How will we leverage various types of organizations to advance the larger dream behind your project?

Organization types –

Nonprofits:

Kazakhstan Foundation for Cultural, Social, and Educational Development (KFCSED) is a nonprofit organization based in Almaty that was founded in December 1999 with the goal of implementing social initiatives in order to encourage women’s development. Their goal to drive social change is focused on three key pillars: 1) empowering women by providing them education, 2) promoting the idea of social responsibility, and 3) strengthening civic engagement. Although Save Tuba is not a gender specific venture, our project shares the goal of using the app to impact the broader community and emphasize the importance of a shared social responsibility and greater civic engagement to improve the quality of life through sustainable behaviors.  KFCSED has multiple initiatives – Impactum is one that specifically works with students to teach them how to turn an idea into a community initiative. Students are able to respond to the social challenges that affect their community. A partnership with KFCSED can help with the planning and execution of one of our AT 5 activities. This partnership would be a direct support to operationalizing one aspect of Save Tuba that happens outside of the app and classroom setting.

Foundations

The following two foundations in Kazakhstan have missions that align to the goals of our venture. As such, they are potential foundations for the team to work on cultivating a relationship with in hopes of ultimately submitting a funding request. The Save Tuba venture will need local financial supporters to sustain the business model. 

1. Social Corporate Foundation. The Mission of SCF is to promote the development of significant initiatives and non-profit projects, increase the activity of the population in solving their own problems through the implementation of comprehensive educational, information and consulting programs. The extended reach to the community via the Level 5 Action Tasks creates the opportunity for the locals to be part of addressing and resolving the large-scale community issue related to pollution.
2. Foundation Of The First President Of The Republic Of Kazakhstan — Elbasy. More closely connected to our venture’s immediate target audience, their mission is “to develop the limitless potential of our society, helping talented young people and supporting social projects of public interest.” The Save Tuba project aims to educate students with information and knowledge on sustainable behaviors and then use that knowledge to have a direct impact in the community via the Action Tasks. The ATs will facilitate the transfer of knowledge into practice for the students and the public as they make a positive impact on a real social problem in their community.

Academia

Almaty Management University (AlmaU). The Save Tuba team has established a strong

 partnership with AlmaU during the last two years. AlmaU students collaborate with the Lehigh team on the app design and validation efforts. In addition to translating all app content, surveys, and focus groups questions, the AlmaU team facilitates the focus groups with Kazakh students and teachers. Our partnership with AlmaU is a strength as it provides a known and respected organization within Kazakhstan. Additionally, our partnership with a local higher education institution provides needed credibility that will help our efforts to take our app to scale. AlmaU’s involvement also helps our efforts to grow the pool of partners with similar reputations and ability to make an impact at the population level. 

K-12 System

Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan – The ultimate goal for Save Tuba is to collaborate with all schools in Kazakhstan to implement the app. Our initial plans include rolling the app in the once capital city of Almaty. To be able to execute at scale and better ensure sustainability of the app, the team is actively pursuing establishing a partnership with the Ministry. A partnership with the Ministry will also provide needed guidance related to the curriculum. The team has developed a scope and sequence that captures a varied list of sustainability topics, which can be refined in partnership with content experts from the Ministry.