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Where we do it > Case Study - Seamus Bennett
VSO Kazakhstan is promoting eco tourism through its Secure Livelihoods goal, why tourism?
Although Kazakhstan is developing rapidly, there is increasing inequality and the rural areas are being left behind so we see tourism as a way of providing these communities with an income.
What are the challenges of promoting tourism in Kazakhstan
It isn’t a high profile, well-known international destination and doesn’t have a great image so there’s a lack of available information about what the country can offer. Also the country is enormous and the distances and the remoteness of some locations is a real challenge. Also because of the Soviet-era legacy there is not a culture of community participation so there has been a top down approach from the government that has resulted in the attempted development of some inappropriate activities, such as hunting.
So how is VSO supporting tourism?
VSO advocates a bottom-up approach to tourism development and we’ve played an important role in establishing real community based, small-scale tourism. Our volunteers are helping to develop quality home stay accommodation and passing on skills in areas such as marketing and standards monitoring.
You use a lot of short term volunteers in Kazakhstan don’t you?
Yes, we’ve used them particularly successfully in our Health and Social Well-Being work, which focuses on training social workers and families in skills needed for the treatment of children with disabilities. For example we have a volunteer physiotherapist who is delivering a two-year training programme in stages. She will deliver a two-week course and then return four to six months later to deliver the next part of the course and assess how local colleagues are implementing previous training.
What are the main development challenges facing Kazakhstan?
One of the main development issues for a country like Kazakhstan is attitude and having a more open-minded approach to development and to life in general. The main hope for Kazakhstan is in its young generation, which is why Youth for Development volunteers play such a vital role in our work. They can really open minds amongst their peers Kazakhstan.
So what next for VSO Kazakhstan?
Over the last three or four years there has been very rapid economic growth and the government has allowed enough of this to trickle down so that even in rural areas, life is slowly getting better for the majority. We’ll close our programme in September next year. I think it’s appropriate for us to close as I see increasing strength and confidence in the local institutions and our partners. We’ve worked with key people and they’re moving forward with skills that have come through our volunteers and they’re in a position to work on their own.
What will be VSO Kazakhstan’s legacy?
I think our main legacy will be in the social work area because the needs of vulnerable groups is now on the national agenda. There is a critical mass of awareness and confidence about what can be achieved and people themselves are starting to speak up for their rights. VSO has played a role in guiding partners through a period when they’re just trying out new approaches to disability and starting to talk about the universal declaration of human rights. This support will be our main legacy.
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