The month in pictures: January

Father and son: Bakytbek plays with his youngest child, Koshoy, in the morning light. After attending workshops focused on parental engagement and gender equality, supported by AKF, Bakytbek has become a more attentive, involved parent and partner – and he has also become a role model for others in his rural village in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Esther smiles as she stands beside a thornless cacti plant on her three-acre farm. Over the last two years, Esther has been learning regenerative farming techniques and adopting sustainable practices. She produces organic biosprays and biofertilisers for her crops, uses biogas for clean energy, harvests rainwater for irrigation and grows cacti as sustainable fodder for her livestock.

Esther’s self-sustaining farm system is reducing her dependence on chemicals and fertilisers, restoring soil health, improving nutrition for her family and strengthening their climate resilience. She is one of thousands of East African farmers gradually adopting, modelling and scaling regenerative farming techniques through AKF’s Maendeleo initiative.

At an altitude of 5,500m above sea level, AKF habitat specialists and representatives of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan stand atop a glacier to assess permafrost conditions. Permafrost is frozen ground in the mountains; when it thaws, it can trigger landslides, debris flows, floods and lake outbursts. These hazards can propagate downstream into valleys, putting villages and critical infrastructure at risk.

Following each assessment, the team develop hazard maps – to be shared with communities, technical partners and government offices – supporting disaster preparedness, emergency planning and infrastructure development.

As part a three-month training programme, these women are learning how to cut and polish gemstones. The hands-on training is facilitated by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) in Pakistan in partnership with the Baltistan Culture Development Foundation (BCDF).

Once they’ve built their technical expertise, the women will be employed by BCDF in a fully functional gem cutting and polishing production unit.

BCDF supply raw gemstones and lead marketing efforts, while the women offer their practical product development skills. As well as earning a monthly salary, the women will also be made business partners of the unit, sharing the net profit of all products sold and growing their entrepreneurship knowledge.

During a session for pregnant women at the Parent’s School, a facility in the Ak-sy District Hospital in Kerben, Dr. Ainura shows a girl how to rub her mother’s belly. Support from AKF has helped procure equipment for facilities like this and have helped healthcare workers like Dr. Ainura access more training on maternal care and early childhood development. Sessions at the Parent’s School run every day and are tailored to specific topics like nutrition and prenatal exercises.

Children wear their hand-crafted headbands at a community-based childcare centre in Salamieh. Supported by AKF, centres like this one lead interactive sessions which champion children’s emotional wellbeing, playful and inclusive learning, and positive parental and community engagement.

These efforts form part of AKF’s wider education and early childhood development initiatives in Syria, improving access to holistic and integrative learning environments for children and young people aged 0-18.

Young people gather at the second Palavras que Contam retreat – a project led by AKF in the municipality of Sintra, which translates as “words that matter”. The project supports young people in writing and publishing their own stories, partnering with a local publishing company, Almedina.

Over the last few months, these young people have been drafting their stories; this gathering was an opportunity to reflect on the writing experience and prepare for a local literary festival in May, where each young author will present their work.