Support to help children have a happier, healthier life

The Rasulov family struggled to make ends meet, until a microcredit scheme was introduced by an ECLT partner.

Mirkadyr, wife Abyda, and three of their children

The Rasulov’s have always been short of money

The family grew up working in tobacco but barely earned enough to cover basics. Mirkadyr and his wife Abyda have four children, three boys and one daughter. The oldest son Nirgazy has mental health disorders and physical disabilities, and Mirkadyr himself is nearly blind. The two room house they live in is old and in need of repair. They use coal or firewood in the cooking stove as the only means to heat the house during cold winter evenings. Electricity is too expensive. They would have liked their children to enjoy sports activities organised in the nearby village but the cost at $4 to $5 a month was prohibitive.

In 2009 the Rasulovs were identified as one of ten vulnerable families to join a mutual aid group, supported by the ECLT project.

Mutual aid groups and microcredits allow Mirkadyr to invest

Mirkadyr standing outside his house

Through the mutual aid group farmers were able to get US$300 credit on preferential terms. The Rasulovs used the money to buy an eight month old calf and invested the rest in planting out wheat and sowing tobacco.

Farmers now work together

The members of the mutual aid group took turns working on each others’ fields to cultivate the tobacco. As a condition of receiving credit, and a result of working together, all of the children from the ten families were withdrawn from tobacco work. The parents realised that it is better to be united and find ways to help each other during difficult times, rather than to struggle on alone.

By the autumn, with the money earned from tobacco, Mirkadyr was able to return the credit they had borrowed earlier in the year. In the spring of 2010 he expects their cow to have calves and provide milk so this will give them an additional source of income.

Summer camp for son Mirlanbek

Abyda prepares the stove

In the summer of 2009 sixteen year old son Mirlanbek was offered a place on a ten day camp supported by the ECLT project.

“My son changed after the camp,” Mirkadyr explained, “previously he did not go anywhere. At the camp he made friends with children from other villages, he became more sociable and his outlook is more positive. He has become tidier, pays attention to his clothes, washes every day and cleans his teeth.” Daughter Begimai now looks forward to going to the summer camp in 2010.

Describing the impact of the ECLT supported project the father says,

“There have been big changes for us. We have felt support. If we help ourselves we can restore health and living standards and give our children a happy childhood.”