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Success Story
Alumna Applies U.S.-Gained Skills to Benefit Community
Alumna Organizes Camp For Children
U.S. Peace Corps\Melissa Paros
English camp participants and the camp
organizer, USAID study tour alumna,
Anara Zhakupova (second from right).
“The USAID Community
Connections Program not
only gave me a chance to
visit the United States, but
also, helped me join two
different cultures - people
from East Kazakhstani
village Pervomaiskiy
and people from Tucson,
Arizona,” said Anara
Zhakupova.
When she embarked on a USAID Community Connections study
tour to the United States, Anara Zhakupova couldn’t imagine the
impact the program would have on her life. The skills and contacts
gained allowed her to create a new English-language program
for at-risk youth in her village of Pervomaiskiy in the Northeast
Kazakhstan Region.
Zhakupova says she returned home from the U.S., “charged with
the energy that I did not have before, to develop outstanding
cultural and education projects in my village.”
While in the U.S., Zhakupova participated in study-tour sessions
on topics important to community leaders as well as practical visits
to U.S. organizations. She also had invaluable interactions with her
Tucson, Arizona, host family.
When she returned to Kazakhstan, Zhakupova immediately went
to work and developed a two-year language and cultural exchange
weekend/summer school for 25 rural Kazakhstani children who
would not otherwise have the means to access such training.
Study-tour training sessions on topics such as “Financial
Development: Fundraising and Friend-raising” and discussions
with organizations, such as a Tucson group that runs a camp for
at-risk children, helped Zhakupova develop a successful proposal
for funding for her organization’s summer camp.
With the help of her U.S. host family, Zhakupova recruited
two retired teachers from Arizona who volunteered to come
to Pervomaiskiy and teach at the two-week intensive English language
summer camp. The program was a resounding success,
and Zhakupova is working to secure funding that will allow for
broader participation in the future.
Meanwhile, students in the program have already felt the impact
of Zhakupova’s work. Alena Suikanen, a 15-year-old student
said about the program: “Some people think that you never catch
happiness, and others try to find it in money, but for me, to be
happy is to enjoy spending time with others and learn something
new from them. The English summer camp was a very happy time
for me.”
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