Tajikistan travels

OneWebDay

Today is OneWebDay - a celebration of the Internet's ability to foster communication, collaboration and participation. The web has made a huge difference for Charities such as Christian Aid. We came to the web early with just one member of staff managing a few pages on the net. Today we have a whole department given over to maintaining five different sites, each receiving thousands of visitors a day.

As well as educating the public about the scandal of poverty, the web is a vital fundraising tool for us at Christian Aid. Present Aid, our on-line gift catalogue has raised the best part of £1,000,000 in the last 12 months.

But of course, the web is so much more than just web sites. It's helped my team to deliver new initiatives in collaboration and information sharing than would previously have been possible. We have enterprise software systems which are delivered to users around the world via the web - meaning that we no longer have to deploy and maintain software on staff machines.

One of our biggest successes has been the use of Microsoft SharePoint to create a document management and collaboration tool that is accessible by over 500 staff in 32 offices. For the first time ever, Christian Aid staff have access to the same information whether they are in an office, on a plane, or in the desert. We think that's pretty neat - you can read more about SharePoint at Christian Aid here and on the Microsoft People Ready site.

Big projects aside, we've also seen the power of the web in smaller initiatives. At the beginning of the year, we tentatively tried blogging from a staff trip to Tajikistan. The response was amazing and over 12,000 people visited the site. We started podcasts for the first time back in May and have been bowled over by how successful they've been. We're now looking at how we mainstream these activities and integrate them with our websites.

For the year ahead, we're going to be stretching SharePoint and other systems further as we use web technologies to help the organisation decentralise and put management decisions closer to the countries we serve. We'll also be looking at how we share information even more effectively with wikki's, folksonomy's and other social tools. Exciting stuff.

This blog restarts in October when our GAP year students travel back to Tajikistan. In the meantime, check out our other blogs listed in the sidebar, or visit any of the following Christian Aid sites.

Steven Buckley
Head of Common Knowledge Programme
Christian Aid, London

• Christian Aid corporate site
• PressureWorks campaigning site
• Christian Aid Podcasts (subscribe via iTunes using this link)
• SureFish ISP
• Christian Aid connect
• TogetherTV
• Global Gang childrens site

Tenacity of the spirit

Matthew Reed - Kyrgyzstan

The driver comes at 1am so I can catch the cheap flight to the UK via Istanbul.

Inevitably on the journey home I reflect on the past very full 10 days.

In addition to the meetings with beneficiaries (some of which I have described in this blog) I have had meetings with colleagues and staff teams of our partners. I have taken hundreds of images (some of which will appear here soon) and there has been the inevitable, although most agreeable, long distances to travel. I have also endeavoured to sustain normal service with colleagues in Britain and Ireland by email in the evening. And I’ve produced this blog!

I have only been away just over a week; it feels more like a month.

When this trip was first suggested our Asia and Middle East team were keen for us to find ways of further highlighting the poverty issues and needs in Central Asia. I hope we have started on that and will look at it further. Indeed I used examples from Kyrgyzstan in sermons at St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in Christian Aid Week last May. We have already started thinking about the youth trip to Zumrad.

Whenever I travel to less developed economies I am as shocked by the affluence when I get back as I am by the poverty when I am away. The financial and corresponding inequality of life security is astonishing. And yet it is more complicated than that. I do not return in one dimensional gratitude for the address I accidentally call home, for this past few days I seen much that in the UK we should learn from. I have seen resilient community, and people with time for each other. I have seen spirituality authentically ingrained in every day reality rather than marginalised to midnight mass. I have connected with the robustness, beauty and risk of the human spirit living close to the edge and feeling all the more alive for it.

I have learnt much about myself over the last 10 days. Part of my soul now resides in Central Asia, just as assorted elements have of it have long since settled in other countries where I have engaged with fellow humans in our essence.

This evening I am back in my home town of Marlow. It is so good to see my wife and children again. I hug them tight.

This is not the end though. The trip wasn't designed for my benefit; I now need to make it work for those I visited. I live this life because at my deepest level of my being I reject the ugliness and outrage of injustice, and I restlessly search for truth and the beauty of the human spirit. Tenacity to grasp tight to love and human beauty despite of, and in the face of, the rawness and injustice of human anguish. This for me is what life before and life after death is all about.

There is so much still to do; I’ll be back at my desk tomorrow morning.

Partners in life

Matthew Reed - Kyrgyzstan

Flights out of Tajikistan over the mountains are subject to cancellation when the weather is poor. Now not needing the contingency day built into my programme to deal with this eventuality I have another full day in Bishkek. I put it to use visiting Development and Co-operation in Central Asia (DCCA), a partner of Christian Aid based in Bishkek. I have a valuable conversation discussing and reflecting on some the models of development  I have observed over the last week, social and political issues in Kyrgyzstan, and geopolitical issues facing the region.

