kazakhstan
Central Asia’s Silk Road—far beyond historic notions of camel caravans lumbering across desert sands—is alive with possibility and opportunity as the crossroads of Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The five republics of Central Asia that emerged from the former Soviet Union are eager to host a new Silk Road of commerce and peaceful development.
REI relaunched in the countries of Central Asia in late 2019, after a brief hiatus. Building on a legacy of REI investment in “building people to build nations” since 1992 in this region, REI’s regional leaders began to expand the work and build the REI team in Kazakhstan, working with universities and schools to bring important training and coaching.
With borders stretching from Russia to China to the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan is the world’s 9th largest country. Its economy and global influence are growing, but large areas remain underdeveloped. REI is making an impact here through a new partnership with ENACTUS Kazakhstan, an organization that teaches social entrepreneurship to young people.
ENACTUS stands for ENtrepreneurial ACTion and US; it’s a network of organizations in 33 countries on six continents. Through ENACTUS, student teams develop entrepreneurial projects that create Prosperity while benefiting People and the Planet. Across all of Kazakhstan’s 17 regions, ENACTUS teams are active in 45 universities, 20 colleges and 74 high schools, involving well over 1,000 students. Each year, Kazakhstan’s teams present their projects before expert judging panels in a spirited, national competition.
How does a relationship grow over time? From knowing about (“info”), to meeting (“intro”), to time together (“invite”), to friendship (“involve”), to relationship (“impact”). This pathway describes the growing relationship between REI and the Kazakh-American Free University (KAFU) in Oskemen, East Kazakhstan.
When the first REI President, Paul Ronka, and I were introduced to what was then the Kazakh-American Business College in 1997, we watched with interest as this “university of international partnership” took shape and grew, while several friends and acquaintances spent short and longer terms there as faculty and visiting professors. One of those professors, Bill Bontrager, who was teaching law at KAFU at the time, eventually became my mentor in all things related to restorative justice, the focus of my PhD work. Bill encouraged me to travel to East Kazakhstan to see the work of KAFU first hand. Later, in 2011, a partner organization working at KAFU invited REI to take over their work there. But the timing wasn’t right, so we watched and waited.