of the mind. During one week students from 24 ILCs had to demonstrate their ability as chess players. In order to achieve that they needed to work hard and be extra patient because the championship was conducted in an untraditional way – it was all online. After long and difficult battles of the most strategic minds the following chess masters emerged victorious:
                                  1st Place – Shamshod Yuldoshev from Sarband
                                  2nd Place – Akmal Shomadov from Rudaki
                                  3rd Place – Bahtovar Ismoilzoda from Gissar
              Our best wishes and warm congratulations to all the winners and participants! As the proverb says: it is better to have participated and not won, than to have never participated at all!Tajikistan Teachers Develop Their Professional Skills.

Tajikistan Teachers Develop Their Professional Skills

             Despite the fact that summer is the time for holidays and vacation, hardworking teachers dedicated their time to learn how to improve their teaching skills. In July, such an opportunity was kindly provided by the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan which invited an English specialist, Dr. Farooq Babrakzai, to conduct seminars for English teachers and to share his experience through an online forum.
            On July 6th On-Site Educators and English teachers from the ILCs and neighboring schools participated in an online forum to discuss the main issues of teaching methods with Dr. Farooq Babrakzai – Senior Fellow at Beijing Normal University of the U.S. Department of State English Language Exchange Program.
            During the 2 hour-long online forum Dr. Babrakzai shared his experience and gave advice to English teachers from different regions of Tajikistan. Many questions arose such as: what are the differences between the education system in Tajikistan and other countries, how can teachers motivate students, how can teachers teach English when lacking teaching materials, what strategies can be used to develop students’ speaking skills and grammar, and many others. When Mr.Babrakzai was asked about the most effective way to learn English he answered: “Remember: learning is by doing. You cannot learn to swim by reading books or watching people swim. You must jump in and struggle to swim. Learning English is the same.”
            It was obvious that 2 hours were not enough to answer all the questions, and Dr. Babarakzai promised to reply to teachers’ questions and send some of his handouts.
           The next day Dr. Babrakzai conducted a 2 hour seminar for other school teachers. Teachers from Sarband, Kurgan-Tyube, Kulob and Vahsh attended the seminar in the Vahsh ILC, while teachers from RRS attended the seminar arranged in Dushanbe ILC of School#10. At his workshop Dr. Babrakzai addressed assessments of student performance.
           The new and useful knowledge acquired during these two days not only improved the teachers’ skills, but will also be sure to help them in their future work in improving the skills of students.

Connectivity Program Through the Eyes of School Principals

            This summer on August 22, RI-SOL gathered all 24 principals of secondary schools that host Internet Learning Centers. It was an inclusive meeting in Dushanbe with active participation of school principals, RI-SOL, and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tajikistan.
         Farkhod Rakhimov, Deputy Minister of Education, congratulated principals with the beginning of the upcoming school year and wished them success in their hard work. He spoke of the plan of the MOE to strengthen the education system in Tajikistan, and recognized the importance of the Connectivity Program in the country with its commitment to improving the teaching and learning process in our schools.
                Susie Chang, new Program Director, discussed the results of the initial 2-year School Connectivity Program and presented the goals and objectives of the Global Connections and Exchange Program for 2005-2007.
               Talking about the first 2 years of the program, principals emphasized the great support and influence of the Connectivity Program on their schools, students and teachers. The Connectivity Program brought many changes into the life of the schools and communities. It improved the quality of education at schools, gave students an opportunity to unlock the whole world, learn a variety of things through the Internet, make friends and grow as individuals and leaders. As for the teachers, Connectivity helped them to find educational materials and utilize new methods of teaching that make their classes more interesting. They discovered new ways of using computers and the Internet in their classes.
               The participating sides of the meeting also discussed methods to effectively use ICT in the education system, ways to make the ILCs sustainable, and ideas for successful implementation of the new GCEP Program.
               At the conclusion, principals celebrated the extension of the Program and expressed their gratitude and readiness for continued fruitful cooperation with RI-SOL.

GCEP: Success in the Making

           The very first national Training-of-Trainers (TOT) for field staff of RI-SOL was conducted on August 24-26, 2005. The TOT gave ILC Managers the opportunity to meet their colleagues who up until this meeting had only known each other online, and served as a training and planning session to jumpstart another successful two years.

        The Global Connections and Exchange Program will offer more education activities both for students and teachers in more specific ways. During the next two years we will create more educational content that will be placed on the website and made accessible to interested educators and motivated students. ILC project groups who are partnered with the U.S. will also be joined by four clubs: Youth Leadership, English, Web Designers/Programmers, and Art/Photography.

