Here you find an overview of our workshops…
The felt workshop is a very important work area. Many of the residents work here. The production of felt products in Kyrgyzstan has a tradition of many centuries. The yurts with which the Kyrgyz and their animals are going into the mountains in the summer are made of felt by nomadic women. Also large rugs, the kyrgyz Shyrdaks, are made by hand from felt.
Sheep wool felt is used in the social village of Manas to produce cushions. They carry the traditional symbols and colors and each piece is unique.
Meanwhile, we bring products from the felt workshop of the social village of Manas to Germany and sell them at various Christmas bazaars. The proceeds go directly back to the social village of Manas and contributes there to the running costs. Thus, the inhabitants can make their own contribution to the survival of Manas social village.
Some residents take important tasks in the housekeeping and, together with the employees, ensure that people cook, wash, clean, buy, and also help those who need support or need to be looked after while eating. They also help with shopping.
Housekeeping is for some people who do not like to be in the felt workshop, because it is always turbulent and loud, a very suitable work area to gain knowledge and skills and to gain self-confidence. Those who work here are urgently needed.
In agriculture, there were previously dairy cows. They are milked in the morning and in the evening, and during the day a shepherd goes with them to the river to water them and over the meadows to feed them. Sometimes the cows also eat the grass around the houses. Then the shepherds have to be careful not to eat the young trees.
Since the autumn of 2015, there is a nice new chicken coop with spout, in which 50 to 100 chickens have space. They must be fed and the barn must be cleared out and it must be seen that the energizer works for the spout and all the animals are there. Also, the barn must be closed in the evening, when it gets dark, and opened in the morning.
For the cows and their offspring also a new stable was built. Also for a flock of sheep of up to 30 animals, a compartment was set up in the new barn. The money to buy the flock of sheep was donated in November 2015 by donors of the Munich initiative. Thanks a lot for this.
With the financial support of Abilis, a Finnish organization, in 2015 a greenhouse (polytunnel) was built. Salads and other vegetables are to be grown here and enrich the menu in the future.
In agriculture, demanding jobs have been created for residents of the social village of Manas, all of them with disabilities. Agriculture will increasingly contribute to the institution’s self-sufficiency.
Since 2017 there is a small diary. The residents make their own joghurt and cream.
2016/2017 Sebastian, a german agriculture ingenieur, was in the village to start with many different vegetable and gardening on the fields. Now working in the garden is a very good and useful workplace for our residents. They are able to grow their own food and create a part for their self-catering.