List ten things that make you feel human.
-When I start crying because of frustration and pain.
-When I break out into laughter and not being able to control myself for a couple of seconds because of how swallowed I get within a joke.
-During meditation sessions
-Getting someone to laugh and smile
-Hugging someone I care deeply about
-When I hear birds chirping early in the morning
-When anxiety kicks in
-Uplifting someone through, for example, compliments
-Telling someone “I love you”
-Experiencing a sense of relief and comfort

Articulate your philosophy of engagement as it pertains to your work with the GSIF/ LVSIF? Specifically, Discuss: Why should I engage? How must I engage? With who must I engage? What kinds of challenges, opportunities, and approaches should I care about? What my epitaph might read?
My GSIF project is to address the air quality issue in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I
should engage because I could positively contribute to the issue that is tremendously impacting the people of Almaty. I could use my skills and strengths to collaborate with the locals and be an outside motivation source that serves as a push to the residents and NGOs to head towards change. To avoid my work and involvement being viewed as “saviorism” and belittlement to the people’s capabilities, I have to be careful that I show respect at all times. The way I plan on engaging is to have an articulate plan set up before I arrive in Almaty. I want to make sure that the people of Almaty view me as trustworthy and very knowledgable of the problem. My group is currently in aa process of writing a report regarding the specifics of the issue that the common people of Almaty may not be aware of due to the city itself not being very proactive on trying to address the outdated air quality monitors that are painting a false picture. I do not want to come off in a way that seems like I think I am superior and better-qualified for addressing the issue though. Those are clearly not my intentions at all.

When the time arrives to do fieldwork in Almaty, I want to be transparent with the local partners. I want to explain my plan in as much detail and the reasoning behind each component. I plan on engaging with the local environmental NGOs and residents that are directly impacted by the issue on a daily basis. They are the key collaborators because of how significant their role is in pressuring for environmental changes that go beyond the amount of time that I will be involved with this project. They also hold the least biases because their health will be of main concern, which is my group’s priority as well. In the United States, there is a lot of conflicts when trying to achieve impactful environmental change because of the people who have the power not going through the everyday life of the common people. Speaking from the experience of my neighborhood, the people in power do not truly understand the impacts of environmental degradation on our everyday lives because they never lived it and never really try to reach out. I have learned from these big flaws in the United States and want to avoid them myself when I go to Kazakhstan to implement an environmental plan.

Challenges that I will possibly have in my way of engaging is a language barrier. Although I will love to learn Russian, in reality, several months of learning Russian will not be enough to connect with the people on a deeper level. There will be things I want to explain and converse about, but language will keep me away from being able to. I am sure there will be a translator but there is nothing like being able to speak to the person yourself. Another challenge are cultural differences. Certain things in my group’s plan might cultural norms. One that my group has already discussed with a Kazakh native is that we are going to recommend that people leave their windows closed especially at night. We learned that it is part of their cultural norms to leave windows down to allow fresh air to “clean” the house. Unfortunately, this is not a great idea with pollutants piling up in the atmosphere and staying concentrated in the city due to a combination of wind patterns and the altitude of the city. It goes back to that idea of respect and trying to avoid any sort of invasion of the people’s ways of doing things. However, we need to make aware that this idea of leaving the windows open to clean the house is not actually true and may be causing more harm to people’s health. An approach I will have is to make it aware that I respect their ways of living and even share some of my personal cultural practices. I want to try to relate to them as much as I can which I feel like I can. There are so many people who have tried to assist my home countries, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, and I understand how it invading it can sometimes to have outsiders assist.

My epitaph would read as follows:

Alondra Lisseth Perez,
A selfless soul who always wanted to
make a positive impact on the people
who fell into the dark shadows.

