After months of researching the air quality issues in Almaty, we were not prepared for what it was like to actually see it. Upon leaving the airport, we were inside the gray skies that some of our group members have only seen pictures of. Feeling what it was like to breathe in this polluted air gave us more inspiration and passion for our project. 

Lehigh University and Almaty Management University are working together to mitigate the effects that poor air quality has on health. The members from Lehigh are Jessica McCurry, Kaliana Rae, Oyu Erdene-Ankhbayar, Alua Bekbossynova, Allen Wilson, and our faculty advisor Dinissa Duvanova. The AlmaU team consists of Ainar Nurgaliyev and members of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) club. The name of our venture is Breathe Almaty. We chose this name because poor air pollution leads to shortness of breath, along with many other respiratory issues. 

In the next five years, Breathe Almaty will expand the number of schools with air filters by 90.04%, achieving an indoor PM2.5 concentration of less than 5, ultimately creating a healthier and more productive learning environment. We will achieve this goal through research, technological innovation, activism, and policy changes. We will conduct a quasi experimental study to show the effects that air quality has on cognitive ability. We are also making cost effective air monitors that show the level of PM2.5 in the air. Our partners at Lingnan University have made air filters which we will test the effectiveness of. We hope to bring the monitors and filters to the market in Almaty. There are already many activism groups in Almaty that aim to help the air quality issue. We plan to work with them to further spread awareness. The policy that we would like to be added is that all schools are required to monitor the air quality index within the facility and to maintain a healthy PM 2.5 level (not exceeding 5 mg/m^3, but less than 2 ideally) in facilities. On their own, these goals will not have a long lasting effect, but together, they intertwine in such a way that a life saving impact can be achieved.

Over the next two weeks, we are planning to meet with our stakeholders in order to further refine the goals of our project. We are going to meet with our partners at Lingnan University to figure out the logistics of the air filters. We will meet with about 10 school principals to get their school involved in our quasi experimental study. A few other potential partners are the parents’ activism group, universities, and NGO’s. At the end of our fieldwork, we are planning to invite all of our partners to the American Space Forum in order to further network with them.

We also had group meetings with Khanjan, Ainar, and Maksat Koshkarbayev to discuss our general goal and specific fieldwork plan. We were able to redefine our impact statement and metrics of success with Khanjan. With Ainar, we detailed our fieldwork plan and started reaching out to schools to schedule meetings. Furthermore, as we introduced our project, Maksat Kohskarbayev shared his insights on our project and local context.