The sustainable housing project, launched last year, aims to improve the living conditions of vulnerable populations in rural areas and strengthen their livelihoods through innovative energy solutions.

In the long term, these climate-resilient solutions should allow us to measure the impact and study the possibilities of replication on a larger scale in the country.

Fint out more about the project: Geres kickstarts the Sustainable Housing Solutions for Scale-Up project in Tajikistan

Munisa’s family is among the first to benefit from Geres’ energy solutions

Munisa, 17, and her father live in the Rudaki district of Gulisoy village in Tajikistan. Her family is one of the beneficiaries of the sustainable housing project. Last summer, Geres insulated the walls of one of the rooms in their house and installed a heat recovery unit to optimize heating and serve as a back-up oven.

“It was difficult to heat the room and our children had to sleep under thick, heavy comforters. Now we have a comfortable temperature while using much less wood. When we open the heat recovery unit, we can get extra heat, and not only just for cooking,” – testifies his father.

Munisa, for her part, has taken a liking to using the heat recovery unit for cooking in particular. Thanks to the efficiency of the object, the 17-year-old girl can now prepare food in the oven whenever she wants. This was not the case before, since the family used an electric stove.

Another facility that makes a difference is the installation of a new improved cooking stove built as part of an apprenticeship program for women trained to build better cooking stove.

Energy solutions that inspire beneficiaries

When Geres team arrived to conduct an energy audit of the house, they discovered a second cooking stove built next to the first one already installed. The young girl, curious by nature, decided to build it by herself.

A very rewarding step for a girl of her age, because there, the construction of stoves is mainly done by older women. And it is very difficult to find young women in the villages who want to participate in the training.

Munisa says, “When I came back from school, I noticed that they had built a new and improved stove in our summer kitchen. Out of curiosity, I studied the construction of this stove and the materials used. Then I asked my father to weld me a metal stove that is installed inside the stove.

After that I built another stove for a smaller kazan (cauldron). The result was quite good. When the Geres staff came, they helped me to optimize the construction and encouraged me to take a training course with the craftswomen. It’s a real opportunity and I’m very happy about it.

Thanks to this first experience, Munisa will soon join a group of craftswomen to put her skills into practice. Her ambition is to learn more and gain additional experience in stove construction.

About our partners

The Swiss Cooperation Office in Tajikistan represents the Government of Switzerland and supervises Swiss funded projects implemented in Tajikistan. There are two Swiss Federal Agencies working in the country, namely the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). Switzerland funds projects in the following domains: Water, infrastructure and climate change; Governance and Institution buildings; Employment and economic development. Additionally, the Swiss Cooperation in Tajikistan promotes arts and culture and supports small project from local organizations. The Government of Switzerland gives substantial contributions to the World Bank (WB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the United Nations system. Those organizations also support the Republic of Tajikistan.

Abbé Pierre Foundation is a private foundation created in 1990 that aims to enable people facing isolation and social and economic exclusion to access independent housing, a genuine “home”. The Foundation’s regional agencies support local operators seeking to develop the supply of housing accessible to the majority. Since 2011, the Abbé Pierre Foundation has supported Geres work to combat energy poverty through improving the housing of poor communities in Central Asia.