Civil Society

So “Why” Sons of Hedin?

To the delight of some (mostly our mothers) and the disappointment of others, Sons of Hedin is not a new motorcycle club but rather an organization that promotes an open dialogue on issues and current events pertaining to Central Asia. Our name was inspired by the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin who over the course of his lifetime provided some of the most brilliant and detailed accounts of this region. Both Baylen and I were inspired by Hedin’s exploits and wanted to explore the very same land he grew to love.

Our Plans

Baylen and I have long  held a deep interest in Central Asia and given our past experiences with cultural filmmaking and documentation, we set off to the region in hopes of sharing our discoveries with others. We established this website as a proper medium to share our own experience and insight in hopes of improving cultural understanding and developmental challenges.

The first leg of our journey begins January 3rd in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. While there we plan to focus on the development challenges facing this young country and the solutions local NGOs have crafted to address these issues. In doing so we hope to further explore the nature of civil society and the unique solutions devised to address the issues of poverty alleviation, gender inequality, and local capacity building.

During such a process, an emphasis has been placed on building lasting partnerships with the community through long term engagement and support. Eventually we hope to provide innovative ways to improve coordination in and amongst local NGOs through the exchange of ideas, successes, and failures.

This whole experience is continengent on participation. That’s why we have provided our contact information and are open to including the writings of local journalists and reader’s comments on our website.

In the mean time make sure to subscribe to our RSS feeds and stay tuned for our weekly posts.