Mark Schierbecker
Staff Writer
Outdoor Education teacher and Team Builders president, David Cady visited Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan this December to conduct training of coaches involved in organizing athletic activities.
Cady was away Dec. 9-20 participating in the Kyrgyzstan Innovations in Coaching Kids (KICK) program through IREX. Cady joined forces with South African trainer, Taylor Brown from Peace Players International to train a group of 30 Krygyz coaches in sports to help mediate ethnic tensions in Kyrgyzstan.
“We worked primarily on conflict resolution and using sports as a way of resolving conflict,” said Cady.
Kyrgyzstan has been through a lot of political turmoil in the past few years. Rioting in April 2010 resulted in a change in leadership and an ensuing period of ethnic conflict between the country’s Kyrgyz and Uzbeks resulting in 200 deaths.
KICK seeks to involve ethnic Tajiks, Russians, Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the programming.
“I think the program was very successful. [The coaches] were extremely appreciative of being selected for the program, being able to participate and they were very happy with the instruction.” said Cady.
This April five Kyrgyz coaches will get to visit St. Louis for additional instruction.
“They’re going to visit cultural institutions, observe classroom instruction, and they’ll also get a chance to watch some sports,” said Cady. “I think they are going to be amazed.”
