"Poverty is rife
among the country’s
soaring mountains
and incredible
natural beauty."
RICH NATURAL BEAUTY, CRUSHING
POVERTY AND MARGINALIZATION
CAIT works in the Gorno-Badakhshan
Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) region, home
to the Pamir Mountain range and some
of the highest peaks in the world. Ismoil
Somoni Peak, the country’s tallest, is more
than 24,500 feet high. While only 3 percent
of Tajikistan’s population of 3.2 million
people live in GBAO, the region comprises
45 percent of the country’s territory. The
Pamiri people who live there are primarily
Ismaili, a branch of Shi'a Islam, and look
to the Aga Khan as their spiritual leader.
Poverty is rife among the country’s soaring
mountains and incredible natural beauty.
Tajikistan is the second poorest country in all
of Central Asia, second only to Afghanistan.
TAJIKISTAN
Gorno-
Badakhshan
Autonomous
Oblast
AFGHANISTAN Badakhshan
Province
PAKISTAN
FALL 2019
In 1895, the Russians and the British,
who had long fought for dominion
over the region, reached an accord
that included divvying up this area,
historically known as Badakhshan.
The Panj River became the dividing
line. Following the Russian Revolution
of 1917, the area of Badakhshan
under Russian control was attached
to the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic.
After the Soviet Union broke up in
1991, Tajikistan fell into a civil war
that lasted for several years, before
the present-day Republic of Tajikistan
emerged.
JOURNEY OF HOPE | 5