On 24 April 2015 OSCE Academy organized a meeting of its Dushanbe alumni chapter. Ten graduates of both MA programmes living and working in the capital city of Tajikistan gathered to meet with the OSCE Academy’s staff as well as the featured guest speakers, the Executive Director of Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia (EFCA) in Tajikistan, Mr Ravshan Abdullaev and the EFCA’s international team-member, Dr Artemy Kalinovsky of the University of Amsterdam. Mr Abdullaev presented the main activities of the EFCA in Tajikistan and the region, and shared ideas about the future plans and challenges of the Foundation.
The Academy’s graduates learned about the EFCA as one of the largest and most self-sustainable non-governmental organizations of the country. EFCA is special as it not only receives grants, but also provides grants to various projects in the country. The Foundation has a good record of working with a variety of actors, including the governmental agencies, international development organizations, non-profit organizations as well as private businesses. While answering the question from alumni Mr Abdullaev and Dr Kalinovsky mentioned about their plans to attract international researchers to work jointly with Central Asian researchers on topics relevant to Central Asia, with further possibility of developing academic links between the region and universities abroad.
The meeting was followed by an informal dinner, during which alumni and the Academy’s staff shared latest developments at the OSCE Academy, and the graduates of 2014 received their well-deserved State Diplomas.