Two projects from the Kyrgyz Republic were awarded 2007 Innovation Grants in a Connecting Youth to Work and Citizenship Opportunities Competition.   Both projects are from youth NGOs from the regions of the country.  Representatives of these two NGOs travelled to the Youth Conference in Rome, Italy, on 21-25 May, 2007, to defend their project proposals. 

Project from Issykkul oblast “League of young leaders” by youth organization "Leadership" became one of the 10 finalists and received     5 thousand Euros for project implementation.  Their project aims at civic engagement of youth through creating youth clubs in schools of Karakol, where training sessions will be held on the role of citizens, transparent governance, community-based project design and management, leadership, and public speaking skills for local youth. 

Nazgul Kubakaeva of NGO "Leadership" is happy to become one of the 10 winners.  "It was not easy to compete with strong semi-finalists from countries of Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia".  All projects which made to the final competition in Rome offered interesting and innovative ideas of civic engagement of youth and youth employment.  "We found an announcement of this competition in the local Internet and wrote a proposal" - Nazgul says.  "We have submitted our grant applications to the World Bank a number of times, and finally we won!" 

The other project came from a public fund “Info-Center Rainbow” from Osh.  This youth NGO got 2 thousand Euros to implement their project “Workshops for the Maintenance Service of Mobile Phones”.  This project will involve 20 graduate students of the local technical university, who will be trained in technical skills of cell phone repair and maintenance, as well as business skills such as strategic planning and accounting.  Having gained operational experience, the project participants will train new people, thus providing employment opportunities for youth.  Given the market of mobile phone repair in Osh, this youth NGO expects their project to be a profitable one. 

The Competition was advertised in March in the Kyrgyz Republic.  The Competition was jointly sponsored by NOKIA and the World Bank Small Grants Program.