At a glance
- Nutritional status of children under 5 gets worse
- Energy efficiency in winter with '6 in 1 stove'
- More houses for Oftobak, Khuroson
- Feeding 360,000 schoolchildren
- Additional equipment for CoES
- Clusters trained on humanitarian action, 2-3 November
Current issues
Nutritional status of children gets worse
Recent findings from the food security and nutrition monitoring system indicate that the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age in rural areas has been deteriorating significantly. Wasting prevalence, showing that children's weight is too low for their height, increased from 5.6 % to 10.3 % between January and July of this year. This can be attributed in part to more frequent bouts of diarrhea due to poor water quality in the summer months. The high wasting rates, a lagging indicator for food insecurity, also seem to be a result of poor food availability and high food prices during and immediately after winter.
Severe malnutrition in children under 5 increased from 1.9 % to 4.3 % over the same period. When the nutritional status of children deteriorates, they are more at risk of infectious diseases which can lead to prolonged and more severe cases of diarrhea and respiratory illnesses.
For more information: craighhampton.who@tajnet.com
Response activities
Energy efficiency in winter with '6 in 1 stove'
Since one year, Welthungerhilfe - German Agro Action (GAA) has been promoting the '6 in 1 heat exchanger' which maximizes the efficiency of traditional stoves. The newly designed stove allows rural families to get warm, heat water, take a bath, bake bread, cook food, and prepare tea, all with one source of energy. The simple, cheap and locally replicable stove helps to protect the environment by reducing the consumption of firewood, and hence the felling of trees, and the burning of animal dung, a valuable source of organic fertilizer.
The cornerstone of the technology is the 'heat exchanger', a device which reduces the speed of hot air flowing through the exhaust pipes of the stove. The exchanger also increases the surface area for heat transmission, making the traditional iron stoves much more efficient and cutting fuel requirements by 50 %. Rural families which replace their inefficient stoves, heaters and ovens with the '6 in 1 heat exchanger' will save several tons of fire wood and dried animal dung per year. This constitutes a substantial benefit, both economical and ecological.
GAA is working with local NGO and public partners to promote and scale up the use of these energy-efficient stoves across rural Tajikistan. The initiative is funded by the Technical Aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS) program of the European Community.
For more information: daniel.bronkal@welthungerhilfe.de
More houses for Oftobak, Khuroson
At the end of October, the NGO consortium led by Caritas Switzerland started the construction of 18 new houses for the victims of the spring mudflows in Khuroson in the new settlement of Oftobak. The houses are designed to respect international norms on earthquake-resistance and they will be equipped with an energy-efficiency package and appropriate sanitation facilities. Beneficiary families were carefully selected, based on their limited ability to earn an income and their vulnerability to shocks.
More funds are required to build houses for over 200 families who are currently living with relatives or returning to their old houses, which are deemed unfit for habitation.
For more information: ltverdun@caritas.ch
Feeding 360,000 schoolchildren
Since the start of the new school year in September, the World Food Programme (WFP) has been providing daily hot meals to 360,000 children in primary schools. The children benefiting from the scheme, 70% of all schoolchildren in rural areas, also received new bowls and cups for consumption of their meals. School feeding is WFP's biggest activity in Tajikistan.
The organization further delivers food to some 260,000 people living in the hardship regions of the country, as well as to 15,000 tuberculosis patients and their families. Other types of food assistance are temporary relief for victims of natural disasters, food for work projects, take-home rations for school girls, and nutritional supplements for malnourished children and their mothers. In total, 750,000 people in the country are receiving food assistance, both through emergency and recovery activities.
For more information: heather.hill@wfp.org
Additional equipment for CoES
On 22 October, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) handed over office equipment, furniture and disaster-related maps and models worth $ 66,000 to the Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence (CoES). The event was marked by the presence of Mr. Haibullo Latipov, CoES Chairman, Mr. Rastislav Vrbensky, UNDP Country Director, and Mr. Matthias Anderegg, Head of the Disaster Reduction Programme of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), which funds the project.
The materials will improve the working conditions of CoES staff in the capital and the districts and thereby increase the efficiency of the institution. Continued technical assistance to CoES, aiming at strengthening its ability to prevent and manage natural disasters, also features prominently in the Disaster Risk Management section of UNDP's new Country Programme Action Plan 2010-2015. The draft Plan was presented to stakeholders during a consultation meeting on 21 October in the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.
For more information: khusrav.sharifov@undp.org
Coordination
Clusters trained on humanitarian action
On 2 and 3 November, over 30 participants attended a training on humanitarian action held in Hotel Tajikistan in Dushanbe. The trainees were members of all clusters active in the country (education; food security; health; shelter and non-food items; water, sanitation and hygiene) as well as representatives from REACT groups in the field.
The program improved the participants' understanding of humanitarian action and familiarized them with the main mechanisms and tools to mobilize and coordinate timely and effective support in every sector. Clusters will continue to work in their sector groups and are now better prepared to adequately respond to potential disaster situations, ahead of winter and next year's spring.
Contact us: REACT Secretariat in Dushanbe react.dushanbe@undp.org | (+992 47) 441 07 37 | www.untj.org 37/1 Bokhtar Street, VEFA Center 6th floor, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
