The 2021 was a challenging year, especially for communities with no access to the Internet. We at the Kyrgyz Internet Society tried to help by building globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet. Some of our work includes the following:
- IlimBox Digital Library. When the schools went to online mode of education due to the pandemic, teachers and youth in many rural schools were left without access education due to lack of internet. Our team rushed to help to these most remote areas and delivered the IlimBoxes, the digital libraries which work offline and contain educational materials such as e-books, video classes, Wikipedia and Khan Academy in Kyrgyz language. The Ilimbox project was listed among seven worldwide digital education initiatives by Thomson Reuters Foundation.
- Community Networks. We did not stop with just the ilimBoxes and set to ourselves a challenge to bring real internet to unconnected communities in extreme locations. We started with Suusamyr, continued in Zardaly, and planning to connect Kyzyl-Oi, Ak-Shyirak, and Enilcheck villages by building Community Internet Networks.
- Internet for Schools. In the effort to provide internet for everyone we teamed up with the GIGA Global Initiative of connecting all schools to the Internet by producing a guidebook and sharing our experience.
- EduTech Platform IlimBox.kg. Based on the success of the IlimBox, we continued into the next level and created the online school IlimBox.kg, where teachers and students can access all the school courses online with videolessons, tests, textbooks and other interactive materials.
- Online Science Experiments. Furthermore, recognizing that schools in rural communities often lack resources for scientific experiments, we are publishing on our Youtube-channel thousands of online physics and chemistry experiments in Kyrgyz language.
- Digital Skills. In addition to providing connectivity and developing educational content, we are also helping strengthen digital skills of people in rural areas. Our team travelled to different parts of the country to deliver digital skills trainings for thousands of teachers and students.
- IXP. We are building an Fergana Valley Internet Exchange Point in the ancient city of Osh with the aim of lowering internet prices, while improving the speed and quality, for residents of the Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
- Digital Kalkan. As we help more and more new users join the Internet, we need to protect them from online risks. Therefore we launched cybersecurity and personal data protection initiative Digital Kalkan (Shield) to protect civil society organizations and SMEs from cyber threats.
We would like to thank our friends and partners across the globe and giving our digital Alkysh (Gratitude)! Without your help none of these initiative would have been possible. Kyrgyz Internet Society wishes everyone a Happy 2022 Year!
