OSCE Centre teaches business skills to women and young people in Kyrgyz town of Min-Kush

MIN KUSH, Kyrgyzstan, 22 June 2009 - A week-long training course supported by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek to teach entrepreneurial skills and business planning to residents in the former uranium mining town of Min-Kish started today.

The course for 15 recently established local business groups, comprising mostly women and young people, is part of an OSCE Centre initiative on community-based socio-economic development in Min-Kush.

Trainers from Bishkek, Kochkor and Naryn have prepared the intensive training course on running small businesses specifically for Min-Kush, a remote, impoverished village which has suffered from its proximity to uranium mining waste sites, some located just two kilometres away.

"Min-Kush is located very close to the uranium tailings. It is in a difficult situation given the depressed business atmosphere in the Naryn region - they do not even have a bank," said Oskon Japarov, the head of a business consultancy located in Naryn.

Many villagers have left in search of work, but some 4,000 people remain. The OSCE Centre and the local branch of French non-governmental organization ACTED have helped them to set up small businesses, which have brought a wide range of needed services, including hairdressing and catering.

The OSCE Centre is also helping the government to find assistance with removing and reburying the uranium tailings sites.

The OSCE Centre is planning similar initiatives in other Kyrgyz villages. "Our success in Min-Kush gives us the ground to use this opportunity to bring change to other villages affected by the legacy of uranium tailings," said Kimberley Bulkley, the Senior Economic and Environmental Officer at the OSCE Centre in Bishkek.

More information can be found on the OSCE website: OSCE brings hope to former mining village in Kyrgyzstan