Tajikistan faced coronavirus infection later than many countries, but was not ready for a pandemic. Health workers had the hardest time. There was an acute shortage in everything – shortage of PPEs for health workers, medicines and disinfectants.
In this difficult time, health workers were supported by civil society. Among people providing invaluable support, there were also residents of Boulder, Dushanbe’s Sister City in Colorado, USA.
People who laid the foundation for a civic activist movement called “SIZ Dushanbe” are employees of Eastera Company headed by its Director-General Marouf Muhammedov, their friends and partners from international organizations active in Tajikistan and various companies.
They became a kind of bridge between the residents of the sister cities.
Friends from Boulder quickly responded and provided assistance.
In early May, Marouf Muhammedov wrote to Boulder Dushanbe Sister Cities (BDSC) board members that COVID-19 has put the people of Tajikistan at serious risk. Tajikistan is experiencing a shortage of emergency items, specifically food and medical supplies, due to limited capacity and limited access to the outside world.
BDSC says Marouf Muhammedov established a GoFundMe site for Covid-19 relief for Tajikistan, due to which people from all over the world got the opportunity to help health workers in Tajikistan.
“At the same time, we have also been receiving tax-deductible donations to support this relief effort on the BDSC website. All funds collected, plus several hundred dollars from the existing BDSC bank account, have been forwarded to Marouf’s account, so that he can distribute them in Tajikistan,” according to BDSC.
“Although residents of Boulder they themselves were in a more difficult situation than we, and general quarantine was introduced there, they provided financial aid,” Marouf Muhammedov said.
According to him Boulder residents have sent an amount equal to more than 11,300 somonis to Tajikistan to help health workers.
“We, for our part, purchased about 200 PPEs, 800 medical face masks, about 500 liters of rubbing alcohol and 400 packages of disposable gloves and distributed them to hospitals throughout the country,” Muhammedov said.
“My friends — Rett Ertl and Tanya, Peter and Sophia Stoller were well acquainted with our culture and republic before the situation with the pandemic. They have made contribution to the process of friendship between our cities. Rett Ertl is the President of Boulder Dushanbe Sister Cities,” said Muhammedov. “At the moment when our doctors needed support, they did not stand aside and were the very key figures in the process of providing assistance.”
According to Marouf, amazing was how residents of Boulder kept in touch. Sometimes they even found contacts themselves and tried to help.
For example, to provide help to hospitals in Khujand they communicated through workers who participated in the restoration of the teahouse in Boulder, which was donated to Boulder in 1989 as “a piece of Dushanbe.”
Contribution of ordinary people, who decided to provide assistance to those who find themselves in a difficult situation during the coronavirus pandemic, is invaluable.
The Boulder Dushanbe Sister Cities relationship started in the 1980s. The people of Dushanbe donated the beautiful Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, and the people of Boulder in turn donated the Friendship Cyber Café and Friendship Center in Dushanbe. Over the course of this relationship, the U.S. government has sponsored various exchange programs of students and professionals to Boulder to strengthen these people-to-people ties.
