DUSHANBE, July 17, Asia-Plus — Over the first fifteen days since Tajikistan’s Public Charity was established, more than 900 physical and 100 legal entities have transmitted totaling 600,000 somonis to it, Hokimjon Kholiqov, an official with AmonatBonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank) announced at a briefing in Dushanbe on July 16.
Asked whether people could make targeted donations, Mr. Kholiqov said that that “nothing is still known.”
The public charity was opened in Dushanbe on June 29 and former Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov was appointed to head it.
We will recall that telling a May 24 conference in Dushanbe, President Emomali Rahmon dismissed spending huge sums on show-off events held in a family that either rejoices or grieves over certain events in its life as an immoral and wretched practice. The president, in particular, noted that people annually spend for weddings and mourning ceremonies on average 4.5-5 billion somonis, while the entire Tajik national budget makes up 3.3 billion somonis.
President Rahmon urged the creation of the public charity fund for the poor. He pointed out that despite annual growth of pensions and social allowances of 1,100,000 families in the country, 500,000 families live below the poverty line. Of 527,000 pensioners living in the country, 9,000 pensioners do not have relatives to support. Besides, on the list of the poor are 118,000 orphan children and 68,000 families without breadwinners.
