Transforming 8 Communities in the Pamirs

It has been a busy quarter for the projects and for the team of supporters around the world. A former colleague, Caroline, walked hundreds of miles across the wilderness of the Highlands of Scotland to raise money for the wilderness of Tajikistan. She raised over £2,000 ($2,400)! And a visiting family to the Pamirs helped us to gain points on Global Giving with a photograph that was shortlisted for the annual competition.

In the field, the work with communities has been busy as well. The greenhouse project has had a visit from an evaluator who has carried out participatory research with our partners. This has given us areas for improvement but has also confirmed that this solution is rapidly moving toward making a sustainable change to the lives in the communities in which we work.

Continued monitoring of the greenhouses as well as carrying out continued training using the knowledge of local experts has literally born out amazing fruit. We have completed a greenhouse with what is one of the most isolated and marginalised communities in the region and we have delivered glass jars and preservation training that will allow communities to store vegetables for school children to enjoy this winter. Finally, we continue to refine and redesign the greenhouse to make it more affordable and accessible to more people.

The health project continues to tackle some of the root causes to poor child health by equipping hospital workers with knowledge on childhood illnesses and the with skills to become educators on these subjects to village women. Again we are using participatory tools in the hospital and in the villages to continually build community, reinforce accurate knowledge, as well as to evaluate our techniques and progress.

There have been a number of staff changes in our little office that have had some impact on the project work. The two international staff members working on the fruit project have sadly had to say goodbye to Tajikistan and return to their home countries. This has meant we will most likely have to suspend this project from the New Year. Nevertheless we are convinced that the work that was started will continue to have an impact far into the future. But at the same time we have been able to welcome a new international member of staff onto the health project. She joins a wonderfully committed, passionate and experienced team of local staff.

Thanks for your continued support. We look forward to sharing more stories with you as we come toward the end of the year. Please let us know if you would like to help us by raising awareness and/or funds toward this work over the festive period. Without the generous support of individuals, this work would stop overnight.