Partnership between Mountain Societies Development and Naryn city provides kindergarten access to 90 children.

The Public Foundation Mountain Societies Development Support Programme (MSDSP KG), an initiative of the Aga Khan Foundation, and the Mayor's Administration officially opened Kindergarten #18 "Ak Dil" this afternoon in the eastern part of Naryn City. The partnership provides access to early childhood development (ECD) programmes for 90 children who previously could not attend kindergarten. Kindergarten #18 will run one full-day group for 30 young children and two half-day groups for the remaining older children.The investment in Kindergarten #18 includes repairs to an existing but unused building, renovations of the kitchen, installation of the water pipe, organization of the playground, the provision of furniture as well as teaching and learning materials. At the same time, MSDSP KG will provide on-going teacher training support to the kindergarten's 3 teachers and monitor the learning achievement of students. The total cost of the project was $60,400, of which the Mayor's Adminstration contributed $27,800 and MSDSP KG donated $25,000. The community contributed nearly $8,000 to the project. As with other kindergartens in Naryn, the local authorities will cover teacher salaries and other operational costs.The opening ceremony was attended by representatives from Parliament, the Kyrgyz Academy of Education, the National State University named after Arabaeva, international NGOs, the Naryn City Administration, the Naryn City Kenesh, as well as members from the surrounding community. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, guests enjoyed a performance by kindergarten children and then toured the facility.In his speech, Mayor Almaz Kulmatov noted that "Municipality is ready for further collaboration with the public foundation MSDSP KG in any format in solution of socio-economic issues in the city. I am sure that in 2010 our partnership will reach high scale, and we can be partners in all major branches" Shahid Punjani, the Chief Executive Officer of the Aga Khan Foundation said that "Kindergarten #18 is a symbol of the strong partnership between MSDSP KG and the City of Naryn as well as the Aga Khan Development Network's growing investment in Naryn Oblast. In addition to supporting the education sector through the University of Central Asia, kindergartens and other interventions, the AKDN is also interested to contribute to the region's economic development."Since 2005, MSDSP KG has helped to establish 29 central and 56 satellite kindergartens in Osh and Naryn Oblasts to provide more that 2,500 children with access to quality early childhood development programming. Internal evaluations show that children attending MSDSP KG-supported ECD programmes outperform other students in primary school.

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