Goal: The Aslan Alliance is dedicated to helping communities develop "a culture of trust" where shared values, common vision and unified goals achieve a transformation from hopelessness to stability. Many communities in Kyrgyzstan suffer from a "suitcase mentality," characterized by the desire to flee to the city, to emigrate from the country, to go to the "Promised Land" of America.

Thousands of Kyrgyz women travel throughout Asia selling fruit and goods in bazaars leaving children in the care of relatives. Young men and women in Kyrgyzstan are lured into the sex slave trade by promises of a better life overseas. European cities like Brussels and Munich have become Meccas for Uyghurs from Kyrgyzstan. A "brain drain" has bled Kyrgyzstan as tens of thousands of Germans, Russians, and Ukrainians have emigrated to their ancestral lands. Sadly, the communities of Kyrgyzstan are unable to provide for their members or offer a future to new generations.

Short-sighted goals and self serving leaders too often characterize communities in Kyrgyzstan. "Arrogance is the second happiness" is a common saying in urban areas. In many communities unemployed youth resort to narcotics and crime for income. Organized crime controls many legitimate businesses. While economic opportunities are needed, much of Kyrgyzstan’s social problems are due to a lack of community spirit and good leadership.

By building a community identity and laying the foundations for mutual trust, the Aslan Alliance projects seek to restore hope to the community. This community of mutual trust allows the expression of specific ethnic identities while building towards national unity. Youth programs designed to build community spirit and school projects that benefit the community will also build hope within a new generation.

Through cultural expression, social trust, democratic sharing of power, and a free market economy governed by competitive cooperation ("playing by the rules on an even playing field"), communities can rebuild a "culture of trust" and contribute towards the common national weal.

Aslan Alliance community development projects will work alongside economic development projects to provide consulting and assessment of community cultural needs, thereby gaining greater acceptance of the economic project by the community. Though money can't buy happiness, economic prosperity with right living can secure a balanced, healthy life for individuals and build a successful community.

The awareness of a cultural perspective in community project development also avoids inappropriate technology, misunderstandings, and lack of community ownership of a project. The bias of foreign aid projects too often overlooks the different worldviews underlying communities. An analysis of a community from a cultural, social and ethnic perspective enables a community development project to make the necessary adjustments.

The elders of a predominantly Uyghur village in Kyrgyzstan were asked to name their main community needs. They answered, "Our first need is to have traditional musical instruments and ethnic costumes for our annual community festival. The second need is for an English schoolteacher, the third need is for a new water distribution system in the village”. For a Western mind the first priority would have been last and the last one first. For an Eastern mind, ethnic cultural expression comes first.