A man inspects the goods on sale at the market in Khorog, Tajikistan. Photo by Courtney Gerard
About half of the population lives on less
than $1.33 a day. GBAO is among the poor-
est regions of the country, with one-third
of its people living in poverty. Shockingly
high numbers of children are malnourished
and lack access to the most basic services,
including clean drinking water.
This was evident during the 12-hour drive
from Tajikistan’s capital city of Dushanbe to
Khorog, the capital of GBAO, where CAIT’s
office is located. We entered GBAO six
hours into the drive. The journey became
far more harrowing as we traveled along
a mostly unpaved, winding road that hugged
the Panj River that divides Tajikistan with
neighboring Afghanistan.
Along the way, we passed through small
villages with neat plots of land where men
and women were bent over in the endless
task of manual farm labor. Spring had just
arrived, and newly blossoming fruit trees
6 | JOURNEY OF HOPE
and flowers added bursts of color to the
snow-capped summits towering above. As
we drove along the narrow road, our driver
expertly navigated the potholes and local
traffic, mainly small trucks and Soviet-era
Ladas with their loads of goods or animals
tied to the top.
FORMIDABLE NEIGHBORS CREATE
THREATS, AND OPPORTUNITIES
During the long drive along the Panj River,
my traveling companions and I were struck
by the country’s proximity to Afghanistan,
with which Tajikistan shares an 800-mile
long border. While both sides were once part
of the same region of Badakhshan (see map
on previous page), the agreement between
the British and the Russians to split up the
region over a century ago set the two sides
on different trajectories, yet inevitably
bound together.
Gazing across the river to the Afghan
side, at times only a stone’s throw away,
I could not help but ponder where these
trajectories had led. The houses on the
Afghan side were more primitive with
no signs of electricity. Nor were there the
little shops or children dressed in colorful
clothing that characterized the Tajik side of
CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE