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Tajikistan

Rudaki district, Tajikistan’s students head back to school with new and improved classrooms

Comprehensive School #120 in Rudaki District, Tajikistan provides primary level education for 191 children ages seven to 15. The school has 12 educational and four support staff members, but due to unusable classrooms children in grades 5-9 could no longer attend their own school. Children were forced to walk between 2-5 kilometers to schools that already struggled with over-enrollment, leading to a drop in attendance.

Thanks to funding from the U.S. Department of State Office of the Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, Counterpart International was able to undertake a reconstruction project that rebuilt four of the school’s eight classrooms and its support facilities to positively impact the education of current and future students. The project replaced doors, windows, floors and hallways, and updated the electrical system and installed lighting in every classroom. Now, more than 250 new students are enrolled and older students can continue to stay in the preferred school closest to their homes.

School Director, Nuriddin Kosimov noted how important the four new, modern classrooms are to keeping all the students in school, and learning. “We were in great need of these four additional classrooms,” the Director emphasized. “On behalf of school administration, staff and children I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the donor organization and Counterpart International who contributed to the implementation of this great project,” said Kosimov.

Counterpart hosted an opening ceremony at the newly renovated educational unit on Friday, August 8 that was attended by the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan, Susan M. Elliott, and representatives from the Tajik government and civic institutions. Counterpart has been working in Tajikistan since 1998, distributing more than $68 million worth of humanitarian assistance and completing 23 infrastructure rehabilitation projects. The projects impact nearly three million vulnerable people throughout the country.

View photos from the ceremony on Facebook.