Gulchekhra Rakhmanova and Mukarama Davlyatova are the Director and Manager of the Public Foundation “Legal Initiative” in Tajikistan. They have been working towards the establishment of a child helpline in their country, and their organisation is an Associate Member of Child Helpline International. Mukarama also acts as the regional coordinator for the Central Asian countries that are part of the Child Helpline International network.
We were pleased to be able to introduce Gulchekhra and Mukarama to the child helpline team in Portugal recently. They shared their experiences with the team from SOS Criança Desaparecidas. Everybody exchanged information about the aims and objectives of their respective organisations, and talked about the problems children faced in each of the countries. They discussed the services — social, psychological, legal — that a child helpline can provide, both to children and to their families. They swapped stories about the projects they have been running, or hope to run, and the results they have had or expect to see. They also talked about the differences between the organisations. SOS Crianca is funded by the government, whereas Public Foundation “Legal Initiative” relies on grants.
However, there was one important thing both the teams had in common. “Our countries may be very different,” says Mukarama, “but we share the same mission and the same objective.”
“The voices of all our children need to be heard.”
We’ll keep you updated on the progress of Gulchekhra and Mukarama’s invaluable work and efforts in Tajikistan.