Press Release British Embassy European Commission Delegation Dushanbe Dushanbe 2006/14

P
ress Release

British Embassy European Commission Delegation

Dushanbe Dushanbe

2006/14
18 December 2006

“British Embassy and European Commission

Open Their Doors to Local Children”

Continuing their annual tradition of organising an Open Day in the Christmas season, the British Embassy is this year joining forces with the Delegation of the European Commission in Dushanbe to welcome local children to look around their offices and learn about what goes on there. A total of fifty children from Dushanbe, aged between 10 and 15, will have the chance of making a guided tour of the working places and meeting staff members of the British Embassy and the European Commission delegation, both situated in Ismoili Somoni district, before they are all invited to a party in a local restaurant.

“We have held this sort of Open Day for the past two years and it has been a popular occasion for both the visiting children and our staff,” said Mr Graeme Loten, the British Ambassador. “But this year we are delighted that the European Commission Delegation is collaborating with us as well. Our two missions work together on many political and development issues during the year, for example in support of Tajik border forces on the Tajik-Afghan border through the BOMCA programme which is funded by both the European Union and the British government. So it seemed quite natural that we should cooperate in this less formal occasion in the spirit of Christmas as well.” Both diplomatic missions will organise tours of their respective offices for the children, showing them everything from their official cars to their communication systems and giving them a chance to see what makes up a working day for foreign diplomats in Dushanbe. At the end of the tour all the children and staff of both missions will gather together for a joint party at the restaurant, Korvon-Saray.
The young people who will take part in this year’s Open Days all come from the residential suburbs of Dushanbe. They participate in a project of youth clubs which is organised by the international NGO, Ora International, and which has been partly funded by the British Embassy. The project aims to empower and equip these marginalised young people to reach their full potential in life. “I have visited this project’s centre and seen the young people having opportunities to play sports, learn languages and get experience with computers which they would never normally be able to afford. It opens a whole new world to these children, who often live in impoverished circumstances right here in the city of Dushanbe,” Mr Loten said of the Ora International project.

________________________________________________________________________

Note for Editors:
The European Commission has been active in Tajikistan since 1992, initially providing humanitarian assistance. In the past years, the focus has shifted towards more long-term development assistance through the Tacis programme, direct budget support through the Food Security Programme and support to local NGOs under the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights.

Ora International is a German based international humanitarian NGO which has been working in Tajikistan since 1992 in the areas of Social Work, Children's Welfare and Advocacy, Drugs and AIDS prevention, Income Generation and Medical Education.

For more information please contact
British Embassy

65 Mirzo Tursunzade Street

Dushanbe

Tel: [phone] 14 77

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

Delegation of the European Commission to the Republic of Tajikistan

6-8 Telman Street, 2nd passage

Dushanbe

Tel: [phone] 74 07

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

Ora International

17 Acs Rajabov Street nr 11

Dushanbe

Tel: (+ 992 37) 221 64 42 / 227 46 10

Fax: (+ 992 37) 221 64 42

E-mail: [e-mail]