DUSHANBE, December 23, 2008, Asia-Plus – The British Embassy in Dushanbe is marking the coming Christmas and New Year holidays with four events together with the communities in and around Dushanbe.
According to the British Embassy, just last week the British Ambassador, Mr. Graeme Loten, visited the tiny office of the Telman mahallah just round the corner from his Embassy building and met the mahallah leader, Ms. Mavjuda Tabarova. The visit set the seal on a small project under which the British Embassy had funded the renovation of the office and the purchase of some furniture for the benefit of the people living in Telman.
This week the Ambassador will be paying another visit just meters away from his Embassy when he goes to see the pupils and teachers of school no 11 in Ismoil Somoni district. This school has already benefited from the provision of some furniture for its new English resource room. During this week’s visit the Ambassador will be talking to the children of school no 11 about Christmas in Britain and the way in which this holiday is celebrated.
Towards the New Year, Embassy staff will be paying a visit to the Chorbogh Children’s Home in Varzob district to see the children who live there and distribute presents to them and the staff who care for them. This initiative which originated from the Embassy staff themselves, is being undertaken in the context of the work being carried out at the home by volunteers from the British non-governmental organization Voluntary Service Overseas.
In a further initiative of the Embassy, staff have been collecting their old waste paper, envelopes, and newspapers recently for recycling. All the Embassy’s paper waste is taken to the company “Jastmin” who transform old paper into toilet paper. “When we started collecting our waste paper we were amazed at how much paper and card we throw away,” said the British Ambassador, Mr. Graeme Loten. “Now we make sure that every two weeks this paper is delivered to the recycling plant, which is better for the environment, and we then donate the resulting toilet paper to a local school – so we all benefit.”
