The Peace Corps began to work with GLOBE in 1997. Four volunteers were recruited to teach GLOBE classes at Fund Meerim's Children's Educational Centers throughout Kyrgyzstan.
GLOBE in Kyrgyzstan
GLOBE stands for Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment. It is a U.S.-based ecology program begun by Vice-President Al Gore on Earth Day, April 22, 1994. A bilateral agreement between Kyrgyzstan and the United States to implement GLOBE in this country was signed in 1995 by First Lady Mairam Akaeva. The program has been assigned to work through the Fund Meerim in Bishkek.
GLOBE operates in the following manner: school children make periodic environmental measurements in their local areas, i.e., students take daily temperatures, record cloud cover, measure alkalinity and nitrate concentrations in nearby watersheds, calculate forest density and identify soil types. Once this data is obtained, students send it via e-mail or the Internet to a central database. This database can be accessed by environmental scientists around the world and also by the students themselves.
The Peace Corps began to work with GLOBE in 1997. Four volunteers were recruited to teach GLOBE classes at Fund Meerim's Children's Educational Centers throughout Kyrgyzstan. In September of 1998, a regional training conference was held in Cholpon-Ata. This conference was organized by Geeta Tiedge, PCV, Batigul Bayachorovoi, GLOBE Program National Coordinator, and others at the Children's Educational Center in Bishkek. There were over 60 attendees from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakstan, including both Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and local teachers. In addition, a training team from the U.S. flew to the Kyrgyz Republic, and they were assisted by university students who had been to America with the ACCELS program and translated during the week-long conference. At the end of the week, the whole group took a day trip into the mountains.
After this conference, Tiedge and Fund Meerim worked together to create the role of Volunteer Coordinator, which Tiedge held for the last year of her Peace Corps service. With the help of other volunteers, she organized a series of seminars held throughout Kyrgyzstan in the winter and spring of 1999. She wrote a Small Project Assistance fund grant to obtain equipment for PCVs and local teachers so that they could perform GLOBE experiments at their schools. She also led GLOBE training during Pre-Service Training for incoming PCVs in the summer of 1999.
In the fall of 1999, the position of Volunteer Coordinator was taken over by Tiffany Tuttle. She held seminars in Talas for PCVs and local teachers in October and November of 1999. In collaboration with Gulnara Abdykalykova, Peace Corps Program Manager, the idea of Oblast Training Teams was born. These teams would be empowered to hold their own training seminars, and to work together to write grants for equipment. Then, in February of 2000, Tuttle, Abdykalykova and Bayachorovoi worked together to organize a national conference for PCVs and their counterparts.
This conference was unique in that it was the first time that local teachers were asked to train PCVS. Approximately 40 people attended, and it was here that the Oblast Training Teams met for the first time and elected Oblast Leaders.
Tuttle has been working closely with Alice Tyier, who will be the next Volunteer Coordinator when Tuttle has completed her Peace Corps service. Tyier will be training the newest group of PCVs this summer, and assisting the Oblast Training Teams as they hold local seminars.
Photos:
1. GLOBE trainers and Fund Meerim staff in the mountains near Cholpon-Ata; Batygul Bayachorovoi, GLOBE Program National Coordinator, and Peggy Finarelli, Deputy Director of GLOBE, center
2. Geeta Tiedge (in red) with volunteers and an ACCELS alumni near Cholpon-Ata
3. PCVs Hugh Ho, Natalie Mykysey, and Alice Tyier at a GLOBE seminar in Talas, Oct. 1999
4. Attendees of the February 2000 GLOBE conference, held in the Issyk-Kul Hotel in Bishkek; Tiffany Tuttle, PCV/GLOBE coordinator, is seated next to Bayachorovoi (in blue)
5. Alice Tyier teaching an Atmosphere protocol to participants at the Feb. 2000 conference
6. Issyk-Kul Oblast teachers performing one of the hydrology protocols at the Feb. 2000 conference
G.L.O.B.E
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