Christian Aid does not work operationally on its own. We always choose to work through partners, that is other organisations. Naturally the partners range in their size, and the depth and breadth of their geographical and programme focus.

This approach to development, and emergencies, of working through partners has many benefits; we do not replicate local infrastructure, we do not incur the high cost of flying materials from the UK and we minimise duplication by joint funding with other agencies. Primarily though our partners are selected for their inherent discernment and expertise into the broad and detailed situation in each country we work in. There is a corresponding truth in this approach, that we assume and trust that people locally will have determined insights as to what is best required in their nation and communities.

This is not a blind trust, as robust conversations about priorities and approaches is part of the partner relationship, and there is a natural turn over of partners as priorities and needs change and partners no longer require our support. In 61 years of working with the world’s poorest communities this has become though a honed model that works; it continually reflects our experience that with our input, support, experience, and advocacy support local people form excellent solutions to the challenges they face.

As our supporters and donors would expect, this approach of working through partners is driven by maximising our impact on poverty and marginalisation in the most cost effective and efficient way possible.

It does though also convey theological truths, some of which I have already alluded to.

In the Christian tradition, the image of God presented is of that of coming out to meet us and be with us in the reality, ambiguity and messiness of our lives; in our beauty, profundity and potential, and our superficiality, vanity and stupidity.

Working through partners is such a going out; it has been good to affirm that on this trip.

In all three religions that look to Abraham as the ‘father of faith’ there is the consciousness that interpersonal relationships and the connection between humanity and the divine are defined and refined on trust in the other and mutual interdependence. Something of the truth of this is reflected I think in our partnership approach.

Homeward bound

Matthew Reed - Kyrgyzstan

Today I fly back to Bishkek at the start of my journey home. Last night I had dinner with colleagues in Dushanbe thanking them for their friendship and their care and diligence in facilitating and supporting my trip. They warmly encourage me to come back on holiday with my family.

For the second time in a week I have the misfortune of a taxi driver with short term memory loss. Having vigorously assured me at the airport he knew exactly where my guest house was, he lost all knowledge of it once clear of the airport. He kindly offered his friend's guest house instead. We eventually make it to my guest house; I've remembered the way.

Today is my wife Jennifer’s birthday. After some grappling with the Russian version of Skype I get through to her; its great to hear her voice and speak to my children. Home feels a long way away.

The Soviet Block

Matthew Reed - Tajikistan

Such is the plight of many older people in Tajikistan that their very being is eroded by malnutrition, poor health care, and absent families who endure the often maltreated life of migrant workers in Russia. In desperation some older people sign over their modest apartments in an arrangement where they remain in residence until they die, cared for by the new owner. For several people in the neighbourhood though the new ‘carers’ have heralded suspiciously early deaths. The existence of this barbarism means many elderly people live in fear of their lives, so the daily food and home care offered by Christian Aid is invaluable.

Part of the shock of poverty in Tajikistan is that it didn’t used to be like this. Many of the people struggling to survive have not been used to this existence. Anastasia Bougrova for example was before retirement a doctor, a consultant; she now like all others of her age does not know where the next meal will come from. Nurse Nazarava does today; she puts the food left over from her neighbour’s plate in a jar to have later.

I am taken to see several people in their soviet apartment blocks, identical to buildings throughout the old USSR. Panes of glass are randomly distributed amongst the window frames, dogs guard their hoards of rubbish, rotting concrete hangs from lintels and mail boxes that have been idle for years swing in the breeze. I go to meet Yuri Barrotov, aged 76, who lost his sight in a mining accident. In the past he would have received a satisfactory pension and state care; now he sits in the dark with a few of his old tools as companions. In the corner of the room a sack of EU food aid questions who will cook it. As I listen to his story and somewhat uncomfortably take some photographs, Yuri’s dinner is prepared by a volunteer from our partner, the National Volunteer Council.

Despite the despondent circumstances endured by many of the people I have met today, there has remained a tenacious and profound sense of human dignity. There is an ubiquitous and understandable yearning in these older people for the safety and predictability of the Soviet era.

These older people do not feature highly in plans for the brave new order, with its decisions based on potential financial return.

Once again the work we support here rejects human disposability. It makes life desirable and treats each beneficiary as a unique person; in so doing it reflects in some humble way without fanfare the great commandment.

But what of the degradation, poverty and suffering there to start with? Where is the Holy, the Divine, God in the mess of all this?

One response could simply be to recite the mantra of the stable, an exile in Egypt, living under occupation, and an untimely death as God comprehending and partaking in the human torment. In the face of those I meet with today this approach sounds rehearsed and feels glib and inappropriate, even insulting; it is not a line of inquiry I would begin to want to pursue.

