06 Mar “Delegation from Kazakhstan” — This Week on Shades of Green

"Shades of Green" is Austin's Live Green Talk Radio Show

with John Hoffner, Stacy Guidry & Reed Sternberg

Thursdays 1:00pm-2:00pm 91.7FM, KOOP.

This week on Shades of Green, "Delegation from Kazakhstan” featuring members of a delegation of environmentalists from Kazakhstan, visiting for Library of Congress’s Open World Program.

Lyudmila Petrova, 37 years old, from Atbasar, in Central Kazakhstan (population 34,797), is a founder and director of the NGO Angel, which is part of the nationwide “Eco-Forum” ecological network. Angel works on water projects (including drinking water and demanding public financing to reconstructing water pipes to streets that had no water for over 20 years), promotes awareness of HIV/AIDS and environmental issues actively using volunteers. They encourage citizen participation in community decision-making in rural areas of Kazakhstan and work to strengthen village NGOs. Lyudmila educates activists on making environmental videos and holds multiple international environmental awards. After completing a degree in chemistry, she returned to her native town to work on scientific environmental work. Her NGO works closely with state bodies, deputies, healthcare professionals and teachers. She developed a project to include at-risk children in preschool education programs that have a focus on environmental protection. Lyudmila is particularly interested in sustainable development and government transparency.

Natalya Zudina, 27 years old, from Aktau of Mangistau region (South-West of Kazakhstan, population 158,540), works with the NGO Eco Mangistau as assistant director of projects. The NGO mainly works on promoting civic participation and education, elections monitoring, environmental rights protection, and organizing trainings and capacity building events for NGOs and citizens. They work on public monitoring of environmental issues and struggle for transparency of extracting industries by working with media on most pressing issues. Last year Natalya initiated a youth environmental project and now coordinates public environmental inspection and organizes flash mob actions and teambuilding. She is interested in the legal perspective of protecting environmental rights of citizens, and wants to learn about partnership between NGO, businesses and the public sector, as well as “green” volunteering and philanthropy.