               The participants of TOT discussed the goals and objectives of the Global Connections and Exchange Program, contributed to interactive planning sessions, and conferred about the best ways to implement the program for the coming two years.

Relief International - Schools Online 6 Pavlov Street, Dushanbe, Tajikistan 734003 Tel: (992372) 24-23-17, Fax: (992372) 24-39-08 taj_office@schoolsonline.org, http://www.connect-tajikistan.org

 

Garth Willis, Tajikistan Connectivity Program Director. After 10 years in Central Asia he looks exactly the same as the people, to whom he gave a chance to see the world and to be seen by the world! ... ok, if you can’t guess he is second from the right.

18 months of Connectivity

“What an amazing 18 months it has been. I arrived to Tajikistan with a simple task, set up internet learning centers (ILC’s) in schools across Tajikistan in regions where there has never been internet before. Then the task was to develop a system for training staff, teachers, and students to use internet for educational activities, and finally to get the community to use the ILC and be involved in the daily operation of the ILC. Simple right? Well, looking back it was simple, but only because of the amazing staff at the main office, the dedication of the staff at all of the internet learning centers, the enthusiasm of the youth that participated in our programs, and the unending support of the US State Department and Anna Mussman.

A year ago at the internet centers pupils had perhaps heard of internet, but did not know how to use it, or of the potentials it offers. Now a year and a half later these same pupils are participating in internet forums, writing to other pupils in the US, preparing and sending presentations, and finding new friends via the internet. 

Many people I know were skeptics at the start of this project, saying it might be better to give basic supplies to schools. We have proven that a good mix of training, enthusiasm, education programs, and a team effort can bring great results. I hope that this project is just a beginning and that in future years Tajikistan can use technology to overcome the difficulties to development posed by its physical isolation, and mountainous terrain. Our program has led the way and I am excited for the future of Connectivity.

My personal news is that after 10 years in Central Asia I am heading to the University of Minnesota to start a PHd program in international educational development. Fortunately my topic is the development in internet for education in the mountainous regions of Central Asia – so I am sure to be back. I am looking forward to a long cooperation with RI-SOL, the State Department, and with all of the people that have been so good to me during my stay in Tajikistan. Take care everybody – and see you online!”
 

Garth Willis
 

 

SAC members from Sarband School #1 got a ‘Thank you’ letter for their accomplishments in this passing year

Student Action Committies Making Differences in Their Community
The first Student Action Committee (SAC) was opened in 2000 with the initiation of IFES in Khujand School #4. At this moment there are 19 SAC’s all around Tajikistan based in Connectivity schools.

Student Action Committee (SAC) is a group of senior students who independently define and resolve vital problems of their community. Most of them have already implemented a number of projects successfully.

 

For example: This year the SAC’s in Tajikistan for the first time celebrated Global Youth Service Day on April. Preparation for that event started from the first days of April. In order to introduce the project groups and members of SAC’s to this event special trainings were held, where important moments of this GYSD event were discussed. The first step was preparation of volunteers. Students prepared a work plan to include all details, type and place of activity, date and time, equipment, security measures and other issues. On Global Youth Service Day, project group and SAC’s made a lot of contribution to their community. They planted a lot of trees, cleaned parks, visited orphanages, lead the seminars at schools and visited kindergartens. Such work brings great benefit to the community, and shows others the importance of volunteering.

Thanks to the SAC’s activities and their contribution for the community, other people can watch them and act the same way, helping people and the nature around them. We will try to keep the work up and do more other useful projects involving more volunteers, this way everybody can play a big role in the prosperity of our country!!!

 

Connectivity student - Sharipova Muhabbat from 10th grade showing her class-mates a first-class footbag game. Gulyakandoz

Games and Recreation - as the Way of Crosscultural Understanding

Games! A great activity for spring – Footbag Games was a great chance to get outside and have fun for Connectivity students. Youth in different countries around the world play footbag, a game where you kick a small ball without letting it touch the ground.
Through footbag we can connect with the ancient cultures
of China and with modern-day Americans and Tajikistanis.
Many young people like to play footbag or hacky sack (US),
lyanga or chika (Tajikistan), takraw in Thailand, jegi in Korea,
and temari/kemari in Japan. With almost the same concept
and rules, but with different design, this game to some degree
reflects how every culture is special and by creating and
playing footbags our students dipped into the different
cultures and saw its values.

