Today’s blog post comes from Perry Teicher, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Kazakhstan from 2007-2009.  This is the third of five posts about his Peace Corps service.  Be sure to read the first and second posts.

As my host organization, the “Society for the Protection of Paralyzed Citizens of Aktobe” started the Volunteer Club: DAR, I realized that there was very little national infrastructure for volunteerism development in Kazakhstan.  Individual organizations in cities across the country had begun to see the value formal volunteer structures can add to existing organizations.  A handful of organizations had started that utilized volunteerism as a tool of community and youth development.  In addition, a few organizations in the main cities had started with the goal of building a national volunteerism infrastructure.  Even before the financial crisis hit Kazakhstan, however, these organizations scaled back their activities, focusing primarily on Almaty (the economic center and former capital) and the nearby towns.  For a city, like Aktobe, 43 hours by train from that economic center, this was of minimal help.

I saw that this would be an excellent opportunity to serve as a catalyst for bringing together activists from across the country to focus specifically on practical steps and strategies of volunteerism development in Kazakhstan.  As a “developing country”, many international organizations have spent millions of dollars focused solely on volunteerism growth and produced copious amounts of manuals and trainings, designed to foster a spirit of community service in Kazakhstan.  Much of this work was successful, as evident by the number of organizations working on volunteerism throughout the country.  However, the national connectivity had fallen away, leaving no network for individuals and organizations focused on this sector to work together, share ideas and best practices, and learn from each other.

It seemed a nationwide opportunity for individuals and organizations involved in volunteerism development would be well-received.  Along with a team of local activists and Peace Corps Volunteers, we planned a conference on volunteerism development.  We began the process by conducting a survey of organizations working with volunteers or on volunteerism from across the country.  Before we devoted the time, energy, and resources to the conference, we wanted to be sure a need and desire existed.  After the survey, we developed three main goals for the seminar:

1)  Provide opportunity for organizations to share experiences in organizing volunteers and learn from each other

2)  Develop a handbook to communicate the lessons in the shared experience of conference attendees to other organizations and individuals

3)  Create a network to provide continued communication between organizations involved with volunteerism development in Kazakhstan

Five months later, we had over 60 participants from 30 organizations across Kazakhstan together in Almaty for an interactive and participant-led seminar on volunteerism development.  The conference was arranged in a mix of presentations and open format sessions, with the intent that participants could learn more from interaction with each other than from presenters giving speeches.  One part of this process was the division of participants into groups to write chapter of the handbook.  Following the conference, the initiative committee edited and published version one of the “Kazakhstan Volunteerism Handbook.”  The handbook was then distributed across Kazakhstan in hardcopy as well as an online and pdf version.

The handbook and seminar were never meant to be the final step in the process, but only the first part of a rebirth of volunteerism in Kazakhstan.  In the past year, the Kazakhstani government initiated a process to develop a national volunteerism strategy and invited members of this initiative group to consult and participate on the process.  In addition, a new version of the handbook is currently being compiled, to reflect the continuing changing dynamics of the volunteerism movement in Kazakhstan.

Perry Teicher is the Repair the World Fellow, 2010-2011.  He served in Peace Corps Kazakhstan (2007-2009).  Feel free to e-mail him at .