Help children with Down syndrome in Tajikistan

Nazari Digar (‘Different View’ in Tajik) registered as a UK based charity two years ago and is now supporting more than 200 families from all over Tajikistan. We established the first Centre in Tajikistan for people with Down syndrome in a city in Northern Tajikistan called Khujand, and most of our activities are conducted there.

 Brief history of our work: This fundraiser started more than 3 years ago now, it was my birthday fundraiser where we started to support 30 families who have children with Down syndrome in my home country Tajikistan.  Under this fundraiser a number of successful meetings with parents and government were held to formulate the strategy of the this initiative (organisation to be) and inform partners.  A database of children and adults with Down’s Syndrome was started to ensure regular contact with all parents and care givers. The training all about Down Syndrome was conducted for parents for two days (two different groups of parents) and hand outs for families on speech development were distributed. The campaign to provide annual health checks was launched, focusing on three main areas.  These were; blood tests to test for an underactive thyroid, eye tests and heart ultrasounds to look for congenital heart defects (details will be in an updates). We continue to need regular support for the Centre in Tajikistan to continue to function, we need 1000 USD every months to make sure all the speech and language, psychology, OT, art therapy, gymnastics and music therapy classes continue. We also conduct regular monthly psychological support of mothers, and funds are also used to help families buy medicine for their children.

 This initiative came to my mind because I wanted to give and do something positive for my 40th birthday. And the cause I chose was Down Syndrome as I have a gorgeous son Safroz (blessing) who happens to have this condition. I live in England, and I never take for granted for all the amazing support my son Safroz gets from the UK. And looking back to Tajikistan, I feel sad about the lack of opportunities for support, and I want to try to brighten up and warm up my 'sunbeams' of Tajikistan. On behalf of the children with DS from Tajikistan, and their parents, I would like to express my gratitude for your kind acts in supporting this initiative.

 This campaign will be open until an indefinite time in case if people will be wanting to contribute to this important cause. 

 
Rahmat (Thank you in Tajik :) )
 
With love and appreciation,

Tahmina and the team of ND