Tajikistan
VSO Tajikistan works in the area of inclusive social and economic development. We work with marginalised youth and women from low income households to make sure vulnerable people and communities are benefiting from economic growth.
VSO registered in Tajikistan in 2008. Since suffering a brutal, five year civil war in the 1990s, Tajikistan has come a long way. However, it remains the poorest of the former Soviet republics and a high percentage of people live below the poverty line, with poverty most concentrated in rural areas. Statistics also reveal a growing level of economic inequality, which is often underpinned by social inequality. Many young people lack study and employment opportunities with 14% of the population migrating overseas for what is usually unsecure and low skilled work. Dependence on migrant remittances are, at the time of writing, at the highest levels in the world.
Inclusive social and economic development
VSO Tajikistan places volunteers with the government, private sector and civil society partners to create new employment opportunities and stimulate greater economic growth. Volunteers support partners to include vulnerable people in economic and social life. Some of the key initiatives VSO Tajikistan is supporting include:
partnering with the National Association of Business Women of Tajikistan to help train women in the skills they need to make a decent living and support their families. Volunteers are helping the organisation expand its services, provide more support to budding entrepreneurs and help women to know their economic rights.
partnering with the Free Economic Zones of Tajikistan, areas of Tajikistan where tax and customs rules are looser, to promote young businesses to develop. Volunteers are helping the zone find new companies and investment and put in place conditions to support business to flourish.
working with the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Service, which trains young people in the skills they need to find employment and to start their own businesses. VSO volunteers are training teachers, providing practical classes and setting up field trips where some hands on skills in tourism and hospitality can be practised with real customers.
supporting the Association of Social Workers which works with young disabled children that are often excluded from participating in education. Volunteers are supporting the association to expand the number of families being helped and begin to demonstrate the improvement the association is making year on year to the government.
supporting local tourism boards and associations to help promote tourism to some of Tajikistan’s most remote destinations so that people in rural communities with few economic opportunities have a source of income. Volunteers have enabled these associations to improve their marketing and promotion skills.
You can follow VSO Tajikistan’s work on Twitter @vsotajikistan or watch videos on our YouTube channel: VSOTajikistan.
