AKAH emergency response volunteer named Mountain Partnership’s first Youth Goodwill Ambassador

Dilshodbegim Khusravova – one of the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat’s (AKAH) emergency response volunteers in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), Tajikistan – has been nominated the Mountain Partnership’s first Youth Goodwill Ambassador. Ms. Khusravova, a 21-year-old native of the Pamir Mountains, has been a champion for mountain communities since she was a young girl.  She leads a local community emergency response team, who are all volunteers, in GBAO and is passionate about protecting mountains and mountain life and encouraging women to speak up and lead. In an interview last week she noted that current harsh climate conditions pose a threat to the population of the Pamirs. “It can increase the intensity of natural hazards and man-made disasters.  In many cases, villages are cut off from communication routes for a long time after these disasters and must rely only on themselves and neighbouring communities,” said Dilshodbegim.  “And that’s why we have to take care of Mother Nature and mountains. They do matter.”