Saudi Arabia will allocate more than US$1.4 million for 1,000 orphans in Tajikistan under the third phase of the Orphan Care in Tajikistan project.

The funding will continue for 12 months, and each orphan will receive US$100 in financial assistance per month.

These funds are provided by the "King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center."

A meeting was held in Dushanbe yesterday to discuss the implementation of the first two phases of the Orphan Care in Tajikistan project.

The meeting was attended by Waleed bin Abdurahman Al-Rasheedan, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Tajikistan, Bahodour Qurbonyon, Secretary-General of Tajikistan’s Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan, and other experts.

It was reported that within this project, financial assistance will be provided to 1,000 orphans in Bokhtar and Kulob, as well as in the Sughd province and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) over the course of one year.  The total amount of aid will be US$1,416,900.

The goal of this project is to provide financial assistance to orphans and half-orphans who have one surviving parent.  The project is being implemented by the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan.

Ambassador Waleed bin Abdurahman Al-Rasheedan stated that during the first phase of the project, assistance was provided to 500 orphans totaling US$720,000, and in the second phase, 600 orphans received assistance totaling US$812,000.

In addition to financial support, orphans will also be provided with free professional training courses, sports training, and psychological support for the children and their guardians.

It is also planned that during the Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr) and Qurbon (Eaid al-Adha) holidays, orphans and their families will receive assistance in the amount of US$30.

It is unclear when the assistance payments will begin.  The event mentioned that the agreement for the project has been prepared and will be signed at the Fourth Humanitarian Forum, which will take place in Riyadh.

It should be noted that on February 4, 2020, an agreement was signed between the Red Crescent of Tajikistan and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center for the Orphan Care in Tajikistan project.  During the first two phases of this project, assistance was provided to 1,100 orphans totaling over $1.5 million.