Our Stories

Extra Special Education

“Samuel” entered the world with cerebral palsy. When he was about 12 years old, his family sent him to stay at the state institution for children with disabilities. Like most children with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan, Samuel received no education even though he has no clear cognitive disability. However, volunteers with CDI recognized Samuel’s potential, and […]

Connections Keep Going

At the age of 20, “Marina” was too old to live in the Jalalabad institution for disabled children. But she has no family, and her cognitive disabilities make her incapable of living on her own. It was time for Marina to leave the home she had known for years and go to the institution for […]

Therapeutic Friendship

“Lisa” felt very cautious of the enormous animals at the horse therapy stable. After all, she was small to begin with, and the cerebral palsy she lives with made it hard for her to feel secure on the horses. The CDI horse therapy staff worked really hard to get Lisa on the horse safely, but […]

Quarantine Education

When nationwide shut-down for Covid-19 hit Kyrgyzstan, CDI staff Nurgul knew she had to find something for the special education teachers she leads to do. So she turned the work furlough into a massive training time. Nurgul made contact with an American special education teacher and organized bi-weekly training sessions over Zoom. The Kyrgyz teachers […]

Help for Food Insecurity

How do you change people and communities when you can’t go near them? When the government of Kyrgyzstan forbade gathering in groups of more than 3 and traveling more than 1.5 kilometres from home, CDI staff felt stymied and depressed. We talked with friends who struggled to get necessary food for their families, but didn’t […]

Influence!

In April, staff from CDI’s Jalalabad office attended a meeting with city officials, other NGOs, and local press to coordinate food distribution efforts for citizens affected by the pandemic shutdown. After the meeting, while CDI staff were discussing the meeting and preparing to leave, the top official in the government humanitarian program approached the group. […]

Restored relationships

At one of our health seminars there was a women attending we’ll call “Noor”. Noor had been engaging in a conflict with a neighbour woman for years now. We as CDI aim to bring holistic health to communities in Kyrgyzstan. That involve addressing issues of both physical and relational health. During one of our health […]

Heating and saving

“Golda” was surviving. After her husband died, she and her daughter got by with her pension and a little help from her grown son. But it was a burden to keep the house warm in the winter. CDI worked in Golda’s village as they were producing a video to show communities how to produce more […]

Learning New Skills

Meet Madina, she’s been living in a Chidren’s home most of her life. She’s only left the Children’s home a few times on special occasions, until recently. One of our goals is to help the more capable children from the Children’s Home to get integrated into society and learn useful skills. Medina had the chance […]

Thanksgiving Fall

Lately the children in the children’s home have been learning a lot of new things. They’re attending school classes, handy craft lessons and basic life-skills lessons. We are so proud of them and want to let everyone know what they’ve learned these past months. That’s why we decided to throw a party, a Fall party. […]

Walking in Kara Suu

Turaim is 6 years old. Problems with her birth left her unable to walk normally, so she has spent most of her life sitting and watching the world go by. Amazingly, her older brother Ali has had similar problems and a similar limited life. However, that has changed a little for the children because their […]

Camp Mighty Eagle

My name is Farohiddin. I am 14 years old, in the 9th grade. Last summer, I went to a remarkable camp. It was a family camp, organized by CDI Kara-Suu staff members Erna and Andreas. In early July, 75 of us left together for the camp, stopping along the way for a picnic and some get-to-know-you […]

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