In March 2009, ten students from Yale University travelled to Shymkent, South Kazakhstan, to support EFCA’s program to revitalize traditional crafts and increase Kazakhstani artisans’ access to the market, funded by USAID, Tatishev Foundation and Chevron.

Throughout the course of the week, the students gave presentations on topics including price-setting, marketing and international business to local artisans in the EFCA-funded artisan resource centre in Shymkent. These sessions encouraged discussion of a number of issues affecting the artisans’ work and income – often taking working examples and providing an arena to share successes and find solutions to difficulties.

Sean Jackowitz, one of the Fulbright students who accompanied the group and helped arrange the project, said, “The craftspeople we spoke to were very excited by our ideas. During the seminars, they not only listened to what we had to say, but also asked what we thought about their ideas. Indeed our youth was a big asset. It gave our seminars a creative aspect and encouraged the craftspeople to think outside the box.”

The ideas most enthusiastically discussed by the artisans included use of the internet and their visitors’ views on the types and styles of crafts favoured by tourists. Perhaps most groundbreaking was the students’ suggestion that the artisans should calculate the time spent making their craft when setting the price. The group also analysed the profitability of different crafts, promoting open discussion of how to maximise income.

Berek Beisbekov, who works with leather, commented: “Following the price-setting discussion, I now realize now that I should focus on creating larger items with the leather I have, saving the off-cuts for my smaller works. I might also try to join forces with other artisans producing similar crafts so as to increase profitability and fight competition more effectively.”

In addition to the presentations, the trip also provided a positive cultural exchange between the Yale students and the local community. Not only did the students live with artisans for the duration of their visit, but they also met many young local people – by visiting English lessons at schools, giving a presentation at American Corner, visiting young volunteers for the AIDs prevention NGO I Believe, and by being guests at the Kazakh-Turkish University’s spectacular fashion show. The artisan host families also organized a number of cultural trips – to the mausoleum of Khwaja Ahmad Yassavi in Turkestan, numerous museums and an underground mosque, and gave the American students a ceramics master class.

To find out more about artisans in Shymkent, please visit the Beisbekov Family website set up by Yale student Sam Yellen: http://sites.google.com/site/beisbekov.

For further information:

Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia