Sevara Shakirova works on social media campaigns relating to human trafficking victims’ and migrants’ rights. She also works with young people to promote media literacy and fact-checking. Sevara is interested in exploring how to promote media literacy and critical thinking, construct campaigns to combat the negative influence of social media and create content on civic education and combatting trafficking in persons.

Sevara holds a master's degree in "Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages" from Jilin University and is currently pursuing a PhD in "Ancient and Modern literature of China-China, Liaoning province, Dalian City" from Liaoning Pedagogical University. Sevara has worked as a SMM specialist, a language tutor, a customer service representative and a field worker for the ministry of education, among other roles. 

IVLP Impact Award Project: Fact checking! Доверяй, но проверяй!

The project held lectures on media literacy, cybersecurity, and fact checking for 354 high school students in 12 schools in the city of Osh. Sevara received requests for more lectures at the same schools and for her to give lectures at other schools as well. The teachers and students appreciated her relaxed and engaging presentation style, which really engaged the students in a new way, and helped promote a deeper engagement with the topics. At the same time, Sevara also created eight posts on Instagram about the launch of the project, guest lectures and general media literacy themes in Kyrgyz and Russian, which had a total of 46,985 views by the end of the project. In addition to the media campaign and lectures, Sevara selected three schools to be involved in a media literacy quiz, where students were able to test their knowledge of fact checking, disinformation and media literacy and compete against each other. This provided an opportunity for the students to study media literacy more deeply and solidify what they learned in the lectures.

"I hope this project will help to raise awareness of children in media literacy, cybersecurity and digital literacy, teach them to apply their knowledge in practice and critically evaluate any information." - Sevara Shakirova

IVLP Exchange Experience 

Sevara was a participant in the IVLP Project 21st Century ChangeMakers: Trend Leaders Promote Social Media Discernment Among Youth (EUR/SCA), organized by the U.S. Department of State and FHI 360.

Sevara's exchange experience led to the development of her IVLP Impact Award Project: "During the 3 weeks [of IVLP] I studied the new experience of the United States, that the education system in Western countries is built on developing critical thinking in children from an early age...therefore, most users of various media channels are prepared to critically perceive information, so young people do not believe everything they show on television and write on social media. While in Kyrgyzstan, young people are accustomed not to think critically, but simply to believe everything that the media side tells us."

U.S. Communities Visited

Colorado Springs, CO; Denver, CO; Washington, DC; Orlando, FL; St. Petersburg, FL; Louisville, KY

"I believe that it is important for our youth to distinguish between satire [and] healthy constructive criticism...Young people should talk about cultural literacy, should perceive and analyze information." - Sevara Shakirova

Country: Kyrgyzstan 

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