Alga is a rural women's NGO in Kyrgyzstan. It has been a member of APWLD since 2000. Olga Djanaeva of Alga is Convenor of APWLD's Rural and Indigenous Women's Task Force.

Alga works on issues ranging from poverty alleviation and rural livelihoods through women's human rights and health to tackling violence against women. These days ALGA works with women's groups in villages across 6 districts of the Chui Province of Kyrgyzstan. When ALGA was founded in 1995 it operated in only one village - Jerkazar. ALGA grew out of the chaos left after the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country of 5 mln population with over 60% living in rural areas, suddenly found itself independent. The following economic reforms from a centrally command to a market economy based on privatisation and liberalisation policies brought unemployment, poverty and collapse of community infrastructure and public services with schools, health care and water supply systems deteriorating or breaking. Life for those living in villages was particularly difficult. As Olga Djanaeva, one of the founders of ALGA, describes it, 'The majority of people were in despair. They had lost their jobs and were not used to working on their own. They had no vision of the future and no experience of how to survive using their own resources. There was huge desperation about what they were facing'.

At that time Olga herself took the difficult decision to give up her job of teaching at the State National University in the capital, Bishkek, because she had no means of transport to get there from the village where she lived 25 kms away. Transportation costs absorbed most of her salary. Instead she became 'just a housewife' growing vegetables and wheat needed for the family's survival. 'I wondered if this was the end of my life and asked myself if it was the end of my dreams?' says Olga.

But soon the first NGOs started springing up in Kyrgyzstan supported by external assistance and Olga found herself inspired by stories of women's groups in Africa, India and Latin America changing their own and communities' lives for the better. She shared these stories with other women in her village. Many of them at that time did not believe they could change the situation.

In the spring of 1995 Olga and a group of women from Jerkazar village started to meet to share experiences and ideas in the house of Kalbubu Kadyrbaeva. One of the first issues the group discussed was land reforms and its impact on women. Although the constitution acknowledged equal rights of men and women, the experience of group members was that under the government's land privatisation reform women were discriminated against in the allocation of shares of the former collective farm's land, especially women headed households. Because this was such an important issue for improving the lives of poor rural women and their families the group decided to take the matter up, first of all with the local government authority in their area. Challenging officialdom in this way was almost unheard of at the time, especially if it was done by poverty stricken village women.

At first the group's lobbying was unsuccessful, so they took their cases to the province level, and, finally, because again they were unsuccessful, they had no option but to go to the authorities at national level. The first 11 appeals were accepted. This meant a significantly increased land allocation from half a hectare to over one full hectare of farm land per family i.e. around a three fold increase. This was a land mark decision and a precedent for women and women's groups all over the country. It also marked the first significant step in ALGA's contribution to improving the lives of rural women - a contribution that has continued to this day.

How one woman contributed and benefited
Kalbubu Kadyrbaeva, a former kindergarten teacher in Jerkazar, was one of the founding group of women who started ALGA. It was in her house that the group held their first meetings. She had lost her teaching job and her income because the kindergarten had closed down in 1991. A widow, she was living in a small village house with two elderly women - her mother and mother in law - and three small children, trying to survive with no regular income. She was just one of many rural women faced with similar problems at the time. After 1991 many had relied largely on emergency food allocations from official sources.

Her case for a better land reform deal was one of the successful ones achieved through the Alga's lobbying activities in 1995. Kalbubu also benefited from the micro credit seed fund set up in 1995, and after two years was able to buy a cow with the proceeds of her harvests. The cow provided milk to consume and to sell, and also enabled her to make butter and sour cream. This gave her a sustainable source of income. She also says that she, like others in the group, has changed from being a shy woman lacking in self confidence to being a woman leader and an activist - something she could never have imagined would happen back in the early 1990's. Today she holds a position of respect among women in the village who often go to her for advice and counsel about personal and family problems. She is also confident about contacting, advising, challenging and working with government officials.

It took two years for the women's group of Jerkazar to get officially registered as the NGO ALGA. During that period ALGA applied to the village government for office space. Despite their differences over the land allocation issue the village authority acknowledged the contribution of the women's group and allocated them a room in its building. This was a welcomed recognition of their work and commitment.

Back then ALGA was in need of money to support its work, so it was decided to take a loan for a group venture to cultivate some land and raise group funds. They rented land of a group member's family and planted safflower bean. The yield was good, but times were hard in the village with thieves harvesting the plant overnight so group members had to guard their produce day and night to keep it safe. One or two of them slept with the crop at all times! The income from the first harvest enabled the group to do two things. First, they had enough funds to run the office they had been given by the local government. Second, they had funds to provide help to families and elderly people living in extreme poverty in the village. This encouraged them and made them feel they were taking charge of their own destiny.

Meanwhile, Alga continued to play an active part in improving the lives of women in the village. In the spring of 1995, while they were lobbying for land reform, the group also decided to support women's work on the land in other practical ways. At the time crop seed was in scarce supply and of poor quality, and in any case rural women did not have money to buy them. So Alga approached different organisations which they thought might provide credit for the purchase of seeds. One of them was FINCA which at the time was only working in the capital Bishkek and not in rural areas. Drawing on their growing confidence the group persuaded FINCA to provide micro credit to help one group of women in the village to buy seeds. They also found ways to give the women advice on planting and cultivation. With the initial micro credit support the women were able to raise enough capital from their first harvest to purchase chicken, sheep or cattle as a further source of much needed income. ALGA was also able to draw on this source to start its own seed bank of wheat, sugar beet and vegetable seeds and so could support even more women to sustain their families. Further, they opened up rural bakeries.

Today ALGA has expanded considerably. From the single office room that ALGA was given in the local self government office in 1996 it now occupies the entire first floor of the local government building with facilities, including a resource centre, a training room, a business advice centre, two administration offices and a kitchen. It employs over 26 staff, and also has offices in 4 other villages and capital Bishkek.

Today ALGA is a highly respected NGO in Kyrgyzstan. It is now a recognised and welcomed provider of consultancy and training for community based organisations and for local governments on community participation and development, including gender budgeting. Over 150 village initiative groups are now supported by ALGA with initiatives ranging from community infrastructure rehabilitation, income generation, and agricultural services to legal aid, family planning and domestic violence community response councils. Alga also trained and assisted 35 women leaders to run for local government elections, 29 of them now hold district level positions and promote women's agenda in the local policies.

Some years ago there were rather strong barriers of misunderstanding from men and local authorities. Men were afraid that Alga will take women out of families and have 'bad' influence on them. Local authorities were afraid that Alga will take its power. Now men and local authorities not only provide moral support, but also has become active participants and partners of all Alga's programmes.