Kazakh Women Use Digital Sparks Training to Tackle Water Shortage in Qyzylsay

In the southern Jambyl region, women in Qyzylsay spend hours each day collecting water for homes, gardens and livestock, a burden that has gone largely unrecognized. In 2026, local activist Nazgul Aidabossynova launched a Digital Sparks project that trained ten rural women in four workshops. Participants learned to turn smartphones into tools for e‑government services, photo‑diaries, GPS‑tagged water‑right maps and labor‑cost calculations. They also began mapping time‑to‑income plans and forming a cooperative approach to smart irrigation. The training gave women concrete evidence—timestamped photos and written descriptions—to present to local authorities, and helped them quantify the economic value of their unpaid work. Three women already began sharing the skills with neighbors, expanding the initiative’s reach.