Transforming 8 Communities in the Pamirs

Since the last report the snows have begun to melt and there has been a rush of frantic activity as the projects build up steam for the coming season.

Fruit

The fruit project has been working hard with our partner farmers to finalise a design for the next run of packaging which is now ordered. We have also helped the farmers start to develop a website for the juice. You can track its progress at the link below.

On the orchard side, we have been carrying out trainings into pruning and natural methods of pest control. 

“The pen is mightier than the sword” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton). In Community Development work this is a powerful truth and a successful facilitator works hard to place the pen into the hands of the participants.

The Play: Orchard Training

The Scene: The Beautiful Roshkala Valley

The Act: Summer Pruning

Enter Ivan. Declaring this his 3^rd training and eager to show his accumulation of knowledge and the practical outworking of his learning; he grabbed the pen, and began drawing branches and situations which require pruning in the summertime.

The 24 participants eagerly lapped up the knowledge he was sharing. Here was a respected “one of their own” showing that he was both able to learn and willing to share.

Last year, one of my own colleagues who lives up the Roshkala Valley brought some apples to share with the office staff. I was amazed. I only hope that one of you reading this, will one day be able to share in the fruitful abundance of this valley. Until then, keep cheering on the farmers who are improving their communities, one apple tree at a time.

Health

In the health project we have been teaching on health issues during pregnancy in a new village. One thing we have come to realise is that without the mothers-in-law on board the new knowledge the women are gaining is unlikely to be implemented so we have started working more closely with them as we move forward. 

Greenhouses and High Altitude Agriculture

We have been busy carrying out trainings and partner meetings since the last report. We have trained the greenhouse keepers in the brand-new school greenhouses how to get started, we have carried our phase two training for those school greenhouses who will be entering their second growing season, and we have had a great time with our longest running partners as they share new ideas and problem solve some of the issues they faced last year.

The stove trial for growing throughout the winter in a greenhouse was a big success in terms of crop - we now need to calculate whether is make financial sense considering the fuel and initial investment.

REMEMBER: For blow by blow updates of what we are doing check out our facebook page (link below)

Looking forward and the resourcing situation

As we look forward to the rest of the year we have exciting plans for celebrating International Children's Day in remote villages, building experimental greenhouses, training more fruit farmers, holding a young farmer's club and much much more. We are also having to turn our attention to fundraising again. Your generous donations have allowed us to get from October to May! We are still needing funds to get us from May to December. So all fundraising suggestions are gratefully accepted.

Links:

• Our Facebook page
• The new website for the juice

Since the last report winter has hit the mountains of Tajikistan. Whilst not as bad as last year, night time temperatures have plunged to -20 degrees and snow is knee deep in some of the villages.

But we have not be idle. Each project has been taking part in exercises to understand how our project partners and their community define ‘poverty’. Also how they see the impact of poverty on their lives. This is providing us with really important information that will help us to work ever more closely with our partners as we tackle some of these issues. Problems ranging from wolf attacks to the price of food have come up. But we have also seen so many strengths: the spirit of volunteerism still thriving, more work available in the towns, and the hope brought through savings groups.

The Greenhouse Project

It has been a slower month for the greenhouse project for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, we have been gathering data, from a greenhouse we have supported at a technical college, to assess the potential for extending the vegetable growing season. It is exciting to see the opportunities here to train young people in the use of greenhouses.

Another of our partners has been experimenting using sawdust fired stoves to see whether it would be possible to grow herbs during the winter months. The exciting news is that he is about to harvest his first crops. We are still not sure whether this will be a viable option but the achievement of growing vegetables in this village for the first time is huge.

The Fruit Project

In the last juicing season, our three juicing partners produced more that 16,000 litres of fresh, organic apple juice. It is for sale in many shops in the town and the juice was the talking point of many a New Year party.

Now the important work of securing packaging suppliers begins as well as working out how we can support the businesses to become totally self-reliant over the next twelve months.

The Health Project

We have been working with a village nearby to the town for the past month, teaching about good health during pregnancy. We have observed two major changes already. The first is the attitude to the importance of drinking water. The perceived wisdom is that tea is encouarged and water is not – cold water is assumed to lead to health problems such as saw throats and could even damage the baby. They now see the benefits to immunity, and to the health of vital organs, and have started to drink more cold, clean water.

The second change is related to iron. At this time of year, particularly, it is difficult to find natural sources of iron and many women are anaemic. We have been teaching about the use of iron tablets and the participants have committed to understanding their haemoglobin counts and to take iron tablets during their pregnancy when needed.

Links:

• Our Facebook page