Program Details: Tajikistan

Musallam holds up some of her family's autumn harvest, augmented by seeds and training provided by Mercy Corps. "I save money, yes, but the most important thing is my children" — all eight of them — "have something to eat," she says. Photo: Jason Sangster for Mercy Corps

Tajikistan was the poorest of the Soviet republics, and independence and war have brought only further hardship to a country once reliant on Moscow for 40 percent of its budget. Today, 83 percent of Tajikistan residents live in poverty and the countrywide unemployment rate of 44 percent is even higher in rural areas.

Although the country has made progress on democratic reforms since the end of its civil war in 1997, Tajikistan remains largely socially and economically isolated from the rest of the region and the world.

Since 1994, Mercy Corps has been working to help communities in Tajikistan in several areas, which currently include:

Preventing Conflict
Mercy Corps is working to reduce the potential for violent conflict in the Tavildara valley, a remote and sparsely populated region that bore the brunt of fighting during the country's civil war. Today in the still-recovering region, Mercy Corps is helping residents here return to quieter times - and to move their lives forward. Small business loans are lifting women to new levels of independence. New sports fields are keeping youth positively engaged. Market bazaars, irrigation channels and other construction projects are underpinning sustainable economic development.

Promoting Healthy Women and Children
In Tajikistan's Sughd Oblast, Mercy Corps is working to improve the health of more than 80,000 women of childbearing age and children under five through four interventions: diarrhea disease control, nutrition, breastfeeding, and maternal-newborn care. Mercy Corps is partnering with the Sughd Department of Health, the Centers for Healthy Lifestyle, and local communities to apply a dual strategy of strengthening quality service delivery and promoting family behavior changes related to maternal-child health and nutrition.

Increasing Food Production and Access
Several food-related programs focus on reducing malnutrition and food insecurity through mother and child health, increasing agriculture production, processing and marketing, and improving the counseling skills of community health promoters and the spread of low-cost hygiene technologies.

Supporting Local Entrepreneurship
Mercy Corps plays a role in two financial institutions devoted to helping people who don't have access to commercial loan products, especially women. Borshud was co-founded by Mercy Corps and Oriyon, a local NGO, in 2005. It is the third-largest microfinance institution in Tajikistan and has its roots in the remote Tavildara valley. Borshud provides group loans and business-planning services to its agri-based business clients.

IMON was co-founded by Mercy Corps and National Association of Business Women of Tajikistan in 2005. IMON is the largest and strongest-performing microfinance institution in Tajikistan, operating three branches and 21 sub-branches and serving 14,000 clients with $6 million in loans outstanding.