With our project "Saving Animals with Computers", we have been equipping universities in Ukraine with non-animal teaching methods since 2007, thus saving thousands of animals each year from an agonizing death. In 2012, the first lecture tour in cooperation with InterNICHE took place in Central Asia. Since then we have signed several agreements with heads of departments in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Russia (Siberia). We are still in contact with the university teachers, they report on their experiences to us and share them with their colleagues at other universities.

In June 2016, our Ukrainian project partner, Dimitrij Leporskij, travelled to Kazakhstan for the first time at the invitation of Prof. Nelya Shapekova, Dean of the Eurasian National University of Astana. Even before the visit, Prof. Shapekova announced that from the following semester in September 2016, she would like to set up a virtual laboratory for the medical-biological faculties. Dimitrij's training seminar came just at the right time to underpin the planned path. The Dean promised to invite interested parties from other universities throughout the country.

Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, is a young, fast-developing city. Within less than 20 years, the steppe area has become a thriving region with rapid economic growth. The Eurasian National University, founded 20 years ago, is a progressive institution that is technically very well equipped thanks to financial support from the government. Sufficient computer hardware, necessary for the use of animal-free teaching materials, is available.

Dimitrij Leporskij gives a lecture at the Eurasian University of Astana

The first day of the workshop held on 16 June 2016 at the Faculty of Science, involved more than 30 university teachers in the fields of medicine, agriculture, veterinary medicine, and biology. They came not only from the surrounding cities like Karaganda, but even from the distant Almaty (20 hours by train).

In the first part of his seminar, Dmitrij gave a general overview of the non-animal studies and reported on the great successes in Ukraine and other CIS countries. During the demonstrations, he paid special attention to the Russian-language materials, which we developed with the support of "our" university teachers. The audience showed great interest and absorbed the information.

The animal-friendly teaching materials are met with great interest

After this 6-hour-long workshop, 14 of the participants were interested in working together and left their contact details. Many took the free CDs and DVDs that Dimitrij had brought with them and considered purchasing paid versions.

Because of the successful first day and the great interest of the audience, Prof. Shapekova asked Dmitrij to repeat the seminar the next day especially for the guests from Almaty. At the end of the second day, the head of the Department of Obstetrics, Surgery and Reproductive Technology of the Kazakh National Agricultural University, Mardan Dzhulanov, said enthusiastically: "You must come to us and organize a similar training seminar for students and teachers because we are very interested in non-animal education. A "no" is out of the question!"

Discussion with the head of the Department of Obstetrics, Surgery and Reproductive Technology of the Kazakh National Agricultural University, Mardan Dzhulanov.

We hope that the great interest of the Kazakh teachers will be a strong basis for our further cooperation and that together we can save thousands of animals from being tortured and killed for study and research purposes in Central Asia.

We would be delighted to receive support for our projects in Eastern Europe >>

Further information Overview of the whole project (in German) >> Trilingual Website (German, Ukrainian, Russian)