September 5-7, 2007
These past couple of days we have begun discussing the community projects and after-school projects that we will work on during PST as a part of our training for similar projects during our permanent assignments. This of course led to many lectures on the idea of development, what it means for the Peace Corps and what it means for Kazakhstan. For the Peace Corps, development means working with an interested host country parties to help them build capacity and improve their communities. We all began to rattle off some ideas for projects that we would love to do, but then were brought back down to earth by the cold hard facts successful development projects, community interest, sustainability, and material resources.
The most important issue of a development project is, of course, community involvement, because even if the project has the potential to be a long-term success and you have tons of money at your disposal, if the community you are serving is not in interested in what you are doing, the project will never get off the ground. Even though we are working hard to integrate ourselves into the community, PCVs are still outsiders and, the biggest danger that PCVs face as they begin to work on a project is the temptation to impose our own standards or biases. For example, given the trash that is all over the place in Kazakhstan, one might be tempted to engage in an environmental education project to get people to stop burning their trash and littering and start recycling. However, this probably is not a priority for community, and for that matter there are no recycling centers to take the garbage even if it was.
Sustainability is also an important consideration when planning a project. At the end of the day we are only going to be in the country for two years, but hopefully by the time we have left we have set the foundation for work that can be continued for several more years by the community. For this reason, the Peace Corps often suggests English Clubs or computer training as a secondary project, with the thought that once you have sufficiently trained a group of students, they in turn can continue the training of new people after you have left. That said, it can be a major chore to get the Director’s permission to begin computer training in the first place, but theoretically at least, once it gets started it can easily be kept going indefinitely.
Finally, a particularly important concern in a Peace Corps project is material resources, or lack thereof. The Peace Corps provides no funds for community projects, be they camp or an anti-smoking campaign, which I imagine severely stifles the imaginations of some of the most ambitious volunteers. To go back to the example of computer training, the community might be all for it, but if there are not enough computers are they are too old and obsolete, you are screwed. Camps and Clubs are great because all you need is a group of kids and perhaps a room, but if you want your English Club to put on a play at the end of term, you have to get creative in order to secure a set or costumes.
These more practical considerations have not been the only thing going through my head as I think of community development projects. I also find myself simply thinking about what exactly development means for Kazakhstan. Even though Kazakhstan may technically be a developing nation, the term is not one I would immediately use to describe it. When one hears developing nation one more readily thinks of a third world country in Africa or Asia struggling to secure basic necessities for its people, not a rapidly modernizing nation rich in natural resources. Granted, there are many aspects of life in Kazakhstan that make it a developing nation, such as a lack of paved roads, few homes with running water much less indoor plumbing, and major problem with trash, but there are also many things about Kazakhstan that makes one realize that it is the most successful of the former soviet states and is rapidly modernizing. For instance, while few people have telephones in their houses, that is because most have simply “leapfrogged” and have very nice cellular or even satellite phones. Furthermore, while the villages may still be back in the early 20th century, Almaty and Astana are booming metropolises. Such dichotomy between developed and undeveloped makes things somewhat difficult when planning the project, but fortunately, since we are pretty much solely operating in the villages, we do not have to think too much about the more modern Kazakhstan, and can simply focus on the part that still needs our help.
These past couple of days we have begun discussing the community projects and after-school projects that we will work on during PST as a part of our training for similar projects during our permanent assignments. This of course led to many lectures on the idea of development, what it means for the Peace Corps and what it means for Kazakhstan. For the Peace Corps, development means working with an interested host country parties to help them build capacity and improve their communities. We all began to rattle off some ideas for projects that we would love to do, but then were brought back down to earth by the cold hard facts successful development projects, community interest, sustainability, and material resources.
The most important issue of a development project is, of course, community involvement, because even if the project has the potential to be a long-term success and you have tons of money at your disposal, if the community you are serving is not in interested in what you are doing, the project will never get off the ground. Even though we are working hard to integrate ourselves into the community, PCVs are still outsiders and, the biggest danger that PCVs face as they begin to work on a project is the temptation to impose our own standards or biases. For example, given the trash that is all over the place in Kazakhstan, one might be tempted to engage in an environmental education project to get people to stop burning their trash and littering and start recycling. However, this probably is not a priority for community, and for that matter there are no recycling centers to take the garbage even if it was.
Sustainability is also an important consideration when planning a project. At the end of the day we are only going to be in the country for two years, but hopefully by the time we have left we have set the foundation for work that can be continued for several more years by the community. For this reason, the Peace Corps often suggests English Clubs or computer training as a secondary project, with the thought that once you have sufficiently trained a group of students, they in turn can continue the training of new people after you have left. That said, it can be a major chore to get the Director’s permission to begin computer training in the first place, but theoretically at least, once it gets started it can easily be kept going indefinitely.
Finally, a particularly important concern in a Peace Corps project is material resources, or lack thereof. The Peace Corps provides no funds for community projects, be they camp or an anti-smoking campaign, which I imagine severely stifles the imaginations of some of the most ambitious volunteers. To go back to the example of computer training, the community might be all for it, but if there are not enough computers are they are too old and obsolete, you are screwed. Camps and Clubs are great because all you need is a group of kids and perhaps a room, but if you want your English Club to put on a play at the end of term, you have to get creative in order to secure a set or costumes.
These more practical considerations have not been the only thing going through my head as I think of community development projects. I also find myself simply thinking about what exactly development means for Kazakhstan. Even though Kazakhstan may technically be a developing nation, the term is not one I would immediately use to describe it. When one hears developing nation one more readily thinks of a third world country in Africa or Asia struggling to secure basic necessities for its people, not a rapidly modernizing nation rich in natural resources. Granted, there are many aspects of life in Kazakhstan that make it a developing nation, such as a lack of paved roads, few homes with running water much less indoor plumbing, and major problem with trash, but there are also many things about Kazakhstan that makes one realize that it is the most successful of the former soviet states and is rapidly modernizing. For instance, while few people have telephones in their houses, that is because most have simply “leapfrogged” and have very nice cellular or even satellite phones. Furthermore, while the villages may still be back in the early 20th century, Almaty and Astana are booming metropolises. Such dichotomy between developed and undeveloped makes things somewhat difficult when planning the project, but fortunately, since we are pretty much solely operating in the villages, we do not have to think too much about the more modern Kazakhstan, and can simply focus on the part that still needs our help.
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