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Spring 2003In this issue Dushanbe Cyber Café Donations Top $150,000 Mark President's Letter: Welcome to Tajik Visitors Navruz Celebration BDSC Goals BDSC to Provide 60 Pentium Computers BDSC Board Member Mary Barnett's "Dushanbe Connection" Teahouse Navruz Party Set for March 23 What Tajiks are Saying about the Cyber Café Boulder Creek Festival Set for Memorial Day Weekend New York Times Salutes the Teahouse |
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Dushanbe Cyber Café Donations Top $150,000 Mark The Cyber Café Reciprocal Gift Committee continues to make progress on the gift of the Dushanbe Cyber Café. We would like to share some of our recent accomplishments and future plans. Fundraising continues to be our main focus:
We were delighted that Tajik president, President Rahmonov, visited Washington D.C. on December 8, 2002. President Rahmonov stated plans to promote computer and internet use in schools through out Tajikistan. Read the White House statement following the visit . We see this as further creation of a positive environment for the Cyber Cafe and internet deveolpment. Email continues to be exchanged between BDSC and the City of Dushanbe. A cyber link development is underway between Boulder and Dushanbe. Counterpart International will host the communication in Dushanbe in their offices. The first Web communication to Dushanbe is planned for March 2003. This will facilitate presentations of the architectural schematics to the City of Dushanbe and on going conversations about them. President's Letter: Welcome to Tajik Visitors By Jancy Campbell Dear Members and Friends: In early March, five visitors from Tajikistan will visit Boulder and other cities in the US under the auspices of the State Department's International Visitor Program. They are a part of the Freedom Support Project for Tajikistan, and will be here to learn more about disaster preparedness and response. The distinguished visitors include: Mr. Ismoil Ismoilov, Deputy Director, Aid Coordination Unit, Executive Administration of the President of The Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Maruf Mukhhammedov, Program Assistant, United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA) Mr. Shamsudin Mukhudinov, Disaster Management Officer, Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan Mr. Sulton Nurov, Deputy Head, Section of Population and Territory Protection, Ministry of Emergency Situations and Civil Defense of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Ikrom Soliev, Disaster Mitigation Trainer, Central Committee, Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan The visitors will be in Boulder from March 5 to 9. During this time we will be planning to schedule a meeting with them and the Rocky Mountain Rescue Association and area mountain volunteer fire fighter groups. We also plan to schedule a meeting with the City officials, and of course plan to have them as our guests at the Teahouse. These visitors are invited to the United States under the auspices of the State Department's International Visitor Program. Navruz Celebration Later in March will be the annual Navrus celebration, which each year attracts more citizens and their families. Navrus, an important event that takes place in Tajikistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and other countries in Central Asia, celebrates the new (lunar) year and the beginning of spring. Our annual Navrus party held at the Teahouse on March 23. BDSC Goals Some of our goals for this year are to expand school exchanges through e-mail communications, and also to plan more events for our membership. I am also happy to report that we are getting closer to our goal of building a Cyber Café in Dushanbe. We invite you to be a part of our group, and we want to hear from you. Don't forget to visit our web site, www.boulder-dushanbe.org. It was designed and is updated regularly by our talented and creative Linda Cornett. Jancy Campbell,
President BDSC to Provide 60 Pentium
Computers BDSC members are busy preparing a shipment of 60 refurbished Pentium computers and other humanitarian goods that will be sent to Dushanbe in late March. Eight Boulder area and international non-profit organizations have teamed up with BDSC to bring this project to fruition. The computers are being sent to help institutions there modernize and to connect to e-mail. Three area donors donated the systems to BDSC. They were the Jared Polis Foundation (22 units); AutoDesk, located in Denver (13), and a local company that wishes to remain anonymous at this time (26). One computer will be retained by BDSC for fund-raising purposes. The Colorado Materials Exchange (COMEX) played an important "match-maker" role for securing the AutoDesk and the anonymous donation. In addition, the Boulder Public Library donated more than 500 pounds of used books, and the Compassionate Stitchers group knit several sweaters and other clothing items for children in Dushanbe. Used clothing will make up part of the shipment as well. Counterpart Humanitarian Assistance Program (CHAP) will facilitate the shipment from their headquarters in Washington, D.C., and they, along with the Dushanbe-based Non-Government humanitarian organization Central Asian Development Agency (CADA) will handle the distribution and monitoring of the computers and other items once they get to Dushanbe. That is expected to happen in June. Roger Kovacs, who was on the Gift Committee before moving to Indiana one year ago, received a grant from infoDev (a World Bank organization) to pay the cost of transportation to Dushanbe. Roger is very active in Indiana in helping the people of Tajikistan, especially in the area of computer technology. Roger led a group to devise the first Tajik language operating system (Linux). The grant from infoDev is also allowing the opening of three new computer centers in Tajikistan to accelerate the Tajik Linux project to a completion in 2 years. In addition, secondary school educational materials will be developed on the computers to facilitate Computer Based Training. Roger will load up the remaining space in the container with additional computers, clothing and other items. BDSC thanks Roger for his expression of friendship in doing this for BDSC. One of the reasons for sending computers to our Sister City is to establish a relationship partners such as Counterpart and CADA who the BDSC Gift Committee hope will assist in the transportation of items needed for the construction and furnishing of the proposed Cyber Café that BDSC is raising money for to send