Building Bridges of Help and Hope Connecting Emerging Communities

in Tajikistan and AfghanistanWith

Humanitarian Organizations Worldwide Pamiri Partnership 2014

LLW GroupAll photo credits: ©Leslie L. Wilson unless otherwise stated last updated: 29 September 2014

Pamirs of Tajikistan Gorno-Badakhson Autonomous Oblast

GBAO or Pamir Region

• Pamir Mountains: tail end of the Himalayas• Loosing side of civil war after Soviet breakup• Very little international aid reaches here• 50% of Tajikistan geographically • only 3% of population.

Where We WorkBased in Khorog, we work with dozens of villages along all roads throughout the Pamirs. In 2014-15 we plan to combine this work with helping the mudslide-ravaged village of Ab Barik in Afghanistan.

We concentrate on the most remote, impoverished, but also those with the most potential for economic growth.

Ab Barik

Ab Barik, Afghanistan:only 60 miles across the Tajik border, this village was decimated by massive mudslides in May. Up to 2000 people may have been buried alive. Great as this tragedy is, it provides a unique opportunity to build bilateral relationships.

Wakil Kohsar / AFP / Getty Images

Working with our established Tajik partners, we have jointly designed a project to develop village microbusinesses in both of the Pamirs and in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan

Pakistan

China

Uzbekistan

Kyrgyz Republic

Bardara

Ab Barik

Around the Neighborhood

BardaraAb Barik

Our current work:The Village Stove Project

Using rocket stove technology combined with heat-retaining Biomass (Adobe)Cob

The Project: to help establish a unique energy-efficient stove microbusinesses for remote, impoverished villages.

• This inexpensive, energy-efficient stove can maintain comfortable temperature 20-30 hours after fire in stove is out.

• The stove can be designed for cooking, baking, or drying as well. • With minimal raw material expense and extensive training to

develop a unique skill set among our village crafters, this revolutionary stove design will be profitable within the first year.

• Starting in the remote Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, we will then take the best practices developed to Ab Barik, the Afghan village decimated by landslides in May 2014,

• Plans can be modified to meet each villager’s own unique needs.• If desired, we can help them establish a microbusiness,

contributing to the village’s recovering economy while establishing a unique Tajik-Afghan effort.

All funds raised will be invested in the project itself. Administrative costs are covered internally. Supplies will be purchased locally, thus benefitting both nations.

The Village Stove Project

Photos from plans available at ernieanderica.info

Your support will provide raw material and training to help our villagers build sustainable technology stoves for their communities and throughout the region.

for additional information contact Leslie@ServeInDisaster.org

Our current work:

In respectful partnership with key community leaders and residents, we: • Brainstorm to identify and further develop their capabilities and resources• Look for resources and solutions within the people and their community• Help to build or rebuild key relationships impacting the community.

Help That Doesn’t HurtAssets-Based

Community Development

Our approach is holistic, endeavoring to help any and all aspects of a community to thrive. We build close relationships over time with these often-remote villages as well as with the various Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) active among them.

Only then do we consider bringing in outside resources, always asking:Is it too much?Is it too early? Is it needed at all?

Outside help?

How We WorkWe build relationships locally to discover needs that can be effectively addressed by people and entities like yours to build stability and hope for a peaceful future in the Pamirs.

From Partnering with the Red Crescent (Red Cross) in2010 . . .

To help develop sustainable businesses for the earthquake survivors, my group provided funding for a Red Crescent-sponsored, income-generating microbusiness: rabbit raising .

. . . to Rays of Mercy in 2013

Recently, my colleague resigned as National Programme Coordinator to start his own nonprofit, Rays of Mercy. While he has earned global respect since the 1990s, starting his own CSO in Tajikistan is a significant challenge. He’s called upon me at times to help apply for grants or make contact with potential partners. One of their first partnerships, delivering gifts to remote mountain orphanages and schools came from those efforts (photo right). Rays of Mercy will be a close working partner.

Ghost Town of

New Mansions

Following an earthquake in 2010, over 134 homes were constructed by international CSOs - luxurious by local standards. A year later, only 10 families had moved in. Most chose, instead, to remain in their damaged homes. Through the Red Crescent we researched the problem while living in one. Our study revealed many deeper needs to address.

