Mahbuba Qurbonalieva, CAI Tajikistan
SCHOLARSHIP TAKES TAJIK
GIRL OUT OF THE FIELDS, INTO
UNIVERSITY:
In one of the world’s poorest nations,
Mahbuba Qurbonalieva runs an organization that strives to empower women and
provide equal access to education.
Central Asia Institute-Tajikistan (CAIT)
was established in 2012 and offers services
to communities forgotten by other humanitarian and government agencies. In fact,
CAIT is the only organization in Tajikistan
that works primarily in these remote areas
and the only organization to arrange early childhood development (ECD) trainings for provincial kindergarten teachers.
Before CAIT, ECD teachers had not gone
through trainings since the collapse of
the Soviet Union, nearly 10 years prior.
“Life is precious and much
too short for violence to
destroy human lives. In
peace we can attain so many
worthwhile goals.”
–Jan S.
38 | JOURNEY OF HOPE
Courses on proper teaching techniques
are not the only things to suffer in post-Soviet era Tajikistan. Schools built 50 years ago
are now crumbling and unsafe. The communities reached out asking for help and CAIT
came to their aid. While other groups would
only repair existing structures, CAIT was
putting new structures on the ground. The
organization set out to build four new, safe
schools as its first priority.
CAIT is also the only organization in
Tajikistan that gives scholarships to students
from low-income families. While there
was some opportunity to receive support
based on merit, need-based funding was
non-existent.
“In five years, CAIT did the work that others would do in decades,” said Qurbonalieva
talking about all the organization has accomplished. “Every time I drive by the villages
where we have built schools and see the
happy faces of the schoolchildren and I feel
pride of the work we did.”
Recently, a moment stands out in
Qurbonalieva’s mind that made her pause
and realize the importance of the work
she does.
Last year, Dilrabo Alfatshoeva, a young
woman from eastern Tajikistan, applied for
a CAI scholarship. She was hoping to study
journalism as a sophomore at a university
in Dushanbe. Unfortunately, her freshman
year her family had taken out a loan to pay
for her schooling and had not been able to
pay it back. The bank refused to give them
a loan for the following year. Dejected,
Dilrabo had to go back to her village and get
a job cutting wheat and doing other manual
labor. Then her classmate Nigora, a CAIT
scholarship student, told Dilrabo that she
should apply for funding. In 2016, Dilrabo’s
scholarship application was accepted for
CAI scholarship.
Qurbonalieva called her personally to tell
Dilrabo the good news.
“When I called her and told her that she
was accepted, she asked me again, ‘Sorry,
what did you say? I did not hear you.’ And
when I said again that you are accepted, her
voice disappeared and for 10 seconds there
was no answer. She was crying and could
not talk, and when I asked ‘What happened?
Why you are crying? You have to laugh because you can continue your studies,’ she
just could say ‘thank you so much’ and ‘may
Allah bless you.’ This was one of the moments when I realized the importance of the
work we do, because for us it was accepting
one of the students from remote areas, but
for Dilrabo getting high education is everything and may be her life’s dream.”
Dilrabo is still studying hard and getting
good grades.
“There must be a
balance between
putting resources
for those we love
first, and then, if we
have abundance of
resources, sharing with
those less fortunate.
Without this balance, we leave too many to
struggle, which breeds hate, which leads to
violence - no one wants that.”
–Rebecca B.
CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE