ECD Center in Rushan, Tajikistan
Construction of an Early Childhood Development Center in Rushan, Tajikistan
In 2021, the Director of the NGO that we work with in Tajikistan received permission from the central government of Tajikistan to take over private ownership of some land with an old school building on it. The understanding was that the Director would build an Early Childhood Center on this property after demolishing the old school. We had agreed to provide some seed money to get the project started and provided $20,000 for demolishing the old school and to develop the architectural plans for a modern ECD center.
Enhancing Early Childhood Education
Since the Director of the NGO has extensive experience in the educational field in Tajikistan (He worked for the NGO Open Society and now consults for the UN in Educational areas) and in the area of early childhood development, we have been able to improve the quality of the teaching at the ECD centers we support and other ECD centers run in government schools. This has been done by getting the teachers more updated training in EC education and working together to improve the facilities and to provide more relevant equipment, toys and books for the students to have meaningful experiences (instead of just being baby-sat).
A Landmark Endeavor
In our years of engagement, we felt that there was a need for a defining ECD Center in Rushan, one of the largest towns in Gorno Badakshan outside of Khorog. We had been working on securing land to build a state-of-the-art facility and with the grant of land from the government, we finally had an opportunity to move ahead in this area.
Visionary Architectural Plans
The architectural plans were prepared for the school. The final plans call for a three-story building with a very child friendly color scheme that will provide, not only for an Early Childhood Center, but will become the hub for training new teachers who will then be able to go into more remote locations to teach.
On Track for 2023 Launch
The total budget for building the school is $98,000. Of this, approximately $40,000 has already been raised in 2022 and spent on building the skeleton of the school. The entire foundation and outside walls and the roof of the three-story building are complete. We hope that with sufficient and timely funding in 2023 (to date we have funded $30K in 2023), we can complete the building in time for it to start serving the residents in 2023.