We base our operations in the region’s capital city

“Gateway to the Pamirs”

Khorog

To encourage ecotourism and international development, many improvements are being made to attract international investors.

fair trade industry

construction WASH Education semi-precious gems eco-tourism

Innovative farming reforestation sustainable energy

Potential forDevelopment

leather & fur industry

This tri-nation set of campuses is an ambitious project well under way on multiple fronts in the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. A Harvard graduate, the Aga Khan’s goal is a world-class university system. Recently, plans were expedited to open the first building of the Khorog campus 2018. English will be the language used throughout. Scholarships, as with their current trade school campus in Khorog, will be available to all Pamiri students.

University of Central Asia Khorog Campus: 2018

In the Third World, where the need is the greatest, many organisations and governments throw in money. I throw in people -- dedicated people to train, to educate and to encourage. I believe that there is no such thing as an underdeveloped country -- only under-managed countries and for me the most important word is accountability. - H. H. Aga Khan

This second-largest branch of Shia Muslims is not widely known. The Aga Khan is their spiritual leader. A descendant of Mohammed, the current Aga Khan is a soft-spoken philanthropist, among the world’s wealthiest people.

The Ismailis of the Pamirs

Personally, if I had two children, and one was a boy and the other a girl, and if I could afford to educate only one, I would have no hesitation in giving the higher education to the girl. The male could bend his energies to manual effort for reward, but the girl’s function was the maintenance of home life and the bringing up of the children . . . - H. H. Aga Khan

Aga Khan Development Networkis an extension of his beliefs, being influential in international affairs. It’s among the strongest and most active humanitarian presences in the Pamirs.

When I say education, I mean more than acquisition of knowledge, more than mere facts, figures and book work. Education is a life-long experience in which qualities such as integrity, mental discipline, humility and honesty should be formed. . . - H. H. Aga Khan

In this traditional Pamiri home is the ever-present picture of the Aga Khan on one of the structural posts.

• Computer research/business applications• Microbusiness market development• Fair trade standards development• Improve agricultural industry• Revitalize old Soviet factories• Commercial improvements• English/American studies• Educational advances

Creative Outreaches

Along the Afghan border, hidden on a military base, is an outpost built by Alexander the Great. To see it was our reward for giving a ride to border guards. It turned into a major relationship-building delay as we shuttled them to guard posts. Among the military and government agencies we work hard to develop partnerships.

Building Bridges to Government

Building Bridges Beyond Our Borders

The world’s largest supplier of opium finds easy access to many markets across the river. Tajikistan also is a ready target for cross-border human trafficking and terrorist activity.

Thanks to bridges – crossing rivers and reuniting people groups through economic and educational partnering – more positive links are being forged between nations. We’ve established contacts with CSOs working in both countries, as well as several working also in Pakistan and other Central Asian countries.

The Chinese

Connection

• Decaying since the civil war, many roads are still in need of repair. Enter the Chinese. GBAO highways for large trucks loaded with their exports, are largely rebuilt by China.

• Relations with the Chinese continue to grow as the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Dushanbe with presidents of China, Russia, and neighbouring countries exemplified.

• With Central Asia trade booming, President Xi Jinping recently proposed establishing a Silk Road Economic Belt, aimed at improving Sino-Eurasian cooperation.

• China has also procured drilling rights to recently discovered gas deposits in Tajikistan, and neighboring countries.

• A long-running border dispute between the two nations was resolved in 2011 improving border trade and travel.

In the summer of 2012, there was a deadly clash here in Khorog. Many underlying causes remain. They include: a lack of jobs, of thriving local economies, of sustainable livelihoods.

The Nation Within

Having recently returned to America at the time of the unrest, I was powerless to help. However, knowing the strong relationships forged with many on all sides of these conflicts,

I look forward to returning and continuing to partner with many in the Pamirs.Combined with my crisis management skills

I will work to strengthen these relationships to help build stability in this troubled region.

But the best hope is a thriving economy, stable communities. In this most beleaguered of former Soviet republics, it will take international partnering as a catalyst towards a viable way of life.The potential benefits for all make this a path that must be pursued.I hope you will join in the effort.

Be sure to check out all our photo presentations on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/LLWilson/

For a fact sheet on our current work,

The Village Stove Projector to explore other ways in which you or your organizationcan partner in this effort:

Contact: Leslie L. WilsonMobile: +001 202 744 1115 (until Return to Central Asia)Email: Leslie@ServeInDisaster.orgSkype: LeslieLWilsonLinkedIn: Leslie L Wilson Serve in Disaster www.linkedin.com/pub/leslie-l-wilson/32/69a/556/

Facebook, Twitter, and our website are currently being retooled for the return.