June 11, 2024
We stepped off the dusty street in Asaka, Uzbekistan, through a simple steel door into another world. Gulirano met us in the open, sunlit courtyard of the nursery school she had founded. Trees filled the central garden. Colorful balloons and paper flowers decorated the walkways that ran around the perimeter. Kids ducked in and out of the rooms. Gulirano held her hands together standing nervously, but brimming with pride. Growing up, she had dreamed of becoming a nursery school teacher, but the road there proved very difficult.
Asaka sits in the Fergana valley at the heart of Central Asia. Surrounded on three sides by mountains, Fergana holds the intersection of three former Soviet republics: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. For a millennium, this region has been a crossroads of different ethnic groups and languages. Captured by the Russian empire in the late 19th century, the five Central Asian countries we know today are largely organized along lines the Soviets loosely sketched in the early 20th century. Back then, borders were open and the ruble was the currency of the land. When the Soviet Union suddenly collapsed in 1991, this region was left with newly minted nation-states, contested borders, and an economic disaster. 20 years later, Gulirano was still living in the aftermath of the collapse and the legacy of conflicts playing out in the region.
Gulirano was born the middle child of four. Her parents worked in a local factory. Inspired by her own nursery school teacher and her love of children, she knew she wanted to be a teacher from a young age. However, Gulirano passed on the opportunity to attend university when she turned 18 because, as she put it, she lacked the self-confidence to take the risk. Unfortunately, without a university degree, she was unable to find work as a teacher.
Our visit to Gulirano’s nursery school was part of a trip organized by Search for Common Ground. Search is the world’s largest, non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to peacebuilding. With more than 1,000 employees, Search works to prevent and end violent conflicts in 33 countries. The organization had been active in neighboring Kyrgyzstan for a decade. In the Spring of 2022, Search gained official recognition in Uzbekistan, as part of a regional expansion that has included a growing presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Violent conflicts rarely respect national boundaries, so Search builds its strategies based on the dynamics across a region, seeking greater cohesion within and between countries.
Search’s work in Fergana began in 2016 with the launch of the JashStan program in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, just across the border from Asaka. At that time, ISIS was on the rise in Syria and Iraq, and it was reaching its tendrils into Muslim communities around the world where young people were being radicalized and recruited.
It’s tempting to believe violent extremism is merely the result of ideology. But the field experience of Search teams around the world and academic research tell a more complex story.
Fundamentalist ideologies find their most fertile soil among young people already at risk because of isolation, unemployment, exclusion, alienation from local institutions, and a lack of connectivity to community. Search sees donor interest in preventing violent extremism as an opportunity to work with communities to strengthen social cohesion by addressing endemic local issues.
JashStan, which roughly translates as “youth country,” was a great example of this kind of work. It drew from the toolbox of tactics Search uses around the world — adapted to the unique conditions in Fergana valley. The program was rooted in a collaboration between government officials, community leaders, teachers, religious leaders, and local NGOs. For each program, the first step was identifying a diverse cohort of at-risk youth.
In 2020, Search launched a version of the JashStan program in Uzbekistan using the Uzbek translation, “YoshStan.” Working with community leaders, the program team identified Gulirano, who was 20 at the time, as a great fit for the initiative. Gulirano explained that “when the staff reached out to me I was introverted and unmotivated.” She felt hopeless. But, after talking with the team about YoshStan, she was inspired to join by the possibility she could reach her goals, which had seemed impossible.
JashStan and YoshStan were designed and led by the Search team in Kyrgyzstan and the country director, Keneshbek Sainazarov. When I first met Kenesh at a Search gathering in 2018, I was immediately struck by his smile, warmth, and infectious energy. Now traveling with him in his home, it was clear why he was so effective as a peacebuilder. He connected with former program participants like family. When word got around that he would be in Osh, one former participant immediately extended an invitation to her wedding.
Kenesh grew up in a village near Osh, so he came to the work in Fergana with a lived experience of the challenges and opportunities. Search teams are always made up of people from the communities where they work. The teams reflect the dividing lines they are working to bridge. 98 percent of Search employees work in their country of origin where their commitment to long-term conflict transformation is personal and professional.
The YoshStan program included a range of activities and leadership training. With the help of the Search staff and the team at Hamroh, a local non-profit that partnered with Search to run the program, Gulirano built a plan for her nursery school. She knew she wanted to help families in her neighborhood, especially working moms. At first she imagined a small school with a few students. However, encouraged by her peers and the needs she heard from the community, she expanded her vision.
In traditional Uzbek families, when a young woman marries she moves in with her husband’s family. Her mother-in-law in effect becomes her boss. Many women find themselves serving the family household. Gulirano was able to inspire her in-laws to support the new business, and with a small grant from Search, they converted their family home into a school.
They opened the doors to the Soadat (“happiness” in Uzbek) nursery school in the fall of 2021. Offering the first three months free, 20 children from neighborhood families signed up in the first year. In the second year, the program grew to 25 children ages three to six along with four teachers and a cook. Every day they cover lessons in reading, writing, math, and language based on government standards.
Gulirano was not alone. 562 youth participated in JashStan and YoshStan programs. Along with them, hundreds of government officials, community leaders, and mentors built new connections and learned new ways of working together. The results were striking. During our trip, we met with dozens of participants and learned about programs and businesses they started from an IT training center to a clothing business that makes school uniforms. Beyond the individual projects, the most notable feature of participants was the motivation, sense of purpose, and hope they had found through the new connections and leadership training.
YoshStan ended in the Spring of 2022. As the program came to a close, Gulirano faced a new challenge: how would she sustain the school without Search’s financial support?
All Search programs are built on the same theory for how societies change to prevent and end violent conflict. The work starts with a set of principles and methods called the Common Ground Approach. At its core, Search helps people find common humanity, acknowledge differences, and then focus on concrete action where there is common ground despite the differences. Over time, by focusing on building trust and connections through shared success, people make breakthroughs and societies in conflict develop the social cohesion to manage complex differences without violence. The long-term goal is to translate the increased social cohesion into an enduring transformation in three ways: institutional changes such as new laws, shifts in social norms such as new ways of understanding difference, and the creation of impactful businesses like the nursery school Gulirano founded.
Using the skills, confidence, and relationships she had built in the YoshStan program, Gulirana mobilized support from families in her neighborhood and the leadership at Hamroh. With that support, she worked through the arduous process of getting a five-year government contract to continue the school. She also gained the confidence to enroll in a university. Now her plans include expanding the school and adding bus service so more children can attend.
After the warm welcome from staff and children, Gulirano gave us a tour of the nursery school. The open-air courtyard was ringed by playrooms, lesson rooms, and a nap room full of brightly painted bunk beds. We found most of the students laughing and talking at small tables while eating a fresh, hot-cooked meal from the kitchen.
Our tour ended as parents arrived to pick up their children. The ripples of change from the stone Gulirano had dropped were evident. One of the parents shared how the new nursery school gave her the freedom to return to work as a nurse after years of unemployment — supporting healthcare in her community and bringing new income to her family.
As she bid us farewell, Gulirano’s eyes sparkled with the light that shines when someone’s work aligns with their life purpose and makes the world a better place.
