The U.S. has announced it is funding a project to eliminate intestinal parasitic worms among schoolchildren in Tajikistan. Sure, you're saying, agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development do that sort of thing all the time. Well, but in this case, it's not USAID or another aid agency who's doing it, but the tough guys at U.S. Special Operations Command. From the official government solicitation notice:
The United States Government‟s (USG) Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking to contract for a Tajikistan nationwide deworming effort in conjunction with the local government‟s Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Education (MOE), and other stakeholders as applicable. The goal of the project is continue historic efforts and provide a foundational program which can be built upon and continued by the Government of Tajikistan into the future.
The solicitation notes that deworming projects in Tajikistan have been undertaken in the recent past, but this one appears to be more ambitious: the goal is to target the entire country. The commandos from SOCOM won't be doing the deworming; it looks like they're just trying to find a qualified organization to fund to do the project.
Of course, it's not news that the military is engaging in humanitarian aid; it's been a standard, albeit controversial, practice for some time. But it's usually done in places where the military wants to build good relations for some strategic reason -- in fact last year, airmen from the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan were involved in a deworming effort in Kyrgyzstan (though in that case it seemed that it was a government program that the Manas folks were assisting on, rather than leading, as seems to be the case in Tajikistan). So it stands to reason that this effort is connected to the increased U.S. military presence in Tajikistan, namely the training center it's building in Qaratogh. It's not clear why they chose a deworming project, though it seems like a worthy goal. Let's just hope their next do-gooder project isn't a vaccination drive.
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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