APPEAL: Help educate Tajikistan's kids
Some of you may remember Marilyn Hoar and her husband Gord. Marilyn worked with the Supreme Education Council to improve the standard of education for Qatar's kids. Last summer they moved to Tajikistan, where the local population faces poverty and hunger on a daily basis.
I recently received a heartfelt appeal from Marilyn, asking for my help to educate the children of Khorog. This seemed an appropriate forum to ask other people to contribute too.
With so much bad news in the world, it is refreshing to know that giving a little money can make such a huge difference to people's everyday lives. Here's the plea:
Hi Everyone,
As most of you know, I am here in Tajikistan training teachers at the Aga Khan School in Khorog. It's a very different experience than what we had in Qatar, where the schools had lots of money for training. The country of Tajikistan has few resources and is still trying to recover from the collapse of the Soviet Union so the government has very little money to pay for things like education. Teachers here get paid about $50 a month and yet a sack of flour costs $35! And that is why I'm writing with an unusual request to help me provide an opportunity to one of these teachers.
Lojvar Tufalonova teaches the English medium (immersion) Grade One class. She has received a scholarship for the Advanced Diploma in Early Childhood Development at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. This is a distance learning course which she has already started, but there is a two week face-to-face seminar in Karachi in March. Lojvar came to ask me for help in finding a travel grant to cover the almost 2000 USD cost of travel and accommodation. Unfortunately, most grants are tied to specific institutions or countries such as a degree program in Canada.
I have worked closely with Lojvar since I've been in Khorog and she is a dedicated teacher who is trying to give these children the best education she can. She has the best English on staff and she has given a lot of her time to do translation for me. She turned down her sister's suggestion that she move to Moscow to become a nanny and make quite a bit more money. I don't want her to miss this opportunity to improve her teaching practice, and the education that these kids will receive, for a mere $2000.
Budget in US Dollars:
Airfare: $1300
Accommodation: 375
Food: 250
Visa: 75
So I have set up a ChipIn account to raise the money for Lojvar's travel. If you are interested and able to contribute a few bucks just click on http://marilyn.chipin.com and follow the instructions. The funds are securely handled through PayPal, and contributions will be in US Dollars, so please remember to convert (PayPal also doesn't give the best conversion rate). You will receive a confirmation of your contribution from [email protected]. I'm sorry that with the short time-frame I haven't been able to coordinate this through a non-profit so that you could receive a donation receipt.
If you want more information (more info about the school, the program, etc) please let Lojvar and me know. We'll send you an update on her progress on the course. If we had your email wrong on the first letter, you can see it at http://develop.bcdi.ca/pics/khorog/khorogmail1.htm and theres a small photo set of our recent trip between the two schools over the Pamir Plateau, lots of 4000m passes including one at 4655m, and snow and avalanches turned a 14 hour drive into 43, with our car and nonfreezable luggage arriving a day later after we walked across the avalanche path which closed the road 15km from home. http://develop.bcdi.ca/pics/khorog/highpamirs.jpg
You can reach us at our usual emails [email protected] and [email protected] and my mobile for text messages or calls is +992 93 542 7387, or start a skype chat to marilyn.hoar. We are at GMT+5, so exactly 12 hours from Mountain Standard Time.
Thank you very much for any help you can provide.
Marilyn Hoar
