Country

Turkmenistan

Region

South-Central Asia

Language

Turkmen

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  IMPACT

  The original film made by the community: ‘Garregul’, helped raise funding & support among the international donor community. The project evolved through wide community consultation; the idea was that community members receiving solar panels would "pay" for them with one ewe and one lamb. These animals become the collective property of the village and are used as a community action fund. As this flock increases in size so too does the villagers’ resource base for carrying out their own community action.

  • "The programme provided more than 450 individuals with electricity in 6 different shepherding villages in the heart of Turkmenistan’s Karra Kum desert.
  • Each household owns their own system – this ensures they are well looked after.
  • After 2 years the first community were able to sell some of their collective flock and hire a digger to flatten the sandy road that connected them to the local market. This cut their journey time by 1 hour and ensured goods and animals arrived in better condition.
  • “Last year (3 yrs into the project) we were able to hire a tractor to dig our Oy (rainwater catchment). This should be done every 3 years, yet for 15 years we have been unable to do it” - Head of family, Garregul village.
  • An additional paid shepherding job was created.
  • Our work reinforced the message that communities have the power to improve their own situation, eroding mentalities of hopelessness and dependency.
  • The participatory approach we employed shifted thinking and practice in the wider development community in Turkmenistan: “Mr Lunch has proven emphatically the need to directly involve recipients to obtain realistic sustainable results from minimal funding. The results are remarkably evident today and have provided the stimulus for amendments to our future action plans in this sector.” M.Wilson, TACIS coordinator and EU Advisor to the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan.
• 

  ACT

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• Location

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• Description

  The result of a Participatory Video consultation process, this film describes how solar power became more than just a means of renewable energy for these remote desert shepherding villages. Each family receiving a solar installation contributed one ewe and one lamb to a collectively managed flock. These flocks gave the communities a new kind of power; the ability to carry out local actions and make their own positive changes

  This is not a Participatory Video, as such, it is a film documenting this innovative InsightShare community led project taking place in the remote Karra Kum desert in Turkmenistan. The project began in 1999 after our Participatory Video project in this village helped villagers exlore the key threats they were facing and identify possible solutions.

  Villagers talked about the high levels of outward migration which were threatening the long-term survival of these remote deserts villages. It was also important that communities filled the void left after the collapse of the top-down, Soviet system. This required better cooperation within villages and a greater capacity for community action. Only then could villagers start to address issues, which threatened to squeeze out further families. Many community members felt that electricity would improve their lifestyles and encourage people to stay in the desert.

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