The plan within a plan - Tajikistan here we come!
THE PLAN ..'STAN
NEWSFLASH!!!! New Update on Routes info from Paul as of 10th July 07: HERE
SWORDE-Teppa, a small charity operating in Kurgan-Tyube, just south of the capital of Tajikistan (60 miles approx), have provided us with a list of items they would find useful in carry out their projects with the local community. The charity is very small and run by volunteers, it also is trying to help communities in the poorest in Central Asia.
Tajikistan, is a country 93% mountainous (The Pamirs) and joins the mighty Himalayas (K2 is only a couple of hundred miles away from the border) and depending on what poverty index being used, suffers approximately from 90% poverty. The country is struggling to develop, especially after the civil war, and is heavily dependant on international aid.
Some of the good work that SWORDE-Teppa carrys out involves education. The education they try to offer and encourage ranges from teaching English, Russian and Business studies, (amoungst others) to travelling into rural areas and educating people about malaria. The charity encourages and teaches sports (which helps to overcome tribal differences), and the people they try to help range from street children to earthquake victims.
Paul (from the UK), one of the founders of SWORDE-Teppa has provided us with a list of materials that would help them in their work. The aim for our team and anyone who feels like trying to make a difference, is to hop across the boarder after the checkpoint in Uzbekistan and make our way to the charity centre in Kurgan-Tyube, going via Dushanbe (maybe for a cup of tea at the embassy). When we get there we off-load from our weary rally mobiles, a box (or whatever form it takes) of things we have managed to accumulate from the list (with some inventiveness thrown in). Hopefully the more teams = the more boxes = the bigger the difference. Thats the cunning plan. We will then be backtracking via the capitol, and then heading north to briefly re-enter a part of Uzbekistan before entering Kyrgyzstan.
But, what is nice about it is that even if other teams decide not to come along, SWORDE-Teppa is so small that they are one of those rare charities one box actually counts for something, this is just the chance to join us for the ride.
The conditions are expected to be very hot, dusty, beautiful, and this route offers the change of travelling along the second highest highway in the world, all the way to Krgyzstan - one of the most beautiful countries, if not the most, out of all the potential countries to be visited. SWORDE-Teppa have offered us a place to stay, a bath and a chance to see what they do.
We have tried to get in contact with other teams but we don't exactly have a list of everyone, so hopefully by word of mouth other teams might end up at this new page. Its just being set up as its easier to see and we can post all the relevant information here - not on the blog.
I hope any team that reads this page and is contemplating the southern route will think about it, and if they fancy coming along drop a message in the guestbook.
So far the teams who are going are (obviously) Team Driving Miss Daisy, Team Wrong Way Round, Team SkipLizard, Team Ice Cream Adventure, and maybe Team Saskatchewan and Team Shimee (those two depend on time contraints), with at least one other team interested, we will all be detouring to Tajikistan Team Saskatchewan are doing a box regardless and if they can't make it are passing it on to us in Uzbekistan and I believe some other teams might be trying to pull some items together for us to take - its all very much appreciated. Any questions just ask me at sophie_willingale@hotmail.com.
Good luck to everyone in their respective rallys..
Some of the Details:
The list
Further to the convo with one of the teams last weekend in Watford - A doc with hopefully some useful/important info, including our visa dates for Tajikistan HERE
more info like journey times are being developed but there is the most info on the link above
in the meantime, here are some photos of some of the things the charity helps with (with an interesting link to a bcc programme at the bottom of the page):
These are earthquake victims outside because they can't go inside.
One of the houses after the earthquake...
Teaching the community about vector control...
A volunteer teaching computer skills...
Teaching local communities about drainage and milaria...
Getting people involved in sports projects
TV link: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/environment/melting+glaciers+hit+tajik+lives/548167
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