Tajikistan

 Ravshan grew up in Khujand, Tajikistan. He had no father and spent lots of time outside the home, sometimes pilfering in order to live. Influenced by his environment and lacking positive role models, Ravshan made friends with pick-pockets and started drug dealing. Later, he began taking drugs and was sentenced to prison for theft.

While serving his jail term, Ravshan decided to undergo HIV testing. Nearly one in five injecting drug users is infected with HIV in Tajikistan. Read more »

“I knew how to preserve food before,” says Zaron Hafizova, “but often much of the food I preserved spoiled and I was unable to preserve enough.” Zaron’s husband, Rahmaddin Shekhov, adds to the discussion, remarking about their greenhouse, “Many years ago we used greenhouses, but during the post-Soviet period we stopped using them and forgot about them.”

While both Zaron and Rahmaddin, 51 and 50 years of age respectively, are experienced farmers, they benefited greatly from the greenhouse and food preservation trainings conducted by the USAID and Mercy Corps Tajikistan Stability Enha Read more »

“The water in this tea is from the new drinking water system in our village,” 42-year old Saidakbar Devlokhov proudly explains while sipping black tea from his small cup.  “Now I can get it anytime I need.”

After years of neglect, the existing drinking water system in his village had fallen into disrepair. Residents of his picturesque village had to walk more than a quarter of a mile to the source to fetch water for everyday needs. Read more »

Hakimova is the head of her household. Her husband is a labor migrant in Russia eight months out of each year, but remittances come only when requested. Her family of five lives on $100 per month and grows their primary food sources: wheat, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, beets, and turnips. With a small orchard of fruit trees, the summer is bountiful in comparison to winter when food diversity is limited to non-perishable goods. Hakimova explains, “I don’t have the income to purchase preserved goods at the market. Read more »

“For the last three years, my yields have been 30 percent of what they were before,” says Sabur Kumischev, as he makes a sweeping motion with his hand indicating the land where his crops are grown. “All I could grow was corn. The other farmers could only grow corn. We had nothing to sell to each other and had to buy all of our food.”

Sabur’s village is about two hours outside the northern city of Khujand. For years, the community has relied on the limited water supplied by the local collective farm. Read more »