Focus on boosting youth development through mountaineering

American Garth Willis came to Kyrgyzstan to climb mountains. During his first visit in 1995, he remembers being troubled by how few young mountaineers he met. Most were older, and few novices were learning the skill. Shortly thereafter, Willis saw the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) documentary entitled "Rabbits Sitting on a Fence" about at-risk youth in Kyrgyzstan. Convinced by this that something needed to be done, Willis returned to his native Minnesota and applied for a US State Department grant to explore "youth mountaineering to help troubled teenagers". "Boom!" he said three years later. "They went for it right away." The result is the Alpine Fund, a UN-supported programme in Kyrgyzstan that takes advantage of the fact that nearly 95 percent of the country is mountainous. The Fund’s primary aim is to build the self-confidence of a few hundred of Kyrgyzstan’s nearly 7,000 institutionalised children by teaching them about mountaineering and related life skills. Through its unique approach, the organisation seeks to give young people some hope for the future, as well as ideas about what they can do with their lives after they leave state institutions like orphanages and detention centres. Armed with a seven-month, US $7,000 personal grant for his own research, and with the realisation that only an organisation could get funding for a project like this, Willis established the Alpine Fund in 2000. He turned to the international community for funding, and that year UNICEF granted the group $22,000. He has led it as a 20-hour per week volunteer ever since. The Alpine Fund's stated mission is to develop the "academic, spiritual, and ecological awareness" of its climbers. It operates under the principle that working with at-risk children while they are still in the care of the state is critical. In a country where the real unemployment rate is estimated at nearly three times the official 6 to 7 percent figure, children who leave these institutions without the necessary skills to survive are more likely to go directly to the streets. "While it is difficult to measure the long-term impacts [after just two years]", says Laura Broone, a social worker at the Centre for the Protection of Children in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, "the [Alpine] volunteers and staff members are very enthusiastic, and the camps are especially helpful to the kids, building their confidence and teaching them essential life and social skills." Because the local tourism industry is in need of professional guides, the group has consistently been challenged to decide whether it is to be a guide-training programme or a social programme providing hope and training citizens. It started out as the former, but after discovering that many of the most needy and promising children were not those with inherent climbing abilities, the Fund gradually began to shift its focus toward confidence-building, life-skills training, and citizen development. Recent circumstances have forced it to consider becoming both, in order to keep the Fund financially stable while pursuing its developmental goals. "Hiking was not enough," Willis said recently. "These kids didn't even know what their future would be." The Alpine Fund provides help on several fronts simultaneously. Its most unique facet is its training and confidence-building programme. "We train three times a week," says 18-year-old Oksana Polonskaya, "running eight to 10 km, doing push-ups and sit-ups, and participating in other team games." Around 30 children regularly come to these exercises to prepare for the weekend hikes. There are always more children who want to go than there is available space, and Willis often laments that only 10 to 15 children can take part in any given outing. "Whom do you choose?" he asks. "Everyone is so motivated." This past year, the main climbing programme - called Clouds at their Feet - took 20 children on the traditional 1 May climb to the summit of peak Komsomolsk (4,200 metres) at the Ala-Archa national park 45 km from Bishkek. This was the first time that children from institutions had participated in such a climb, and every one of them made it to the summit. At the mention of this, the children’s eyes light up, and their memories are full of enthusiasm and pride. "It was a victory," Parizat Kasimova, a 16-year-old climber, said proudly. "Getting to the top made us all feel very special." Polonskaya talks of "something new appearing in our minds and souls. Routine problems didn’t seem so important for any of us once we reached the top. We felt like stronger people! Nirvana!" The Alpine Fund’s team was the youngest on the mountain, and it was the first time the children had climbed with other adults. "We were not working as individuals, but as a team," says Polonskaya. "They all had matching jackets," Willlis remembers, "and worked very well as a team - at least as good if not much better than ‘regular’ kids." The next day, the president of the Kyrgyz Mountaineering Federation gave the youngsters certificates of achievement, and publicly lauded them. In time, Willis noticed that many of these children were having trouble in school, and that hiking alone might only have a limited impact. In response, the Fund established Alpine Clubs made up of competitively selected university students who volunteered to teach English, Russian, Kyrgyz, and mathematics at the institutions being attended by the children. Akunova Aijamal, a computer engineering student at the Ataturk-Ala Too international university and one of 17 Alpine Club volunteers, says her main goal is to inspire self confidence in the children, as well as to help them become successful by "trusting themselves and their strength". The We are Equal programme is a component of the Alpine Clubs which works with young male convicts in the Voznesenovka prison colony, about an hour from Bishkek in Kyrgystan’s Panfilov region. Many of the colony’s 200 teenage boys have participated in classes and sporting events organised and led by Alpine Fund volunteers. These help the children re-enter society by increasing their self-esteem through providing role models and sponsoring artistic activities. In partnership with UNICEF, the Alpine Fund has also developed the Youth in Care Network, which concentrates on civic training for children about to leave state institutions. The programme brings together youngsters from various children's homes for educational trips, seminars on HIV/ AIDS, and hikes. "The skills and confidence that these kids get from hiking in the mountains are very important for their future," explains Marianne Ohlers, the assistant project officer at UNICEF responsible for the Fund. Training, climbing, and learning with other children, she says, "gives them the communication, negotiation, and survival skills" every child must possess to become a responsible adult. The Alpine Fund's summer camp is the programme which brings together all the others. Here, children from different institutions gain the opportunity to meet one another, learn about nature, and just be themselves. Seventy-three children from institutions in Bishkek came to the camp on the shore of Lake Ysyk-Kol last summer for 11 days each. This year, the Fund expects to have camps in the north and south of the country, with a total of 117 children participating. Personnel, financial and strategic challenges now loom for Willis and the Fund. One of his major goals since the inception has been to develop the staff so that they can manage the Fund if and when he decides to leave Kyrgyzstan. After two rounds of financing, UNICEF's rules prohibit it from funding Willis’ overall project again, and it is in the process of looking for additional donors. The Fund has often explored the possibility of returning to its original mission as a guide-training school, though it is hesitant to sacrifice those who have benefited and will benefit from its social programmes. Scholarship funds for disadvantaged youth in an otherwise tuition-based school is one option, as is providing revenue-generating guide-training programmes only during the popular summer months, when the schools are on vacation. In-fighting between rival Kyrgyz tourism companies may hinder some of these plans, but Willis still regards the country's mountains as a potential job market for motivated youths looking for work above the clouds. A challenge for the Fund is to make that connection between the needs of the children, and the future needs of the tourism industry.