Tech Forum Central Asia Spotlights Innovation for Social Good

About the Author: Joe Witters serves as a Public Affairs Officer in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

Eight months of planning meetings and conference calls between U.S. Consulate Almaty and Washington D.C. led to three days of intense hands-on training and interactive discussion between technology experts, young entrepreneurs, and civil society representatives from eight South and Central Asian countries June 14-16 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tech Forum Central Asia (TFCA) was not your typical conference where participants sat and listened to speakers. Rather, it was a high-tech, interactive social entrepreneurship event focused on youth empowerment. 

If I could sum up my experience in one word it would be “inspired.” I was inspired by the technologists who led training sessions. Hanny Kusumawati, from Indonesia, shared her experiences with “crowdfunding.” She founded Coin A Chance, which makes use of extra change people in Indonesia often discard and collects it to help… more »

(Source: blogs.state.gov)