This lesson was designed to teach students to discover information about the universality, the history, and the uses of games, to teach students how to build and play a footbag
and Tajikistani Lyanga. Students in America were asked to build lyangas and Tajikistani students - footbags. When the schools completed their footbag, they photographed them
and send the photographs to their partner schools.

When young people learn about games, they naturally want to play it themselves. This lesson culminated by playing footbags (in Tajikistan) and lyanga (in the US) this experience brought more cross cultural understanding and cultural values of two different cultures – the US and Tajikistani..

Please, visit our website here: http://www.connect-tajikistan.org/en/gysd2005_web.html to see our presentations and play with us!

 

 

Connectivity students from Gissar visited their veteran - Munira Khasanova at home

‘Tajikistan Connectivity Students Payed Tribute to the World War II Veterans’
One of the most remarkable and bright events in the history of the Connectivity project was the 60th anniversary of Victory Day. 60 years have passed since the world community conjointly won in the war against fascism, and Soviet people including Tajik citizens played an important role in this war. More than 260 thousand people from such a small republic as Tajikistan participated in World War II, and 90 thousand of them never came back. On this day we tender our sincere gratitude to them and to our grandparents, parents, sisters and brothers who participated in that war.

Our schools did not stay indifferent to this significant event. On the 6th of May students from all our ILCs together with their friends from Connectivity Project for Uzbekistan had an online forum. This forum was devoted to veterans from neighboring families, villages and cities of our country who were struggling for peace in our land.

 

One hour before the forum students had a meeting with veterans from their region. Each ILC invited 1-3 veterans who kindly accepted the invitation to meet with young people. Unfortunately, not all of the veterans were able to come given that they are very old people and some of them are sick. But students came to see and congratulate those veterans at their home.

 

During the meeting veterans told the students about war, courage and fearlessness of people at that difficult time, about heroes of World War II. One of the veterans from Konibodom a woman Mariya Ivashenko has brought to the school a piece of bread that she has carefully kept since war. This piece of bread was a memory about her life during war.

 

Students in their turn congratulated veterans, sang songs of war time and read poems for them. At the end of the meeting on behalf of RI-SOL students gave small presents to the veterans.

 

At 2:00 pm the forum began. Each center had a lot of things to say about their war veterans and at the same time learn about the others. We have created a special web page  http://www.connect.tj/vov/  for veterans with their photos so that veterans from other cities or villages could get acquainted with each other or find their old friends.

 

According to statistics this was the most active forum over the course of Connectivity Project in Tajikistan. There were 1624 views and 184 posts that were posed within 2 hours of the forum.

 

Students have learnt lots of new things at this forum - about veterans from all over Tajikistan: Sughd, GBAO, Khatlon and RRS. And this is a great example of how Internet and computers are integrated into teaching and learning process at schools.

 

Students from Lycee Maryam discuss the stories on the online forum. Afghanistan

News from Connectivity Afghanistan - our next educational year partner

 

Afghan Students Connect to International Peers
Students from two schools in Kabul experienced their very first online global activity at the end of April as they shared traditional stories from their culture with students in Bangladesh and Jordan. Using the Internet Learning Centers (ILCs) set up by RI-SOL with support from the Hewlett Foundation and the Global Catalyst Foundation, students from girls school Lycee Maryam and boys school Bibi Mehro entered the world wide web to research the stories they learned as children, and more importantly, to share these stories with their international peers.
 

In April’s “Folklore” activity, students from all three countries were asked to think about, research, retell, and share a traditional story from their culture and the values it reflected.

The students, ready with their computer and Internet skills acquired by RI-SOL trainings, were eager to share their unique culture with the Bangladeshi and Jordanian students. PowerPoint presentations of traditional Afghan stories passed on from generation to generation were created and shared with pride. The Afghan students were even more excited to receive stories and learn about the other countries and cultures. After reading each others’ presentations and contemplating the morals they aim to teach, students were given the opportunity to “meet” on an online forum and discuss the stories and the cultures they were created from. These new friends were able to connect by communicating via the Internet, and especially, connect by sharing and learning about each others’ cultures.

Through more international activities, perhaps all students will be able to learn on a global scale, the same lesson an Afghan father once tried to relay to his seven stubborn sons:
“having unity between each other, there is no problem in life we cannot face.”

• Archive: March, 2005 - May, 2005
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• Archive: August - November, 2003

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The Tajikistan School Connectivity Project for Central Asia is a project of Relief International - Schools Online's Global Citizenship & Youth Philanthropy Program and has been made possible with major funding from the United States State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Global Catalyst Foundation.