An alternative could be to refrain from words altogether and submit to a humble and sustained silence. This could have it attractions, for it witnesses to the inexplicable. But it is also unsatisfactory, for it hints at authenticating or colluding with the ugly unacceptable face of human suffering.

Neither glibness nor silence is good enough.

Personally, despite at times a perceived pressure from others, I am resigned to stay with the question and act. This is not laziness, because I have relentlessly wrestled with it for decades. It is just how it is.

It is in the question though that I return to the love of God personified in the person of Jesus, uniquely attuned in its encounter with humanity.

Or to cut the crap, witnessing people care for each other in the profound manner I have witnessed today.

The new generation

Matthew Reed - Tajikistan

The first images I am presented with this afternoon are of young people trekking in the Tajik mountains. Some of my most formative days as child were spent walking in mountains my attention is immediately captured.

Magareta Boutoiva, director of Zumrad, talks me through her work. This is a scheme we support working with orphans and abandoned children who either reside in the notorious Internats or chance it on the streets. The sewing, IT and language skills young people learn at Zumrad are deployed in making mountain trekking kit including rucksacks, sleeping bags, tents and clothes. They then go for weeks at a time into the mountains for ecological and self sufficiency instruction. The group of young people are gathered to meet are animated in their enthusiasm for the scheme, and describe have how through it they have grown in self confidence. Some of these teenagers will hope to use the sewing, trekking and language skills they have learnt for future employment; the perpetual benefits though are reinstalled faith in themselves and others. They invite me to return to Tajikistan and trek with them, an invitation I would love to accept.

In Britain and Ireland we are having a renewed effort to energise younger people to know more about poverty and injustice and be part of generating solutions. In a few weeks time our 15 new Gap year volunteers will be here in Tajikistan and will see the work for themselves. A conversation emerges of bringing some teenagers from Britain and Ireland to share in a summer trek through the Tajik hills with these young Tajiks. I intuitively warm to the idea and we agree to work on it further.

Solidarity

Matthew Reed - Tajikistan

In my meetings with people throughout these lands I have tried to convey something of Christian Aid in Britain and Ireland, how we receive a lot of our income and support from the public, with 300,000 volunteers involved in Christian Aid Week. I do my best to describe this through my interpreter in a way that does not create obliged deference. Rather I want to convey the sense of solidarity between many people in Britain and Ireland and people living in more challenging situations. My point is increasingly hitting the mark with groups I meet. Christian Aid raised about 90M pounds last year from a large number of donors; we wouldn’t be the same organisation if this had emerged from a small handful of donors. Christian Aid is about many standing in solidarity with the poor and the marginalised throughout the world.

Today I can add to my description by conveying news of the 3000 Christian Aid supporters who made their way to Whitehall this week to demand better policies from the British government to support development. The group of elderly people I am meeting with stand and applaud our supporters. I promise to take their greetings back home.

Brothers in Arms

Matthew Reed - Tajikistan

Senior Lieutenant Comrade Moldavsky Mihail Petrovick has spent all his life with a fervour for justice. Despite now being 84 he is a passionate campaigner and advocate for pensioners in his part of Dushanbe to ensure everyone gets their allowance. Life for old people in Tajikistan is desolate. The pension, a meagre $10 per month, is no where near enough to survive. Supported by Christian Aid’s partner, the National Volunteer Council, Comrade Moldavsky makes representations to officials on behalf of people much younger than he is, and has established a formidable success rate.

In the war years Moldavsky survived the siege of Leningrad and unlike 30 million other soviets survived the whole war. He proudly produces a copy of a letter, addressed to him personally and signed by Stalin, thanking him for his services in the liberation of Berlin.

My grandfather was not so lucky. He didn’t make it to Berlin. He was shot in France in 1944.

Now over 60 years later Comrade Moldavsky and I are engaged together in the common pursuit of justice. He was my grandfather’s brother in arms against fascism; now we are brothers in arms against poverty. I tell him my family story. We embrace and my eyes fill.

Not to be outdone on the medals Stipanova Mirzoeva produces her jacket adorned with decorations from the soviet era. In her younger days she was Head of the Physical, Cultural and Sports Committee of Tajikistan, a reasonably senior rank in the Soviet system. She is still remarkably fit at 89. ‘I still go running,’ she assures me and I can quite believe it. I am tempted to sign her up for the London marathon.

She also has spent a lifetime working for the greater good and has no intention of retiring from that now. Indeed every day she runs a drop in centre where free lunches are available for the poorest pensioners in the district. She is supported in this by Christian Aid.

