Alpine Update #3
February/March 2003
We would like to extend a warm welcome to all that subscribed to the Alpine Update.
We will continue to send stories and descriptions of our work that we hope interest and inspire.
This February the Alpine Fund held a three day hike into Ala Archa National Park for 10 youth from Voenna Antonovka Children's Home along with 3 participants of the Alpine Youth Guide program. During the expedition there was a hike to a nearby peak, a discussion about narcotics lead by Oxana, our Alpine intern, as well as an ecology program led by our Alpine volunteer Volodya. The expedition was also an introduction to how mountains inspire youth for Erling, our intern from Norway. On the website at the above link there are photos of the journey, as well as trip reports, and a Fairy Tale of what happens when a Norwegian visits the mountains with kids from a far away land.
Ryan Schuchard - Helping bring change
Ryan is a Peace Corps Volunteer that is based at a local university in Bishkek, but is a driving force for building the Alpine Fund into a sustainable organization, a goal that we are approaching, but have yet to achieve. Ryan has been very active in building the Alpine Zone website as well as developing the 'Alpine Youth Guides' program. He wrote a short report on his first two months at the Alpine Fund which illuminates some of the work we do and the challenges we face. He also took time to reflect on his first trip with the Alpine Fund, when he participated in the winter camp in Ala Archa National Park. Follow the above link to read his report.
The Alpine Youth Guides is a program that is still in its infancy, but is growing and the participants are already prepared to work with clients. The participants worked with us while in the children's home and now study at a technical school. They have been training each week at the local climbing wall in Bishkek as well as taking English lessons run by the Alpine Fund. We recently added to the program several kids that are leaving an orphanage this year, hoping to ease their adjustment to life on their own. The Alpine Fund invites anybody that lives in Bishkek to join them on a Sunday afternoon for a chance to climb the indoor wall. All equipment is provided and the price is only 100 som ($2) for an afternoon. Any money we make goes directly back into the program. Please contact us for more information
Russian version of the website
The Russian version of the website has seen a lot of work over the past month, our web designer and English teacher Farida has put a lot of effort into adding current information and updating events. Please take a look if you are a Russian speaker. There are also four new volunteers that are helping with translations from Russian to English and English to Russian. We will be having a training with volunteers during the first week in March and three will be chosen to teach classes at Voenna Antonovka Children's Home.
Intern program
The Alpine Fund has introduced a formal volunteer
intern program targeted largely at college students from the US and Europe. We
have had several interns in the past and it has turned out to be very
beneficial to both the Alpine Fund and the Interns. The Alpine Fund arranges
but does not pay for housing and transportation. We then build a program based
upon the needs and interests of our youth, and the wishes of the potential
intern.
Osh office
On February 23rd was held a sport competition at the Uch Korgon Children's home south of Osh. The competition included a total of 35 children. Details will be available soon on the website. We also want to welcome our new volunteer, Ilgiz, in Osh. Ilgiz spent one year on a high school exchange with a US government sponsored ACCELS exchange program and now has offered to help the office and hopefully will soon teach English at the children's home. (Our Osh staff this month was hit hard by the flu so they asked for more time to get info on the internet.)
Editors note:
We had a good month at the Alpine Fund, there is a real spirit in the office that we are seeing progress with the kids. In Bishkek in general it was a hard month, everybody seems to be sick with the flu and many times classes were cancelled or very few showed up, but that is the time of year. All are waiting for the warm air of spring and with it the chance to once again hike in just light clothes and to take a trip to the Botanical Garden to have an ecology lesson in the warm sun and to see what plants rise from the earth.
At the Alpine Fund we are trying hard to keep site of our larger goals, which in addition to helping youth today is to help develop tourism development and the economy for tomorrow. But as the possibilities for hostilities in Iraq seem more possible with each passing day we worry not only for the citizens of Iraq, but how this will affect citizens around the world. For us it means that the struggling tourism sector will face a hard summer as potential climbers and hikers will choose not to leave the familiar of Europe and America. In Kyrgyzstan this means that experienced guides will have trouble finding work, and our new trainees will not even have a chance. But we need to be optimistic, to believe that tourism is a future engine of growth and a real possibility for our kids. By maintaining the Alpine Zone which provides up to date information and by spreading the world that the mountains here are a truly unique resource in the world, perhaps we can convince some to come to the region regardless of world events.
For your information this update is being sent to all parts of the world, from South America to Vietnam to Moscow, Washington DC, England, Norway, Nepal and the list goes on. For now the Update is just a description of what is happening in a little NGO in Kyrgyzstan, but hopefully with time the Update could be a larger forum for youth, environmental, development, and tourism issues not just from the Alpine Fund, but from other individuals and organizations. It will keep the same format, a short description of what new links there are on the website where a full description can be found, and we welcome submissions, comments, and your ideas. I think what makes the Update special is the honestly of it, this is not an attempt to give theoretical papers or describe the positive result of yet another conference, instead simply a small slice of life from our part of the world.
As I send this to a community of about 100 people around the globe that choose to subscribe to the Update, I want thank you for your interest. Of course I want the community to grow, so if you know somebody that might be interested please forward this on, I do not promise instant love and fortune if you forward it to 10 people, but it might make our small community a little bit larger, and a little more diverse.
Thanks again, and as always, we hope to see you in the mountains.
Garth Willis
Editor - Alpine Update
Contact information for the Alpine Fund:
Office Emails:
info@alpinefund.org – For all questions and comments
zone@alpinefund.org – For mountain and tourism related questions
osh@alpinefund.org – For the office in Osh
garth@alpinefund.org – President of the Fund and editor of the update
Regular mail:
In the USA
Alpine Fund
PO BOX 583192
MPLS. MN
55458-3192
In Kyrgyzstan
The Alpine fund
2 Erkindik Blvd. #262
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
720000
996 (312) 66-55-67, 22-76-98
To subscribe to the Alpine Fund Update send a blank email to subscribe@alpinefund.org
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The visit the Alpine Fund Update archive, go to www.alpinefund.org/updates
Thanks for you interest and we hope to see you in the mountains!
Garth Willis
Editor – Alpine Update
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