On August 12–16, the “School of MSM and TG Leaders” was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The objectives of this training were: to mobilize and increase the visibility of the community in the country; to create cohesion of the community itself; to create a tolerant attitude of the general population towards LGBT people.
More than 20 novice activists from different parts of Kazakhstan got new knowledge and skills to create a safe environment, maintain health and to improve the quality of life of LGBT people in the country.
“This is one of the best training I attended because it is not just a lecture but real master classes and personal experience of successful people’’ says one of the participants of the School. Indeed, the presenters – Amir Shaykezhanov – editor of www.kok.team and Elena German – program director of the Eurasian Coalition on Male Health www.ecom.ngo shared their professional experience.
The world is changing rapidly and today the most creative and innovative thinking leaders are pushing forward. The training itself and the presentation of the material were very unusual. From the beginning, the group was immersed in a creative trance – the participants were declared heroes of the Game of Thrones universe. “Five houses” – five groups of participants were engaged in the development of their unique projects for implementation in their regions. “Video blog to increase visibility”, “Community centers to support the LGBT community”, “Live libraries for anti-discrimination of HIV-positive MSM within the community”, “Improving HIV literacy among the LGBT community”, “Legal protection of the LGBT community” – during “The School” all these projects have gone all the way from the origin of the idea to a completed project application for receiving funding from the event organizers – AFEW Kazakhstan.
“We could not choose the best or most relevant topic, since all topics are important for the community,” admitted Roman Dudnik, chairman of the jury, director of AFEW Kazakhstan. As a result, the jury members – representatives of AFEW Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstan Union of PLHIV – decided to finance all projects. Teams are ready and are going to start in September.
