Supporter: Manasi Sharma

Expectant mothers and mothers-in-law at a focus group discussion in Gonchi district, Tajikistan Photo: Mercy Corps Tajikistan

I’m back in Tajikistan, six months after my first visit. This time, I’m here to support our field team with the midterm evaluation being conducted for our Maternal and Child Health programme. Accompanying me is Donna Sillan, a consultant we have contracted to write the evaluation.

We spent our first two days in Khujand — in the country's northern Sughd region where most of Mercy Corps' Maternal and Child Health interventions are taking place — planning sessions with the Village District Coordinators on how to collect qualitative data to gain an understanding of the programme’s impact on improving the health of women and children in the target areas, as well as other local capacity-building initiatives. The Village District Coordinators are a mix of Tajik men and women, many of them trained doctors from the Soviet era. These people are not only knowledgeable of health issues, but genuinely care about the work they are doing in the communities.

As I saw them conduct trainings, focus group discussions and various interviews with our beneficiaries, their support came across in such a kind and nurturing manner that made me think —even if I had never met them — I would feel immediately comfortable in speaking to them about my health!

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As a Desk Officer going on a field visit for the very first time, I could not have asked for a better place to visit than Tajikistan. I’ve come to think of it as a lost and/or hidden treasure in the middle of Central Asia. This may be because most of the non-Mercy Corps folks I told I was coming here usually couldn’t locate it on a map or even believed it was the name of an actual country.

I’ve spent almost every day in the field since my arrival, visiting our beneficiaries in the Tajikistan Stability Enhancement Programme (TSEP) and our Maternal and Child Health (MCH) project on the outskirts of Khujand, a northern city where Mercy Corps has an office. Tajik villages lack the most basic necessities most of us in the Western world take for granted: clean drinking water, basic infrastructure and the list could go on and on.

But there are also limited number of places where you walk out of your home every morning and are surrounded by the breath-taking views of mountains that cover the Ferghana Valley… this picture speaks for itself.

Maternal and Child Health Programme Director Ramesh Singh and I on the way to Gonchi village. Photo: Mercy Corps Tajikistan

With help from our extremely dedicated Khujand staff, I’ve been conducting Focus Groups in target villages where Mercy Corps’ TSEP programme is constructing water point systems for clean drinking water, a medical clinic for basic primary health care and training workshops such as sewing for young Tajik girls. I’ve never met such hospitable, warm and welcoming people. Every single visit has concluded with the villagers thanking me for making such a long trip to visit them and inviting me to their homes for tea and some Tajik pilau (traditional Tajik rice dish with vegetables and meat). Though I’m sure I am learning more from these people than they are from me.

I was able to attend two of the MCH community events, one in a small town in Spitamen district where Mercy Corps has targeted different schools engaged in the Child-to-Child (CTC) Training of Trainers where ninth and tenth grade students are teaching each other about hygiene practices that prevent waterborne diseases. Members of Village Development Committees, Department of Health and Department of Education attended this event, where Mercy Corps presented progress on project indicators and school children performed skits and dances from the different Central Asian nations.

Focus Group session in Urmantol Village, Asht district. Photo: Manasi Sharma/Mercy Corps

The other MCH event was organised on Global Hand-Washing Day and was held in a village called Gonchi, nestled in the middle of a beautiful valley, surrounded by the Ferghana mountains. The road to Gonchi is hardly a road and alongside the mountainside which kept me wondering how these people are able to ever leave their village unless they have a four-wheel drive?!

At this village, the school children and some of the Community Health Educators performed skits on hygiene and even sang and danced to Hindi songs (Bollywood is huge here!). Just like the TSEP communities, our MCH beneficiaries could not express more gratitude for the health interventions that they claim have improved their lives, especially those of children who have shown a marked decrease in the prevalence of diarrheal disease and other illness.

The enthusiasm and motivation these people have to improve their communities does not go unnoticed, as does their appreciation for Mercy Corps, since I feel like I’m in a photo shoot with the amount of young kids wanting to get a picture with the girl from the Mercy Corps office in America. And everyone visiting any Tajik event where dancing is included should know that no one is allowed to stay in their seats!

My trip is only halfway over but I already know that this will not be my last trip to Tajikistan.

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You've probably heard that UN officials have said the scale of the current disaster in Pakistan may exceed that of this year's earthquake in Haiti, the 2004 tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake — combined. Though the death toll does not approach those terrible events, the long term effects in terms of lost homes, destroyed crops, and farmland that has washed away.

Survivors need clean water, food and medical care to prevent waterborne diseases like diarrhea and cholera. The pictures we've been receiving from our response team there only hint at the widespread needs:

Mercy Corps has deployed seven trucks and staff to deliver safe drinking water to the Mingora/Saidu town. As a result, nearly 10,000 people are getting safe drinking water in the town on daily basis. Water filling stations from where water tankers are being filled has been disinfected and has been improved to ensure delivering of safe water to survivors.

Mercy Corps is also helping direct resources of other response agencies. We're organizing the distribution of water-purification tablets to far-flung villages, and buying supplies to build new water points and repair handpumps.

We're also procuring construction tools to go into emergency kits to 250 families. Flooding has washed away house, agriculture land, village and valley roads and other infrastructure. The tool kits will include wheelbarrows, pickaxes, shovels and jerry cans.

Our team is working hard to respond to survivors' immediate needs. We know these communities well, and we're committed to helping them rebuild after the waters recede.

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