Proactive life position is the path to leadership

Cholponai Talantbek kyzy is 27 and she is one of the most proactive residents of Talas. She passed an internship at Talas town hall, worked in projects dedicated to people with disabilities, reducing the "racketeering" in schools and other socially significant initiatives.

In December 2021, she decided to apply to the Young Leaders Mentorship program of the Yntymaktuu Zhashoo (Living in Peace) project. Participants of Young Leaders Mentorship program are representatives of each region of the country aged 18 to 28, with active lifestyle, the skills to work with young people and the desire to change life in their communities for the better.

"It has always been interesting for me to work with young people. When I saw the announcement of the competition under the Young Leaders Mentorship program, I applied immediately, then successfully passed the interview. I really wanted to learn how to express my thoughts in public properly and help the participants to open up," Cholponai says.

After the competition, Cholponai, like other mentor leaders, passed training in leadership, facilitating and organizing events and conflict sensitivity. Mentor leaders are responsible for organizing and conducting youth discussion clubs throughout the country.

"The discussion clubs of the Ynymaktuu Zhashoo project helped me a lot: there I learned how to ask questions correctly, disclose the topic of the discussion clearly, formulate my thoughts in a correct manner and make the participants of the discussion feel as comfortable as possible," Cholponai says.

Discussion clubs of the Yntymaktuu Zhashoo project are aimed at developing a civic position, discussion skills and critical thinking among young people. In total 5 rounds of discussion clubs were held across the country on the topics of media literacy, prevention of violence in the family and society, volunteerism, civic activism, and peacebuilding. Within 6 months, more than 1,000 young people visited discussion clubs in more than 7 towns and cities of Kyrgyzstan. During the discussion clubs held in the Talas oblast, Cholponai, as a leader mentor, was able to reach out for more than 200 people, which helped her improve her skills in facilitating discussions, public speaking and her own leadership qualities.

“I can confidently say that after these discussions, our participants learned to think differently, found like-minded people. One of the active participants of the discussion club is currently holding discussion clubs at her school!” - Cholponai shares.

Future plans after the completion of Young Leaders Mentorship program

Cholponai plans to continue to engage in social projects, as according to her, her mission is to change people's lives for the better.

"Now I am leading meetings of a group of mutual assistance to maintain mental health for young people aged 16 to 28. Absolutely any person in various situations in life can participate in this mutual assistance group, and our goal is to make the participants understand that they are not alone. For this task, I needed exactly the skills that I acquired in the process of facilitating discussion clubs. Now I am experienced in holding events, and the most important - when conducting a discussion with participants, I help them answer questions that they were unable to answer themselves," Cholponai says.

International Alert, together with Development Policy Institute and the National Mediation Center, is implementing the Yntymaktuu Zhashoo (Living in Peace) project. The project is being implemented with the support of the European Union.