NGO Sadoqat and TIKA kick off cooperation with a project on education (PHOTO)

NGO Sadoqat and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency’s Representative Office in Dushanbe (TIKA Dushanbe) started cooperation with a project on renovation of the canteen of Secondary School No. 10 in Devashtich District of Tajikistan.

The project handover ceremony was attended by representatives from the TIKA Dushanbe, Devashtich District Executive Authorities, Devashtich District Education Department, the Beneficiary School and the local community leadership and members. The handover ceremony followed by Tajik-Turkish Food Festival attended by the guests and local community, where the two parties offered their national cuisine and hosted each other. The Tajik and Turkish youth also enjoyed Evening of Friendship, where they performed national songs, and exchanged in culture and traditions.

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The school’s canteen with broken furniture was in a dire situation before the renovation activities as it has not seen any major renovation activities since it was constructed. It did not have water either for cooking or for washing hands inside. The facility also lacked cooking equipment inside and the cooks had to prepare meal outside in a traditional clay-made oven both in cold weather during winter and hot season during spring.

The NGO Sadoqat and TIKA Dushanbe, through this project, improved the canteen by renovating the interior and exterior of the facility, upgrading water and sanitation facilities, installing a new cooking equipment and providing new set of furniture. The total targeted beneficiaries are around 6300 people, thereby, it enabled nearly 1200 students and 100 teachers of the school as well as nearly 5000 residents of Ghazantarak village to get access to improved hygiene and sanitation conditions for meal intake. The project’s total cost is USD 53,000 with 28,000 spent on renovation activities and 25,000 channeled for the exchange program to support the visit of 12 Turkish students to Tajikistan as well as other activities implemented by the project.

“As TIKA, the education sector in Tajikistan is one of the fields we support the most. One of the basic conditions of quality education is to ensure proper nutrition conditions in schools, which are the most important pillars of education. And with implementing this project, we are actually putting forward one of the best examples of this. We will continue to realize similar projects in the future.”- said Mr. Ibrahim Erbir, TIKA Dushanbe Programme Coordinator.

The Turkish Government Exchange Program provided a great opportunity for 12 Turkish students to visit Tajikistan, to participate in the canteen renovation activities, and most importantly to get acquainted with their Tajik peers during three days of their visit to Devashtich district. The students from the two countries had exchange in culture, traditions of one another and deepened their knowledge and skills about community service by participating in the renovation activities. They also play a friendship football match, which strengthened their ties. The Turkish students visited various tourism sightseeing areas in Devashtich and Istaravshan and learnt about historical sites of these districts.

“We are thrilled to have started cooperation with TIKA Dushanbe for the welfare of people living in remote areas of Tajikistan. This first initiative within our cooperation primarily improves the hygiene and sanitation conditions of the school’s canteen and thereby prevents many diseases in the target community. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to TIKA Dushanbe, particularly its Director Mr Ibrahim Erbir and their dedicated staff for their generosity, to the Executive Authorities and Education Department of Devashtich District for their comprehensive support of the project implementation process. We look forward to long-term cooperation with TIKA Dushanbe to contribute to the sustainable development of Tajikistan.” – said Ms Nigora Negmatullaeva, Director of the NGO Sadoqat.