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IOM has launched three projects worth nearly USD 1 million to promote peace and tolerance, provide legal aid and rebuild a centre for child victims of trafficking destroyed in the ethnic conflict that erupted in Southern Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2010.

A one-year, USD 650,000 project funded by Japan will target young people and teachers in Osh and Jalalabad – the districts worst affected by the conflict. It aims to improve ethnic tolerance among students and teachers at 967 schools and 30 vocational training centres.

The project will also reach out to a wider public through a mass information campaign to promote peaceful co-existence among Kyrgyz and Uzbeks using TV, radio and live theatre performances.

A second six-month, USD 200,000 project funded by the Soros Foundation will establish seven legal counselling and assistance centres in Osh and Jalalabad cities to help an estimated 4,000 families and individuals who lost their property ownership and identification documents during the conflict.

Working together with local non governmental organizations (NGOs), IOM will hire and train 21 lawyers and seven notaries to advise people and help them to acquire new documents.

A third three-month, USD 120,000 project funded by Norway will rebuild and reopen IOM’s Adaptation and Reintegration Center for Minors in Osh. The centre, which was destroyed in the fighting in June, provides repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration services to repatriated actual and potential child victims of human trafficking.

"This facility provides vulnerable, repatriated children with a safe place to stay. But it also gives them appropriate medical and psychological care, social, legal and financial help, and vocational training that can help them to find jobs," says IOM Osh Head of Sub-Office Ruta Nimkar.

For more information please contact:

Ruta Nimkar
IOM Kyrgyzstan
E-mail: rnimkar@iom.int

or

Zlatko Zigic
IOM Kyrgyzstan
E-mail: zzigic@iom.int