Tajikistan
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Photo: Jason Sangster for Mercy Corps
Our strategy
Strengthen the economic development of communities by focusing on improved health services and youth empowerment.
The context
Tajikistan remains the poorest nation in Central Asia. Its civil war in the 1990s severely damaged the country’s already weak economic infrastructure and caused a sharp decline in industrial and agricultural production. Uneven implementation of structural reforms and widespread unemployment have kept the economy in a fragile condition and left families struggling with extreme poverty, poor healthcare and isolation. The country is also vulnerable to earthquakes, floods, avalanches, mudslides, energy shortages, locusts and crop failure leading to increasing food insecurity.
Our work
- Conflict & Governance: Creating community cohesiveness by engaging groups on water, land and energy improvements
- Disaster preparedness: Helping remote villages create response plans in the event of natural disasters
- Health: Supporting clinics and training health workers to improve childbirth outcomes and address postpartum depression
- Women & Gender: Educate adolescent girls about their rights and the risks of early marriage and pregnancy
All stories about Tajikistan
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Tajikistan: Six days on the road November 18, 2009
I'm both exhausted and exhilarated by my six-day journey through the red clay rocky back-roads of Tajikistan's border area with Kyrgyzstan in the Rasht Valley.
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Tajikistan: Cooking with Jonibek August 16, 2009
One weekend morning, I walked into the kitchen of the house here in Garm to see what I could scrounge up for breakfast. I smiled when I noticed there was coffee ready.
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Tajikistan: Lord of the bees August 6, 2009
Beekeeping is an extremely valued activity in many areas of the world, and honey enjoys a nearly mythological reputation in many cultures. It should – promises weren’t made about a land of milk and honey for nothing.
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Tajikistan: What's in a name? July 28, 2009
When I’ve studied abroad, I have usually avoided using a local moniker — including last summer when I lived with a Tajik family and studied Tajik. It didn’t matter too much to me that my name, for whatever reason, is completely unintelligible for a variety of cultures.
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Tajikistan: What would you do for an interview? July 22, 2009
Amy promised me pancakes if I wrote a blog entry, and I’ve accepted her terms.
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Tajikistan: A fragile peace is shaken July 14, 2009
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Tajikistan: A ritual for healing July 1, 2009
This past Saturday we celebrated the National Day of Reconciliation, which marks the day when President Imomali Rakhmonov and United Tajik Opposition leader Said Abdullo Nuri signed a peace agreement in Moscow in 1997.
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Tajikistan: Lost and found: notes from last summer June 25, 2009
I’m lost. Well, not completely. I know I’m in the remote Rasht Valley, looking for the village where my Tajik colleagues and I will sleep for the night.
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Tajikistan: From tomatoes to empowerment June 23, 2009
While we’re spending this month focused entirely on the transport and distribution of wheat flour, lentils and oil to nearly 5,000 women, it’s actually a small component of USAID and Mercy Corps’ Single Year Assistance Program (SYAP) here.
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Tajikistan: It's lunchtime! June 22, 2009
Working out in the field is exhilarating for so many reasons. It’s a chance to see the program in action; to meet with locals and hear their stories; and to take in the stunning landscape that this country offers so effortlessly. Oh, and then there’s lunch.