I work for the Association for Aid and Relief (AAR) Japan as a program assistant. We have just finished 2 projects on vocational courses for persons with disabilities and their family members. They were a one-year Sewing Course and Cooking Course projects. Totally there were about 90 participants in our courses for the last one year. They got sewing and cooking skills for income generation. In Tajikistan it is easy to find customers for sewing or cooking by staying at home.

After our project is completed, we do a follow up activity in order to find out outcomes. According to the result of our follow up activity, the majority of our participants get orders from customers for sewing and cooking. Most of them said that their life became easier and more independent due to their sewing or cooking skills.

Currently we have Cosmetology and Massage courses. When I say Cosmetology, I mean hairdressing, nail-styling and make-up. Also we involved 15 visually impaired people as participants in massage course as it is really helpful for them. By the way, the instructor is a visually impaired massage specialist who is very famous in Tajikistan, its bordering countries and countries of the Caucasus. He is the only blind massage specialist in Tajikistan. So we are very lucky to have him as an instructor.

As for me, I'm mainly responsible to carry out vocational courses.

This weekend, on April 21st, I'll visit USA for my training. As I was selected as a finalist of the Empower Access Program of American Councils, I'll go to Washington DC first for the orientation and then I'll visit the State of Hawaii for one month to learn about Assistive Technology in the Assistive Technology Resource Centers of Hawaii located in Honolulu, HI.

And also I'll stay in the host-family's house during my internship. It's going to be a very interesting stay, very similar to the one I had in Okinawa.

I'm really grateful to the People of Japan for giving me such an experience in my life as a Duskin trainee.

Kind regards,

Olesya Narmuratova (11th program from Tajikistan)