DUSHANBE, June 29, Asia-Plus — Mission of Iran’s Imam Khomeini Relief Committee to Tajikistan intends to expand its operations to the Sughd province and Gorno Badakhshan and open its field offices there.  

Mr. Hamid Azimi, the head of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee Mission to Tajikistan, remarked this at a news conference in Dushanbe today.  He noted that they had already reached an agreement on opening of the committee’s branches in Khujand and Khorog.  “Some 1,000 vulnerable families there will be covered by permanent assistance,” he said.  

Mr. Azimi added that the Committee is continuing to provide support to vulnerable people in Tajikistan. 

The committee''s activities in Tajikistan include a program to create textile workshops in the home.  The committee also provides medical aid as well as assistance to vulnerable families in educating their children.  The committee also supports development of small entrepreneurship through providing small loans.   

“Last year, the committee assisted 70 families with repairing roofs of their residential buildings,” said Azimi, “In all, 7,000 vulnerable families in Tajikistan are covered with permanent assistance, and 2,000 other families received extraordinary assistance last year.”  

Besides, the committee last year also provided assistance to people hit by natural disasters.  $200,000 were spent on providing assistance to the disaster-hit population.  

“80 weddings will be held in the Nourobod district on July 8 under financial support of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee,” Hamid Azimi said, noting that the newlyweds will receive as presents refrigerators, washing machines and sets of kitchenware that had already been delivered to Tajikistan from Iran.  According to him, guests from Iran as well as clerics and representatives from local communities in the Rasht Valley have been invited to attend the weddings in Nourobod.   

He reminded that 250 weddings simultaneously took place at the “Kokhi Vahdat” State Complex in Dushanbe in September 2006.  Young men and women that were simultaneously married last September were orphans or come from vulnerable or incomplete families.  All expenses were met by Iran’s Relief Committee and the Tajik Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

“We plan to organize such weddings in Sughd and Gorno Badakhshan already this year,” said Azimi, “In all, some 200-300 weddings are expected to be organized this year.”