Volunteers In Action

The Associate of Science in Dental Health (ASDH) program at the Aga Khan University (AKU) aims to bring awareness to dental hygiene as a crucial goal for the dental team in providing preventive care and patient education, especially in rural areas where access to care is limited. The program represents the university’s effort to improve healthcare outcomes in Pakistan. It focuses on both training skilled Dental Hygienists and raising awareness about the profession’s critical role within the dental team. It also provides the Dental Hygienist with the skills required to perform essential services such as oral cancer screening, examining teeth for signs of oral disease or damage, and educating patients on how to improve and maintain oral health. Dental hygienists are instrumental in the early detection of dental issues, which facilitates referrals to dentists and specialists.

The University of Central Asia (UCA), in partnership with the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat and the Aga Khan Foundation and with support from the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) office in Kyrgyzstan, is implementing an innovative five-year “Naryn Urban Resilience Programme” (NURP) in the mountainous town of Naryn in Kyrgyzstan where UCA’s campus is located. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and AKDN jointly fund NURP.

Based on Mawlana Hazar Imam’s guidance, the Crossroads Youth Camp is designed to nurture pluralistic and ethically grounded youth who can look to their future with hope and become ambassadors for the Jamat. It seeks to cater to the needs and aspirations of youth aged 12 to 14 years who are confronted with multifaceted contemporary challenges in their personal and professional lives.

The University of Central Asia (UCA) is an internationally chartered, secular, private, not-for-profit university with a mission to improve the quality of life of mountain societies. It was founded in 2000 through an International Treaty signed by the Ismaili Imamat together with the Governments of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, ratified by their respective parliaments and registered with the United Nations. UCA’s three campuses, nestled in rural mountainous towns along the historic Silk Road, are at the heart of the economic, social, and intellectual transformation taking place in the region.

Imagine the thunderous claps and cheers of the audience as dancers, singers, athletes and artists own the stage with the beats of their feet, and the graceful arcs of their shots into the basketball hoop. This is what many TKN volunteers from around the world are thinking about and looking forward to experiencing at the Global Encounters Festival in 2024.