Heat in the Winter, Playtime in the Summer

Ten year old Dilnoza's life is a lot easier since a Mercy Corps program started in her village. Photo: Alissa Zwanger/Mercy Corps

Dilnoza is a typical 10-year-old: she likes school, helps her mother with household chores, and enjoys spending time with her friends. Dilnoza lives in Yoshlik, a dusty small village in rural Uzbekistan.

The village has one main “road,” unpaved and muddy. Small, bare, and poorly-constructed houses dot the landscape around Yoshlik, which is an hour away from the larger town of Namangan in the Ferghana Valley of Uzbekistan.

Life for Dilnoza was hard before Mercy Corps and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) came to her village as part of the Community Action Investment Program (CAIP). The impoverished village did not have electricity or any other stable source of energy.

This meant that Dilnoza and the women and children of Yoshlik spent three hours during weekdays and most of the weekends collecting brushwood for fires, or gathering coal. The coal supply was erratic, expensive, and caused illnesses such as bronchitis and asthma. Often, community members were cold and hungry during the winter months, when temperatures dip down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit – especially the children.

Working with a committee from the Yoshlik community, Mercy Corps and USAID assisted in procuring a gas supply for the small village. The community implemented the labor while Mercy Corps purchased the necessary supplies and equipment.

With a reliable gas supply, living conditions have improved. Now, the women and children do not have to collect brushwood or coal. The number of illnesses has decreased, and so have families' medical costs.

Women now spend the weekends in the cotton fields earning extra money for their families in addition to their weekday jobs. This year, the children of the community had their first summer vacation, ever. Previous summers were spent gathering supplies in preparation for winter. This year, they played games and helped their mothers with household chores, and were noticeably happier.

The children of the village – including Dilnoza – not only have a better today, but a brighter future.

According to Fozil, a 47-year-old member of the local community action group, “The next generation of Yoshlik has seen what our collaborative work can do. They have seen adults solve the community’s problems and improve our lives. We have dignity. We can bring a better tomorrow.”