Scaling clean cooking and forest recovery in rural Tajikistan
The Public Non-Profit Organization Support Center for Marginalized Women “Nuri Umed” is a legally registered NGO in Tajikistan, established in 2009 and re-registered with national status in 2020. It supports marginalized women, children with disabilities, and vulnerable rural households. The organization works with women-headed households, widows, divorced and abandoned women, labor migrant families, and caregivers of children with disabilities to improve livelihoods and resilience. Its programs focus on women’s empowerment, sustainable livelihoods, and community development, while also addressing environmental challenges such as deforestation, land degradation, energy poverty, and soil fertility loss. It promotes energy-efficient practices and sustainable resource management to support ecosystem restoration.
Project story
We work in rural communities of the Sughd region of Tajikistan, where fragile mountain ecosystems are under increasing pressure from deforestation, land degradation, and energy poverty. Households rely heavily on firewood and animal manure for cooking and heating, leading to tree cutting, soil erosion, and declining soil fertility.
Our organization works directly with marginalized women and vulnerable rural families to address these challenges through practical, community-led solutions. We promote energy-efficient cookstoves that reduce firewood consumption by around 50% and help restore balance between household energy needs and natural ecosystems. We also train local women as stove builders and community trainers, enabling knowledge to spread between villages.
Our goal is to scale this model to more households, strengthen environmental awareness, and support forest recovery while improving soil fertility through better use of organic manure. The funds will be used to expand cookstove access, train additional women, establish demonstration stoves in schools and community centers, and improve monitoring and community education.
The main challenges we face are limited financial resources to scale beyond pilot communities and limited access to technical and educational tools for wider outreach. With support, we can transform this small initiative into a scalable restoration model that reduces deforestation, improves livelihoods, and strengthens climate resilience for vulnerable rural communities.
Project updates
Team
Scaling clean cooking and forest recovery in rural Tajikistan
The Public Non-Profit Organization Support Center for Marginalized Women “Nuri Umed” is a legally registered NGO in Tajikistan, established in 2009 and re-registered with national status in 2020. It supports marginalized women, children with disabilities, and vulnerable rural households. The organization works with women-headed households, widows, divorced and abandoned women, labor migrant families, and caregivers of children with disabilities to improve livelihoods and resilience. Its programs focus on women’s empowerment, sustainable livelihoods, and community development, while also addressing environmental challenges such as deforestation, land degradation, energy poverty, and soil fertility loss. It promotes energy-efficient practices and sustainable resource management to support ecosystem restoration.
Project story
We work in rural communities of the Sughd region of Tajikistan, where fragile mountain ecosystems are under increasing pressure from deforestation, land degradation, and energy poverty. Households rely heavily on firewood and animal manure for cooking and heating, leading to tree cutting, soil erosion, and declining soil fertility.
Our organization works directly with marginalized women and vulnerable rural families to address these challenges through practical, community-led solutions. We promote energy-efficient cookstoves that reduce firewood consumption by around 50% and help restore balance between household energy needs and natural ecosystems. We also train local women as stove builders and community trainers, enabling knowledge to spread between villages.
Our goal is to scale this model to more households, strengthen environmental awareness, and support forest recovery while improving soil fertility through better use of organic manure. The funds will be used to expand cookstove access, train additional women, establish demonstration stoves in schools and community centers, and improve monitoring and community education.
The main challenges we face are limited financial resources to scale beyond pilot communities and limited access to technical and educational tools for wider outreach. With support, we can transform this small initiative into a scalable restoration model that reduces deforestation, improves livelihoods, and strengthens climate resilience for vulnerable rural communities.
Project updates
Team
Location
Tajikistan