Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Feb. 26, 2008 - CARE has scaled up its emergency distributions of food and emergency supplies to people in crisis-stricken Tajikistan with new funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). A severe energy crisis combined with the harshest winter in 30 years has left millions of people in Tajikistan facing food and fuel shortages.

With US$429,000 from USAID and US$230,000 from DFID, CARE is providing food, warm clothing, coal, generators and fuel, and medicine to more than 35,000 people over the next month. CARE is targeting the most vulnerable groups, distributing food and emergency supplies in rural and urban areas to farmers, women heads of household, schools, homes for the elderly, orphanages, nurseries, and homes for mentally and physically handicapped children.

CARE's doctors and mobile medical teams are providing assistance to rural populations who have been cut off from medical facilities and supplies due to heavy snowfall and avalanches. Before the current crisis hit, CARE had already been distributing food to schools and pregnant and lactating women through an existing USAID-funded project.

"CARE's emergency response program has been ongoing since early February, but the new support from DFID and USAID will enable us to reach more people, more quickly," said Louis Alexander, CARE's Country Director in Tajikistan. "The people of Tajikistan have suffered through a series of shocks - low rainfall in the fall, a severe winter, electricity crisis, food shortages and rising prices. This funding is crucial to help them survive this emergency."

CARE is part of the UN flash appeal issued last week to respond to the crisis, and is coordinating closely with other aid groups, UN agencies and local governments to meet the needs of affected communities. -30-

Media Contact: Melanie Brooks, mbrooks@care.org, mobile: +66.(0).81.915.8108

About CARE: CARE is one of the world's largest independent aid organizations providing emergency relief and development projects in 69 countries around the world. CARE has worked in Tajikistan since 1994, implementing projects in food security, disaster mitigation, basic and reproductive health, agriculture and livelihood security, water and sanitation, and small income generation activities.