DUSHANBE, December 12, 2012, Asia-Plus — Members of the Tajik community in the United States are drawing up plans to open a first-ever school for children to learn Tajik language as well as history and cultural heritage of Tajikistan, according to Mardon Sharipov, president of a non-profit association, People of Tajikistan in America (PTA), Silk Road Newsline reports.
“One of the very exciting projects that we are currently working on is, something that gets a great deal of support from the Tajik community here in the United States, is to open a cultural school, a place where kids will have an opportunity to learn Tajik language, Tajik history, learn about their culture,” Sharipov told Silk Road Newsline in an interview in Washington. “We have people who already committed taking part in this project. We have people who are ready to teach. We have professionals in this area who already crafted the curriculums for the Tajik language and for Tajik history courses. Soon we will be submitting grant proposals to a number of international organizations that support these types of initiatives, money from which will then finance classrooms, for example, books and other materials necessary to have these schools up and running. We are very much excited about it.”
“I represent a Tajik American association called People of Tajikistan in America, also known as PTA. It is a non-profit community based nation-wide organization that seeks to serve and support the interests of Tajikistanis in the United States,” Sharipov said. “We have a Board of Directors consisting of 11 members. We have executive bench, consisting of a President, two Vice Presidents, a Treasurer, and a Secretary. The principal mission of the organization is to bring people together to promote, educate, and celebrate the Tajik rich cultural heritage, help build the cross-cultural bridge between American and Tajik cultures, and help form a strong and vibrant Tajik American community here in United States. The means by which we want to achieve these goals, in fact, we are already fulfilling significant parts of the mission, is via cultural activities, educational activities, and charitable activities.”
According to Sharipov, PTA has been actively participating in promoting annual celebrations of Navrouz in the U.S. and has launched Degchabozi-2012, the first pilaf cooking contest among members of the Tajik American community this year. It also organized a successful Ramadan fundraising among the Tajik Americans to benefit an orphanage for disabled kids in a rural area of Tajikistan. In collaboration with the Embassy of Tajikistan in the U.S., PTA has also helped to showcase the rich cultural tradition of Tajikistan at the annual National Asian Heritage Festival in Washington May.
“We have a very rich Tajik cultural heritage. We have so much to show. There are so many things that the American community — Americans don’t know much about Tajik culture. And that is one of those areas that we certainly will be focusing much more on going forward. In fact, in the future activities such as, again, the types of activities that we have already been engaged in Navrouz celebration or the same pilaf making competition and participation in Asian festival,” Sharipov said. “It’s exactly the type of activities intended to let and give the opportunity to Americans to get to know what we are all about, what the Tajik cultural heritage is about. And I see ourselves playing a huge role in this frankly because not so many Tajiks are here in this country.”
Registered in Washington D.C. in April 2012, People of Tajikistan in America is a non-profit organization that seeks to support and serve the interests of Tajiks residing in the U.S. as well as to advance “dialogue and promote charitable, educational and scientific activities” that lead toward better understanding between the people of Tajikistan and the United States.”
