The Federation's mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and its millions of volunteers are active in over 183 countries. For more information: http:www.ifrc.org

This appeal seeks to fund programmes to be implemented in 2006 and 2007. These programmes are aligned with the International Federation's Global Agenda, which sets out four broad goals to meet the Federation's mission to "improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity":

Global Agenda Goals

1. Reduce the numbers of deaths, injuries and impact from disasters.

2. Reduce the number of deaths, illnesses and impact from diseases and public health emergencies.

3. Increase local community, civil society and Red Cross Red Crescent capacity to address the most urgent situations of vulnerability. 4. Reduce intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion and promote respect for diversity and human dignity.

The International Federation's is the world's largest humanitarian organization, and its millions of volunteers are active in over 183 countries. Our aim is to build safer communities, able to prevent and respond to human suffering in times of crises and distress, and where people work together to promote hope, dignity and equity. We work to support vulnerable communities through neutral, impartial, independent humanitarian action, in accordance with our Fundamental Principles and in line with the Red Cross Red Crescent Code of Conduct, the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, and the SPHERE Project.

2006-2007 Secretariat Programme	2006 Programme budget CHF	2007 Programme budget CHF	2006-2007 Programme budget CHF
Health and care	474,000	410,000	884,000
Disaster management	552,000	395,000	947,000
Organisational development	396,000	300,000	696,000
Total	1,422 ,000	1,105,000	2,527,000

Focus in 2006 & 2007

This appeal seeks funds to support the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan (RCST) and help it become a strong and well-functioning national society able to assume its mission to serve the most vulnerable. In 2006-2007, the RCST will continue to work within the areas identified by the Federation's Strategy 2010 and the secretariat's 2+2 Strategy for Central Asia :

• Reduction of risk and impact of disasters on the lives of people living in disaster-prone areas (disaster management);
  
  
• Reduction of population vulnerability to diseases through preventive health education and awareness around HIV/AIDS, TB, and other communicable diseases (health and care);
  
  
• Strengthening the RCST capacity through training and empowerment of RCST staff and volunteers (including youth volunteers), branch development through community-based activities and financial and logistical development of the national society's branches (organizational development).
  
  
• In line with the strategic recommendations, responsibilities for programme implementation have seen Federation staff move from a hands-on role to one that assists and advises. In 2003, the national society (NS) initiated a decentralization process towards division of governance and management. It will be introduced into the new RCST Statutes in accordance with Federation guidelines. RCST HQ staff took programme responsibilities and, in turn, delegated implementation responsibilities to oblasts and districts level. Dir ect involvement of branches in programme activities allowed them to: assess their capacity; reveal their strengths and weaknesses ; and improve their potential for better planning.

A community-based participatory approach in programming was successful and thus will continue. More volunteers joined the institution through various programmes initiatives, such as: riverbank reinforcement, tree planting, community-based awareness campaigns, water supply systems and latrines rehabilitation/construction and maintenance. This raised the profile of RCST among the population and local authorities. The national society will continue to involve new volunteers in disaster awareness as well as health education. All community-based programmes activities will continue to be integrated to ensure more effective services.

The main challenge for 2006-2007 is to continue strengthening the capacity of the NS branches to support communities and vulnerable people in their areas. More disaster response teams (DRTs) and local disaster committees (LDCs) will be established to strengthen the RCST and local communities ' capacity to mitigate the most common disasters. In addition, the RCST plans to involve schoolchildren and teachers in community based first aid (CBFA) and disaster preparedness (DP) activity. The RCST will increase its activities related to HIV/AIDS and TB prevention in the framework of general community-based first aid and health promotion. It is expected that the new RCST Statutes will be adopted. It will enable the NS to work more effectively for the sake of the vulnerable population of the country.

Activities to promote and disseminate humanitarian values and the fundamental principles will continue to be integrated into all programmes. Actions against discrimination and intolerance will be carried out through awareness campaigns on HIV and TB to alleviate sufferings of people living with the diseases and to advocate for their dignity.

