The cold winter morning of January 11, 2011 has brought great happiness to inhabitants of “Aralbay Nasir” community of “Kenes” village, Chimbay district. One of their cherished wishes – construction of a new primary school building for 40 pupils has been finished thanks to support of the UNDP “Area Based Development (ABD)” project.

“Aralbay Nasir” community, where there are 284 people in 42 families is located 25 km away from the district center. In January 2009, ABD project specialists visited “Aralbay Nasir” community for the first time, with the purpose to identify existing priorities in the community and assist in preparing a community development plan (CDP), where the construction of a primary school building for the children had been raised as the most priority issue.

The number of primary schoolchildren in this community is 40 people. However, the nearest school is located in the neighboring village territory 4 km far away, which causes difficulties both for the children and their parents, especially during the winter. In addition, the school itself is in a critical condition – there is no heating system and the building should be heated with coal. Nevertheless, there is often a lack of coal. In spite of the fact that the building was constructed in 60-ies, the last major renovation works were done 15 year ago.

Aybazar Seytnazarov, a respected old person in the community and leader of initiative group, expressed his opinion the following way: “… we must join our efforts and use ABD project support to build the school. However, we realize that nobody can help us to do it but ourselves. We are mostly interested in this”.

Thus, the school construction was started in autumn 2011 and the location was identified by the representatives of district Khokimiyat and Project specialists. By joining efforts, it was possible to solve a large number of issues within two months: delivery of a part of necessary construction materials, providing manpower, food and accommodation for workers, etc. It is important to particularly mention the role of the district Khokimiyat and Education department, which, based on the previous positive experience, provided all the necessary support and school furniture as well as other supplies.

The school opening ceremony took place on January 11, 2011 with participation of local community people and all other partners, which were involved in the project implementation. Community people link the combination of figures “11” (which is 11 day of January, and the year of 2011) with luck and happiness: their long-standing dream came true on that day. As for the ABD project, this event has become another step towards the achievement of one of MDGs: “Improve the quality of education in primary and secondary schools”.
 

For information: UNDP “Area Based Development” (ABD) project has been already financing construction of the third school in Chimbay district. This was possible thanks to active community mobilization and involvement of partners at the district level. The total project amount is more than 38 mln soums, including 45,5% input of the community and other partners.