Training of cluster munition and landmine survivors, Tajikistan

We, the Tajik Campaign to Ban Landmines, with the support of Umarbek Pulodov as Ban Advocate, organized an “Advocacy & Awareness Raising Training for the Cluster Munition and Landmine Survivors”.

The main objective of this training was to have new Tajik Ban Advocates here in Tajikistan to urge our government to sign and ratify the CCM as soon as possible, preferably before the first meeting of states parties in November in Lao PDR.

Participants of the training were the cluster munition and landmine survivors from affected regions of Tajikistan. The training was held over four days in Varzob gorge with professionals from UNDP, Mass Media representatives and other local NGOs as well as Tajikistan campaign members. The schedule of the training was very extensive and it took a lot of time. However almost all participants were very proud to attend these trainings. All activities were attended with great pleasure.

Among the most interesting and useful topics were

• Synergies and differences between CCM, MBT & CRPD. The trainer was Bozorali Nosirov, working at UNDP Tajikistan. He has worked many years on this issue and has broad experience of the subject.
• The rights of persons with disabilities in Tajikistan. The trainer was Assadullo, Head of Association of Persons with Disabilities. He has been working for many years with survivors. He is himself a survivor and has an outstanding experience of this issue.
• Media Training was conducted by a professional journalist and trainees found it so interesting that they did not want to finish the lesson and asked to continue with the lesson. The training included public speaking, lobbying skills, how to work with media etc.

Aziza, Umarbek and Bakhtiyor