Andizhan Children's Fund offers hope to disabled

Two years ago, things were not looking good for Mamura Mamadaliyeva. Suffering from arthritis, a debilitating disease of the joints, the 43-year-old mother of four living in the village of Gulistan in the eastern Uzbek province of Andizhan could barely move, much less take care of herself. Her life changed, however, after her arrival at a training and manufacturing centre, established by a local Uzbek NGO, the Andizhan Children's Fund (ACF). "Before, I couldn't even eat without somebody's help. But I tried hard, and work has helped me to get over the disease," Mamura told IRIN at the Bolalar-2000 centre, located in Karabag village, some 10 km from the provincial capital, Andizhan. She said she had now regained her self-confidence as she was earning money and no longer had health problems. She is one of 150 individuals at the centre working to change their lives. Of them, almost 60 percent have various disabilities, some 30 percent are single women, while the rest are mothers with disabled children or women from very poor families. They earn US $8 to $50 a month according to their output, while the average salary in the rural area is just $4. Malohat Mirzoeva, the chairwoman of the ACF, told IRIN that when she had been appointed head of the fund in August 1999, one of the key challenges had been that of funds necessary to conduct charitable activities as the ACF, registered as an NGO, lacked its own sources of finance and was solely dependent on contributions. "I decided to achieve financial independence of the Andizhan Children's Fund," Mirzoeva said. One of the sponsors donated a building in Karabag village, which was the starting point. She made up her mind to establish a manufacturing facility, which would generate income for both the ACF and its workers, adding that the initial idea was to establish a practical training centre for disabled children, single women and socially disadvantaged people who needed protection. The centre is located in the densely populated Ferghana Valley, where almost 10 million people live, almost 7 million of whom concentrated in the Uzbek part of the Valley. Poverty exacerbated by unemployment is considered one of the root causes of the region's numerous problems. Many factories and plants there - a legacy of the Soviet era - have long since closed or are working under capacity as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union followed by independence in 1991. And while there are only limited jobs prospects for the able, the situation for the disabled is even worse. The Uzbek government provides some nominal welfare payments, but when they earn money themselves things are quite different. According to the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the president of Uzbekistan, in 2000, some 850,000 people in the country were recipients of disability benefits. In Andizhan Province alone, 1.29 percent of the population was disabled: thus, of the province's population of nearly 2.5 million, 30,000 were disabled. "When we opened our centre in 2000, we had 52 workers," Mirzoeva said, adding that they especially wanted to employ women with disabled children. The ACF accordingly founded a small kindergarten at the facility so that those disabled children could be taken care of while their mothers were working, with the centre meeting all the kindergarten's expenses. In the beginning there were seven disabled children, now there are 14. The United Nations Children's Fund donated all the necessary equipment for the centre, worth some $10,000, while the ACF used the aid to establish a sewing shop, a sock shop, a bakery and a small oil press. "One of the most striking things is that our seamstresses with disabilities are sewing with a better quality than healthy women," Mirzoeva noted, adding that the income generated by the centre was spent on a number of charitable activities. One such activity was the ACF's help for two disabled brothers. Saidullo, 19, and his brother Lutfullo Abdullahatov, 22, who used to attend school like other children in Fayzabad village in Asaka District of Andizhan, before falling ill with a disease leaving them both paralysed. They became totally dependent on their parents, while their father was also an invalid. The family was passing through difficult times and their only source of income was their cow, which enabled their mother to sell milk and cream at the market. The two brothers stayed for about a year and a half at the centre, where they were taught how to repair TVs, radios and other home appliances. Now they run their own small repair shop, donated by the ACF, on the main street of Fayzabad village. "My life is fine. I have more self-confidence as I have my job, workshop and can now look after my family," Saidullo told IRIN in Fayzabad. He works with his brother, Lutfullo, and the fact that he has a number of TVs to repair in his tiny workshop shows that indeed they are doing well.