Families such as this one received flour, lentils, and vegetable oil to supplement their food intake in the rural mountainous areas of Tajikistan.

Janice Setser, Mercy Corps Dushanbe

USAID began providing assistance to Tajikistan in 1993, soon after the country gained independence from the Soviet Union. Since that time, the American people through USAID have provided programs that assist the development of the country’s economic sector, education and health care systems, and democratic institutions. Since 2005, the USAID Development Assistance Program has provided humanitarian assistance in 101 communities for over 4,000 pregnant and lactating mothers and their families.

USAID has made notable achievements over these 20 years. For example, we helped build 57 drinking water systems, which have provided access to clean drinking water to 190,000 people in the Khatlon and Sughd Provinces. Our work in health care helped halt the polio outbreak in Tajikistan; we worked with the country’s health care system to vaccinate over 95 percent of the population under 5 years old and stop the rampant spread of this dangerous disease.