7 September 2000→(Hopefully no time soon)

1.) There are two sides to the project: the prevention side and the side of fixing the side effects. The prevention side includes working with the current companies and government of Almaty, which can be long and extensive. For this reason, we’re choosing to go on the route of cleaning the air as it is. Through our design process, we need to further research the technology behind filter technology. Specifically, after identifying the main pollutants in the air, we will need to conduct further tests on what is the best way to capture them and help clear the air. Possible technology includes a few brands that have created nasal screens that help prevent allergens, pollutants, from entering your lungs. The design is simple, yet sold costly of around $11 per package which includes 7 pairs. Our creation would be to expand on this technology and try to make them reusable since the ones Avalon the market are one time uses for 24 hours. They are expensive and not an accessible product for a population such as Kazakhstan. Through our design process we would need to find effective ways to bring down the cost, yet keep the functionality. To create a product like this we would have to first get our hands on it, and research and test its capabilities. We would need to bring this issue to our engineer peers and professors who can give us feedback and help us. We would need funding to acquire the tools necessary to test the product.
2.) Most important stakeholders
–> The citizens of Almaty
All social classes could be positively impacted
The effects of air pollution are not limited to one type of class.
67.98% are Kazakhs, while the remaining are Russian
Islamic- 70%, Christian- 30%
55 percent female, 45% male
They value their city- mountains, environment, culture
–> The state government
Wealthy→ Top of the social class
As the government, there is an interest in bettering the health of the residents.
They have the legal power
One of the issues that are causing such poor air quality is the loose regulations.
The government needs to reinforce more
The interest in making money
Stimulating the economy of Kazakhstan. ( This depends on the direction we go with our plan/ project
Connections
The legal power allows them to be connected to other people in power.
Intelligence through experience
–>The NGOs or nonprofit
Not just focused on the economy
More concerned about the impact on the common people of Almaty
Funding→ Can help with making sure that the money needed to successfully implement a plan is provided.
Possible connections
Like one of the SGDs has listed, the collaboration and connections are crucial.
Power
Can pressure the government to make sure there is change and that the air quality issues are being addressed
Influence
From personal experience, I noticed that communities tend to “trust” NGOs a lot more than organizations and
individuals directly connected with the government.
3.) Validate Project Concept, Technology, Usability, and Business Model
a.) The reactions of the people in Almaty about our idea
Making sure our idea aligns with their values and culture
Having the people accept the issue we are trying to fix and understanding that we want to help
Wanting the people to be accepting of our ideas
b.)If the technology/concept produce effective results in preventing air quality health issues
We need to run tests and to ensure that if we create a product that it does what we need it to.
If we go with our nose strips idea, making sure that they are filtering out the correct pollutants
If we create public service announcements making sure they are effective and reach the people that need
to see them
c.)Usability
Making sure it is easy for everyone that needs to be using it to use so that the product works
correctly or if we have public service announcements; making sure that they are clear and easy to
understand and noticeable
Assuring that the technology used is durable and long-lasting. If it is announcements we must assure
they will be up and sustain weather.
Instructions must be clear

4.) My one friend from Cambodia told me how his parents do not let him date at all because when he turned 18, he will have an arranged marriage set up for him. I was so surprised by this and kind of annoyed that his parents were invading his life like this. I just kept wondering “How can you truly love that person?” He then explained how every man in his family did this, especially the ones that are here in the United States already. Another alien concept that I learned from a friend was that in Japan, the doctors get paid well when their patients are healthy. I have only been exposed to the way that the United States’ healthcare is set up, so this was super interesting to me. Although it was different from what I am used to, it made me reevaluate the way the United States is set up and I began to think that Japan’s healthcare concept actually made more sense. Last but not least, another alien concept I learned from a friend is also from Cambodia. He was telling me that when a person is sick, they scratch the back of the individual’s back with a coin and vaseline. I saw pictures of the coin scratching and became concerned about whether they were actually making the situation worse because of how painful it looked and sounded.

List the top 20 questions your team needs to answer to advance the venture forward. Categorize the questions if necessary:
What is the main objective of our project?
Who are we trying to impact?
Who is most impacted by the issue?
What sector of air quality can we impact?
What impact are we going to have?
What are the externalities of Kazakhstan’s air pollution?
What are the main pollutants affecting the community?
What side effects do the pollutants have?
How does air pollution impact the rest of the environment in Almaty? Water? Soil?
How can we use culture to our advantage?
How does outdated technology impact the project and our direction?
What work are people there already doing towards combating the poor air pollution?
What factors into the poor air quality?
What bias are there in the information we receive due to the type of government there is?
How has Kazakhstan attempted to address this issue before?
How can we show that improved air quality can have a positive impact on the economy?
How can we adapt to their culture while doing fieldwork?
Will the government play a part in the solution that we come up with?
How can we most effectively use our resources?
What are the people in Almaty’s perspective of air quality?
How aware are people in Almaty about air quality issues?

Our project’s logic model:
Inputs:
Collaboration with people
Developed partnerships
Research
–> Research exact pollutants that are affecting people in Almaty and the main sources of pollution
Planning
Outside funding
Outputs:
Improved air quality measuring methods
create a blueprint for powerplant filters
Public Health Announcements–> Time of day and temperature when air pollution is the worst
Improved human health
–> Decrease amount of respiratory diseases
–> Improvement of cardiovascular health
Nasal Strips (filter)
Outcomes:
Almaty residents that are more educated and aware of the air quality issue
Behavioral changes (more eco-friendly residents)
Ability to see the mountains
–> A lot of pride is held within them