We have just arrived back at our hotel in Dushanbe having spent a brilliant but exhausting 7 days visiting four Christian Aid partners. The final partner that we visited was the Youth Eco Centre (YEC) in the southern district of Shartuz, close to the Afghanistan border. What struck me about this region is just how peaceful and beautiful it is. The amazing landscape of Tajikistan is certainly something I will miss when I’m back in the busy centre of London!
YEC is a socio-ecological organisation which aims to raise public awareness of climate change and the effects that it has on the local community. YEC have a two stranded approach; they are involved in national advocacy and lobbying work and also support and build capacity of smaller ecological organistaions.
We had the chance to visit some of the community projects that have received support from YEC. The projects included a disasters emergency centre, a youth debating club, a community education centre and local community groups who have received greenhouses to help expand crop production and the installation of water distribution pumps.
I could talk about this partner all day but here is just one great example!
YEC are helping to fund what I would describe as a community training centre. The goal of the centre is to inform local farmers about climate change and to provide them with the necessary skills to adapt to its impacts. The scale of the project is huge. Farmers are taught skills in agricultural practices such as crop rotation, how to treat diseased crops and produce organic fertiliser. They run community master classes on how to construct greenhouses, solar driers, bio toilets, energy saving stoves and simple irrigation mechanisms. Conferences are held to educate people about the importance of protecting the environment and the benefits of using local seeds. Farmers are also provided with drought and salt resistant seedlings. In order to encourage more people to get involved, they hold competitions for farmers with prizes for the most active participants! If that wasn’t already enough, the Chairman, Hamza Nulloev, went on to inform us that they also fund a sewing training centre for 60 women!
Hamza previously attended college and is trained in agricultural practices. He was a really inspiring man who is clearly passionate about his work. When I asked him about his motivation he replied: “I am doing this as I am an expert in this field. I can now do something for my local community.”
This really was an awesome example of a community lead organisation whose capacity is being enhanced through the support of YEC.
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