Tajikistan Project Update February 2020

HealthProm works with three local partner organisations, UNICEF, the Government of Tajikistan, and UK partners on delivering our project "Putting Families First: Safe, Sustainable Families in Urban and Rural Communities in Tajikistan".  The main aim of our work is to support families to retain care of their children so they do not place them in an orphanage, or Baby Home.
 
This year has at last seen the transformation of all Baby Homes in Tajikistan into Family and Child Support Centres.  The Government of Tajikistan approved new regulations that change the function of the old closed orphanages into these new open, community oriented, multidisciplinary support centres.  This is a remarkable achievement that would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of all of our partners.

This project comes to an end this summer, but our family support work will continue as part of the new Family and Child Support Centres.  Our efforts to develop new alternative care options, including a foster care service, for children still living in institutions also continue.  In October 2019, colleagues from our UK partners the Falkirk Council and the Fostering Network trained 20 professionals in Tajikistan to recruit, train and support foster carers.  In January 2020, our Tajikistan Project Manager came on a study tour to Scotland to observe alternative family care service provision.