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Kyrgyzstan

Financial services and vocational opportunities for youth are helping to ease this former Soviet republic's transition to independence.

Photo: Colin Spurway/Mercy Corps

The 1991 breakdown of the Soviet Union left Central Asia reeling. By 2000, political transitions in Kyrgyzstan led to economic collapse even as a weak post-Soviet civil society slowed the prospects of recovery. Mercy Corps is bringing communities together in a new spirit of cooperation. We are helping build healthy, financially stable households by providing access to much-needed resources like grants and credit for small businesses. Our initiatives support the creation of productive, sustainable jobs for youth through apprenticeships. The programme also helps entrepreneurs — like this beekeeper — reap the sweet rewards of their hard work.

Blog Post:  Getting creative with nutrition for Kyrgyz kindergarteners  ›

Topics: Food/Nutrition, Education, Children

The small kitchen bustles with activity as cooks from local kindergartens crowd around the counter dicing and slicing meats and vegetables for soups and salads.

Blog Post:  Microfinance and development in Kyrgyzstan ›

Topics: Microfinance, Financial Services, Economic Development

Kompanion News is a newsletter distributed in Kyrgyzstan to highlight the development work that Kompanion, one of Mercy Corps’ microfinance institutions, undertakes in the country.

Blog Post:  Kyrgyzstan: A confluence of crisis ›

Topics: Migrants, Marginalized Groups, Hunger, Food/Nutrition, Emergencies

In Kyrgyzstan, Mercy Corps recently begun a food distribution programme in coordination with the World Food Programme: the first such programme in more than ten years in this former Soviet republic.

Leaving a Blooming Legacy ›

Topics: Agriculture, Economic Development, Rural

Bukabaev Sabyrbek owned a piece of land along Kyrgyzstan's Lake Issyk-Kul that lay fallow for many years. Mercy Corps gave him the know-how and loaned him the money to make it productive.

Apple Festival Unites Villages of Southern Issyk-Kul ›

Topics: Agriculture

On October 10, 2008, the Association of Orchardists and the Gardens and Plastics (GAP) project held the Third Annual Apple Festival in the village of Kyzyl-Tuu on the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyz Republic

Building Furniture and a Foundation ›

Topics: Economic Development

The sound of saws - and the hope for prosperity - has returned to the heart of Kyrgyzstan's Ferghana Valley.

Video:  Teaching Street Kids a Lesson ›

Topics: Education, Children

In Kyrgyzstan, it is estimated that between 2,000 to 15,000 children work in order to help support their families economically. Most of these children do not go to school regularly.

Helping Quake Survivors ›

Topics: Emergencies

Mercy Corps is helping house families left homeless after an Oct. 5 earthquake struck Kyrgyzstan's mountainous Alai Region.

The Apple Project Video ›

Topics: Microfinance, Agriculture

A nine-minute video on Mercy Corps' programme to help farmers grow better varieties of apples and to increase their financial independence in one of Central Asia's poorest countries.

Aziz: Welding His Way to Work ›

Topics: Economic Development

Few jobs are easy to find in the Ferghana Valley. But apprenticeships can improve the odds.

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Kyrgyzstan Facts

  • Population (2008): 5.3 million
  • Size: 86th largest country
  • Human Development Index rank: 122 (out of 179)
  • Mercy Corps has worked there since 1994
  • Primary work: Feeding schoolchildren, establishing youth mentorship programmes, providing loans and market assistance to household apple farmers
  • Year of independence: 1991
  • Average yearly income: £1,000
  • Unemployment rate: 18 percent
  • Percentage of workforce in agriculture: 55
  • Number of loans disbursed by Kompanion microfinance bank: 102,000+ (Mixmarket.org)

Program Details

Mercy Corps programs in Kyrgyzstan invest in the country's development by providing financial services and business advice, improving education and vocational opportunities for youth, and establishing a framework for equitable and broad-based economic progress.

Read more ›

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