The Crescent and the Sickle

Matthew Reed - Tajikistan

One of my aims on this trip is to understand more of the religious context of our programmes. In Soviet times religion was of course repressed, the ‘Opium of the People’, although in reality the long-established Islam had been sufficiently far from Moscow to survive. In ‘Brideshead revisited’ Evelyn Waugh refers to the return to religion as needing ‘but a twitch upon the thread.’ What, I wondered, was the return to in central Asia, and who was pulling the thread?

In Kyrgyzstan it was apparent that the little new building work taking place in rural areas was of mosques. Less physically apparent, but also growing, were active members of Christian churches. At their core Christianity and Islam are faiths of peace and justice. Regrettably however that is not how either belief has always been experienced. I was keen to hear from people as I travelled how the increase in religious expression is changing society.

The clear response in Kyrgyzstan was that the one of the rudiments of the Soviet system to survive to the new order is the embedded conviction that humanitarian approaches to being human must transcend divisive religious practice. Music to my ears.

Today in Tajikistan our partner Mehrangez have arranged for an assembly of village Mullahs to meet with this peripatetic English theologian. It is profound visit. We sit and share bread together and drink tea and exchange our hopes for humanity as people of faith. I quiz them about Islam in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. They ask me about Islam in the UK and terrorism, and tease me about the world cup defeat. Barno, aware of the complexities of what we are discussing, works extra hard to get the nuances of our discourse right; I have to assume by the warm embraces that follow that she has done well. Not unsurprisingly when our humanity is laid bare in each other’s company there is listening, praying, hoping and great deal of laughter. They recite, believe and practice the Soviet mantra of humanity first, religious practice second. We have a meeting of minds and souls.

I still search for who or what is twitching the thread of the Islamic revival in Tajikistan. I leave hearing that for these people it comes from within, their response to being human, of living in profound communities that part of me covets, and a humble consent to walk the way of God.

I hear how for the benefit of the whole community they have integrated the Mahallah Committee with the self group we support in the village. The consequence is a number of new suggestions coming from the village of projects they can do to make their economic development sustainable. I sense the inevitable grant request looming. I cannot assist now but it helps to be reminded that our capacity at Christian Aid to bring transformation to communities is hindered only by our limited resources, and not by our aspiration.

We left each other as children of Abraham putting our humanity first and rejoicing in each other’s expression what it meant to travel life in search of the Holy, the divine, and the reality of life bigger than ourselves.

Afghan winds

Matthew Reed - Tajikistan

I am now the proud owner of a full Tajik ceremonial outfit, a kind gift of the community I visit today in Shartuz provence in the south of Tajikistan. Mehrangez, a Christian Aid supported project, is working in this village of Ok-Oltyn where temperatures reach nearly 50 degrees in the summer. It is not that today, but I can imagine the full length deep blue robe comes into its own in the sub zero winters here. I am quite warm enough as I am paraded for the village in my new attire. I wonder how I will get it home as I don’t have a great deal of space in my pack. I may have to wear it; let’s see what UK immigration makes of that.

‘You are Tajik now’, proclaims one of the older men as I put the traditional hat on. Through my interpreter I make some half baked joke about needing a hat as I don’t have much hair. I haven’t seen a bald Tajik man yet; a nervous giggle shimmers around the gathered women complemented by an empathetic nod from the men.

I am being accompanied on the field visits by my interpreter, Barno, and my Dushanbe based colleague Zarina (who naturally alternates between Tajik, Russian and English). One of my own frustrations on the trip is only speaking one of those languages (English for the record) but my efforts at humour have found common human ground everywhere I have gone.

Once I have de-robed it is down to the now familiar business of drinking green tea and listening to the community and the challenges it is experiencing.

This part of Tajikistan is near the Afghan border and again the first point they mention is the changing climate. For the last few years the summer temperature has increased significantly and has been accompanied by a roasting wind from Afghanistan. The heat is reducing crop yields, mitigated in part by costly fertiliser. Lower winter temperatures put insatiable pressure on the power supply with the corresponding plunder of the few remaining forests. Not only is climate change here impacting on the economy of human survival, but easing of its effects is making the problem worse.

Proportionally these villages burning more wood will not be the forebear of a ruined climate, but the millions of additional heaters and air conditioning units in the rest of the world may well be. Climate change is not tomorrow’s problem; it is today’s harsh reality for many people rummaging for survival. I leave reconvicted that tackling it must start with our own life style decisions. I feel like taking a penitential walk home.

The good news is that our partners on the ground here, Eco Youth Centre, are on the case and demonstrate a prototype solar heater in the village of Malcham. I often aspire for NGOs and business to combine their proficiencies more effectively, so I am delighted to hear that a commercial partner has been found to get the heater to market.