Cholpon, 19, Kyrgyzstan
Basic need(s):
Education
Project:
WE Can Do It!
Cholpon is well aware of the drastic effect poverty has had on the rural areas of the Kyrgyz Republic, her home country. “There is immense lack of water, basic food supplies and stability. They are just trying their best to survive!” Though hearing about it was difficult enough, she decided that she needed to travel and witness these conditions first-hand. What she saw—rancid farms, abused women, children unable to attend school because of the town’s inability to afford one—appalled her. Her response is “WE Can Do It!” an organization whose overall goal is to satisfy all basic human needs. To accomplish this Cholpon and her peers advise impoverished people on how to either start or grow a business and make it financially sustainable in order support themselves. The foundation generally helps women because in the Kyrgyz Republic it is the women who shoulder most of their family’s burdens. Moreover, as a member of the Congress of Women of the Kyrgyz Republic, Cholpon is able to utilize and implement the resources of the largest NGO (non-governmental organization) in her country. In conjunction with the Congress of Women, “WE Can Do It!” is directly responsible for bettering over 300 women’s lives. Mothers and daughters who are abused by their husbands and fathers, or kidnapped, as bride-knapping is still practiced in the Kyrgyz Republic, are sent for psychological evaluations and treatment. She urges you to do something. WE, not I!
