Turkmenistan: “Communities are partners, not just audiences”

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Nazik Avlyakulova, a John Smith Fellow from Turkmenistan, is partnering with communities to tell stories of change and transformation around issues such as media literacy, disability and parenting. 

Nazik, a social and behaviour change officer and development professional, believes in the power of storytelling to inspire change. She combines this with participatory programme design, which involves working closely with communities to co-create programmes tailored to their needs. 

She says: “When designing and implementing programmes, I always integrate storytelling as a form of reporting and outreach to ensure that my team and I remain accountable to the people we work with and for. Reporting to communities, donors and the government is central to the success of any programme.  

“It can take various forms, but good storytelling is at the heart of it. Whether it’s a social media campaign, an edutainment series, presentations, public discussions, news articles, blogs or a formal report, it helps us test ideas and assumptions before drawing conclusions. It’s also important for challenging stereotypes and addressing fears.  

“Thoughtful storytelling is a powerful tool. It clarifies desired outcomes and helps people understand what the programme means.”

John Smith Fellowship 

During her John Smith Fellowship in 2017, Nazik’s action plan included creating a network of young academics and researchers to revive the online magazine PULS of Central Asia. Nazik had previously co-edited the magazine from 2013 to 2014 with her former college course mate.

“The goal was to tell the stories of Central Asia by Central Asians,” Nazik explains. “The magazine collected five stories – one from each country – and we had a special edition that connected the region. Each month, we focused on a different theme, for example, education, economics, social development and history.” 

The relaunched magazine featured work by young academics, students and research enthusiasts from Central Asia. It was a platform to showcase their knowledge, receive feedback from editors and gain credibility for their work. “The highlight for us was when a year later, PULS articles were quoted in regional reports by international organisations,” says Nazik.  

“The John Smith Trust helped me build meaningful connections with UK publishers, including those focusing on Central Asia. I also met a local NGO that produces a youth magazine addressing issues relevant to their community. This experience reaffirmed that anchoring my research and storytelling in Central Asian communities is the right path. It also gave me a fresh perspective on programme design – insights that later shaped my career.”  

Challenging stigma 

Supporting storytelling has remained part of Nazik’s career, enriched by working in community development and capacity building. “I’ve always approached my work from the community development perspective, making sure programmes are sustainable by developing local expertise,” she says. “I’ve been lucky to find employers whose values align with mine and who have given me the freedom to work on what matters for the community.” 

In 2016, while working at UNDP, she started exploring the subject of disability. UNDP had found that people living with disabilities in Turkmenistan often face challenges in accessing education and employment.  

One UNDP programme Nazik supported was an integrated curriculum for deaf women. This provided advanced skills training in textiles for the women, while also working with employers to challenge stigma around deafness and open job opportunities. 

New opportunities 

Before the training, women like Nurtach struggled to make progress in the workplace. A skilled embroiderer, Nurtach worked from home and had limited opportunities to develop her career.  

But UNDP Turkmenistan’s advanced skills training, combined with their awareness-raising campaign, opened up new opportunities for Nurtach. A sewing enterprise called Dunya Dane hired her as an embroidery specialist. 

“Today, I work as a designer,” she told UNDP. “I make designs of embroidery on a computer and make them myself on a special machine. I dream of working as a teacher in a boarding school for children with disabilities. I want to teach a labour lesson and pass on my knowledge to them.” 

Media literacy training 

Following her role at UNDP, Nazik worked as a strategic communication expert promoting media literacy and fact-checking, first at the EU Delegation to Turkmenistan, then at the U.S. Embassy in Turkmenistan and now at UNICEF.   

Her experience in community engagement enabled her to create programmes that address the needs of the target audiences and have the potential to be scaled. While at the U.S. Embassy, she shaped a media literacy programme that went beyond a typical workshop. Over three days in April 2024, 50 participants gained media literacy skills in fact-checking, AI for content generation, ethical aspects of AI, polling and surveying, and the use of open-source data. They also became creators of their own initiatives.  

From this effort came five spin-off projects and a continuing strand of medical blogging supported through alumni grants. By encouraging participants to lead, this programme helped turn a single training course into a platform for lasting and scalable impact. It has also trained a pool of 12 media information literacy trainers, who have since provided over 60 hours of training for their peers and teenagers.  

Building with communities 

Nazik says: “My current work with UNICEF follows the same philosophy of listening first and building with communities that offers a transformative impact on their development.”  

In 2025, Nazik applied social and behaviour change approaches to strengthen two key UNICEF initiatives in Turkmenistan. One addressed mental health stigma, and the other focused on positive parenting. Her guidance has started helping ensure both programmes moved beyond information-sharing and explore how to move towards deeper community engagement, empathy and engagement.  

Language matters 

“Words That Heal is an initiative that aims to reduce stigma surrounding mental health,” says Nazik. “I advised on how to embed social and behavioural change thinking into every stage – from research and design to communication and training. We started with a language analysis that revealed how certain words perpetuate stigma and exclusion, even among professionals.”  

Drawing on these findings helped implement a multi-layered approach. This included youth-oriented social media engagement with influencer Musa Yusup, participatory workshops for over 200 health workers, and the development of a mental health language guide promoting person-first, inclusive communication. Nazik’s input ensured that the initiative addressed not only knowledge gaps but also the social norms and emotional barriers that shape how people think and talk about mental health. 

Nazik says: “This participatory approach struck a chord: the mental health campaign reached more than 33,000 people and sparked heartfelt conversations about disability, empathy, and solidarity. The voices of the community didn’t just react to the programme – they actively shaped its direction, ensuring the work truly reflected people’s experiences.” 

Different strategies for different parents 

Nazik also supported the design and testing of a new parenting programme, ensuring that it reflected parents’ realities through participatory methods. Over 200 parents across all regions tested the guide on child development (0–5 years) and shared feedback through structured discussions and surveys.  

She says: “Based on this, we created different strategies: expert-led learning for urban parents, multimedia tools for rural families, and hybrid models for transitional regions. The social and behaviour change approach emphasised trust-building between family doctors and parents, participatory learning, and the co-creation of parenting resources.” 

She adds: “Programmes become stronger when they are co-created with the people they aim to serve. By combining strategic communication with participatory design, initiatives can grow from pilot ideas into programmes with the potential to scale. This approach highlights a simple but powerful truth: when communities are partners, not just audiences, programmes have the best chance to thrive.”