to the people of Dushanbe. The purpose of the Cyber Café gift is to build friendship and understanding between the people of the two cities, to connect the people there with resources and with us here in Boulder, and to reciprocate for the Teahouse, which was a gift from the people of Dushanbe. BDSC Board Member Mary Barnett's "Dushanbe Connection" One person that is helping BDSC connect with organizations in Dushanbe that will make good use of the computers is Courtney Barnett, daughter of BDSC Board member Mary Barnett. Courtney is working in Central Asia as a Regional program Manager for Abt Associates, Inc. for the past 2 years has been busy helping to manage Abt's Tajikistan and Turkmenistan programs. In addition to that, she has managed a regional grant program designed to spur communities and NGOs to implement innovative health projects that will improve their communities. Courtney writes about her experiences in Tajikistan: "Tajikistan, in my opinion, is very unique to Central Asia for a couple reasons. The first being that it is by far the most democratic of the Central Asian countries - they have representatives from the opposition party in position of power within the government. "However, at the same time Tajikistan is incredibly poor, has little infrastructure, are recovering from a bloody civil war, dealing with issues related to terrorism and security, and on top of that just like other countries in the FSU, are facing the challenges of transitioning from Soviet system. "Despite these challenges, I am continually impressed by the Tajiks. They were the poorest country under the Soviet Union and remain the poorest country in Central Asia. However the people there are incredibly resourceful and open to new ideas and innovations and learning new thing, which is not always the case. We have found that our counterparts in the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance, to be progressive, co-ordinated and have vision of how they want to move forward with strengthening their health care system. "There are some really dynamic Tajiks with whom we work, that are fully devoted to making Tajikistan a better place, and it is an absolute pleasure to work with them. Then there is the hospitality -- and the bread (nan) --completely unparalleled. Need I say more?" Courtney writes about her work: "We have a contract with USAID to help restructure the health care system (in partnership with Governments, of course, to improve the use of resources within the health care system, and to introduce primary health care to the region. "Our Tajikistan program has been going for almost three years now. We are doing a variety of activities ranging from retraining former specialty doctors to become GPs (we have an newly established 11-month training program), to health promotion activities and a small grants program, to working with the government to change the way that health care is financed. We work with a variety of organizations (NGOs, professional associations, and government institutions such as hospitals or medical school faculties) in Tajikistan." Teahouse Navruz Party Set for March 23 The annual Teahouse party to celebrate the Tajik New Year will be held on Sunday, March 23, 2003. The annual party will have food, music and other entertainment. No details yet about events, dancers, music, etc. Proceeds will help with the Gift Committee efforts to raise money for the Cyber café project. What Tajiks are Saying about the Cyber Café Communications from Tajik citizens support our decision and remind us why we are doing this—to fulfill our goal of citizen diplomacy through people-to-people communication and relationships. "Tell people we need a
piece of Boulder in Dushanbe". "Here, in Tajikistan
you cease to believe that the outer world exists, and getting a
letter from you was a pleasant memento that yes, it does exist! I
have returned from the States in January this year (2002), and was
submerged into our gray, hopeless life, and now sometimes it gets
hard for me to believe I really was in America for two years and
really lived in that world’, where everything seemed to me
so easy and wonderful! I see a great need among the Dushanbe
intelligentsia in good quality recent information." "The creation of a
cyber café in Dushanbe is essential to provide women across
all ages with various opportunities and resources available
online. Internet in Tajikistan is yet a luxury that is not easily
accessible to women who do not have computers or a free access.
Thus, an Internet cafe would enable women and the rest of the
population to learn about the world and open the channels between
Tajikistan and other countries toward cultural awareness and
exchange." If you have not already, given or pledged support for the Cyber Café, we encourage you to do so. Our address is: P.O. Box 4864, Boulder, CO 80306. You can call us at 303 444-9004. Check out our Web site at www.boulder-dushanbe.org. Linda Cornett keeps the site current with ongoing updates. Thanks to all our helpers and supporters! Boulder Creek Festival Set for Memorial Day Weekend The fifth anniversary of the opening of the Teahouse will be celebrated as an official event of the Boulder Creek Festival! Mark your calendars for Memorial Day weekend. Sofia Rossato and Kaisa Johnson are working on this effort, which will support our efforts for the Cyber Café. Possible cyber connections may be set up between Boulder and Dushanbe for the weekend. If you would like to get involved with planning and or during the Festival, please contact them at 303-480-0118. New York Times Salutes the Teahouse On December 20, journalist Hillary Posner featured the Teahouse in a New York Times article entitled "36 Hours in Boulder": "Break for Tea: The Boulder Dushanbe Tea House (1770 13th Street, 303-442-4993) is an ornate pavilion that was given to Boulder by its sister city, Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Situated in a little plaza just south of downtown and bordering on the creek, the teahouse is painted in brightly colored, intricate patterns inspired by traditional Persian designs. "It was constructed in Tajikistan, then disassembled and shipped to Boulder, where it was reassembled by four of the original Tajik artists. (Boulder plans a reciprocal gift of a cybercafe in Dushanbe.) Relax over one of 80 varieties of tea -- perhaps Puerh tea, grown in Yunnan Province, in China, and stored underground for up to 50 years before brewing. If you're hungry, try the Mediterranean salad ($7.25) or the vegetarian kooftah balls ($9.75)." |
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