The first invitation to the contest was announced on 9 August, 2016. The announcement was circulated again in the beginning of September. The invitation was disseminated via Aigine’s Facebook page and via partner organizations’ mailing lists.
Selection. Having finished the selection process, we formed the Issyk-Kul research group. We conducted interviews with each member of the research group in Karakol, and then we held an information session on the project goals and timeline. Series of telephone interviews and written tests were held with Batken region candidates; 5 people were pre-selected, one of them – for the role of coordinator.
As early as the selection process was underway, it became evident that it would be most feasible to focus on the community of school and university teachers who work with young people. Issyk-Kul group included 4 local university teacher and a teacher of geography and ecology of Yrdyk village school. In Batken group, there are 2 school teachers, students and teacher of Batken State University.
The research groups ended up being multi-ethnic and consist of representatives of different ethnic groups such as Uighurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Dungan, and Kyrgyz.