While the officials report that the economy of the country is developing at a fast pace and soon, about 5 years from now we are going to have a totally different country, the ordinary population is suffering of malnutrition. I’ve read an article where an eleven years old boy from Vahdat district, 27 km southeast of Dushanbe, is telling the story of his life. He helps his mother to feed the family by cleaning shoes, because his father died of hard work in Russia. I think this is a true story of many families in Tajikistan.

“There is no flour at home to bake bread, and very little food. In our family we are often hungry. We eat meat only on holidays. We can only dream of good food or see tasty food in advertisements. There are seven in our family - my mother Saida, an older brother of 16 called Shokir, two sisters of 14 and 12, myself and two younger sisters of nine and eight. We eat food twice a day, in the morning before we go out to work and in the evening, when everybody gathers together. We have chickens at home but we take all the eggs to market. We sell eggs and milk to buy flour, rice, macaroni and soap. We may not afford sugar for months on end.”