Health and Care

This programme consists of two components: health and care and water-sanitation. The main focus of the programmes in 2006-2007 will be on community based health promotion, preventive health and hygiene education, social support, first aid training, TB and HIV/AIDS including harm reduction.

HIV/AIDS activity: The Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan will continue HIV/AIDS programming in 2006-2007. A number of seminars, with involvement of specialists, on HIV/AIDS, drug abuse and harm reduction issues , are planned for the RCST health staff at all levels (HQ, region and district) and five youth coordinators. More responsibility on project implementation and monitoring will be given to the five regional youth coordinators. 600 RCST volunteers will be trained to disseminate knowledge on HIV/AIDS prevention among the high risk groups (injecting drug users, commercial sex workers, labour migrants and their families), marginalized groups (youth, drug users) and the general population of 30 border districts in five regions (GBAO, RRS, Sughd, Kurgan-Tube and Kulyab). The RCST will work in close collaboration with local authorities (Jamoats, Hukumats and Mahalya).

Activities on harm reduction will continue to include IDU(1) and CSW(2) around information, education and preventive services.

Tuberculosis (TB): The RCST will continue to contribute to effective application of DOTS strategy in Tajikistan in close collaboration with the Project HOPE. In 2006-2007, the project will be continued in Dushanbe and Rudaki and extended to Khujand and Matcha districts. It is planned to conduct seminars for volunteers to refresh their knowledge on TB and DOTS strategy. The trained volunteers will observe 200 patients at a time; providing them with social and psychological support. The volunteers will be mainly involved in revealing defaulters and bringing them back to the treatment, thus increasing the percentage of patients with completed treatment. The most active community members involved in the programme will disseminate health knowledge among the population, including schoolchildren.

Awareness campaigns among the population will be conducted to create a favourable environment for people living with HIV/AIDS and TB and to reduce stigma and discrimination against them. Health education materials on HIV and TB will be produced and distributed during the actions.

Community based first aid (CBFA): CBFA remains one of the main activities of RCST. In 2006-07, CBFA will be realized in five districts (Rogun, Nurobod, Rasht, Tajikabad and Jirgital) of Rasht valley (the rest of the country is covered by an ECHO bilateral programme with the Netherlands Red Cross). 600 volunteers will be trained on CBFA and will disseminate health messages among the targeted communities, including schoolchildren, as well as train them on how to respond to local emergencies and outbreaks. Health education will be conducted based on seasonality of diseases and the most prevalent illnesses in the region. 32 members of DP/DR committees in Rasht valley will be trained on CBFA to improve integration and collaboration of CBFA activities with disaster preparedness and response activities.

Objective: By the end of 2007, a strengthened Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan has contributed to prevention of TB, HIV/AIDS/STD(3), drug abuse and communicable diseases among targeted communities of Tajikistan.

Expected results:

1. The spread and morbidity of tuberculosis in Dushanbe and Khujand cities as well as in Rudaki and Mastchoh districts is reduced through the implementation of DOTS strategy, covering 200 TB patients at a time, and through health education of TB patients' families and population at large.

2. The RCST effectively contributed to HIV/AIDS/STD, TB and drug abuse prevention among the risk and marginalised groups and general population of 30 border districts in five regions of Tajikistan, as well as to promotion of tolerance towards people living with HIV/AIDS.

3. Knowledge and skills of 600 RCST volunteers and 54,000 people from five districts of Rasht valley on first aid, health promotion and response to local emergencies have been improved through Community Based First Aid (CBFA) trainings..

Footnotes:

(1) IDU - Injecting drug users

(2) CSW - Commercial sex workers

(3) STD - Sexually transmitted diseases

For further information please contact:

The Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan, email: rcstj01@mail.ru, phone: + 992372 24 03 74, fax: + 992372 24 53 78

Tajikistan Delegation, Elias Ghanem (Head of Delegation), email: hod@ifrcdsb.org, phone: + 992372 244296 or 245981, fax:+992372 248520

Federation Secretariat, Sylvie Chevalley (Regional Officer), email sylvie.chevalley@ifrc.org , phone +41 22 730 4276, fax: +41 22 730 0395

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