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On June 10, 2026, a STEM Festival took place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, marking the conclusion of a two-month engineering training program for schoolgirls and teachers. The program was organized by the Kyrgyz TechnoWomen Fund with the support of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

During the festival, an exhibition of final projects was held, along with public presentations of engineering and startup developments by the participants. Each team presented a working prototype.

The educational STEM program ran from April 20 to May 29, 2026, at School №20 named after Heydar Aliyev in Bishkek. The program's launch was timed to coincide with International Girls in ICT Day – a global initiative aimed at attracting girls and women to the field of information and communication technologies.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is an educational approach that combines natural sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics to solve real-world problems. Instead of separate lessons in physics or computer science, work happens at the intersection of disciplines: building a robot requires knowledge of sensors, programming, and calculations. STEM demonstrates that technical professions are open to everyone, including girls and women.

​ "We are pleased to support initiatives that engage girls in STEM education, which allows them to explore the world of technology, gain new knowledge and digital skills, and show that modern technologies help solve practical problems and are accessible to all. We hope that the knowledge and experience gained by the program participants will give impetus to their subsequent involvement in technology and innovation careers," said Natalia Mochu, Regional Director of the ITU for the CIS.

The program involved 27 schoolgirls and 7 female teachers who had passed a qualifying test. Classes were held twice a week, without interfering with the school's main curriculum.

From the Kyrgyz TechnoWomen Fund, the program was implemented by Foundation Director Tatiana Nechaeva, co-founders Marina Dushenova and Aiperi Kasymbekova, as well as STEM program instructor Nuriza Zununova.

During the training period, participants completed more than 10 practical and theoretical lessons, as well as several additional online sessions with invited experts. The participants mastered the Arduino platform for creating simple electronic devices and robots and learned how to create 3D models on Tinkercad.

Additionally, the program covered the basics of algorithmic thinking in Scratch, robotics classes using LEGO Spike Prime (motors, sensors, conditional logic), and an introduction to manufacturing equipment: CNC machines, laser and sandblasting devices.

Participants also developed teamwork skills, the basics of startup thinking, and public presentation of engineering solutions. As a result, the schoolgirls and teachers progressed from their first steps in engineering to creating their own prototypes and shaping them into startup initiatives.

A key outcome of the STEM program was demonstrating that engineering is a practical tool for solving real-world problems and has no gender association.

In a survey, project participants noted that the most difficult part for them seemed to be mastering the Arduino and Tinkercad platforms for creating robots and 3D models – but they succeeded in doing so under the guidance of their instructors. What participants liked most was the hands-on part, where they assembled structures for their projects. According to the schoolgirls, the instructors explained the working principles in detail at each stage, and the educational course itself was very intensive and could have included even more sessions.