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| Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva and Timur Tilliaev |
Lola
Karimova-Tillyaeva
has been Uzbekistan’s envoy to UN’s cultural organization Unesco since 2008. She and her husband Timur
Tillyaev provide financial
support to two major charitable organizations in Uzbekistan: “You are not
alone” foundation, which was founded by Mrs Karimova-Tillyaeva in 2002 to help orphanages; as well
as the National centre for children’s social adaptation (founded by
Karimova-Tillyaeva in 2004), which provides medical and financial support to
children with disabilities and their parents. Both charities also give funding
for the treatment of children from low-income families, including surgery
grants for children with serious medical conditions.
Karimova-Tillyaeva has described her
charitable work as “her calling”.
The Uzbek president’s younger
daughter and her husband keep a rather low media profile. According to media
reports, neither Lola Tillyaeva nor Timur Tillyaev nurse any political ambitions.
Karimova-Tillyaeva has her official
website as well as page on the Facebook where she mainly shares news about her
charitable work.
In her interview with the BBC in
September 2013, Mrs Karimova-Tillyaeva said she did not have any political ambitions and
never discussed politics during her rare meetings with her father.
Speaking about relationship with her
elder sister Gulnara Karimova, Mrs Karimova-Tillyaeva said: “We have never hidden this from
anyone. We have neither family nor friendship contacts.”
Her official website says
Karimova-Tillyaeva
was instrumental in launching key nationwide reforms to improve the situation
in orphanages across Uzbekistan, which resulted in many children left without
parental care being offered better opportunities for their development.
Between 2012 and 2014 Karimova-Tillyaeva’s foundation financed large-scale construction and
renovation work in four Uzbek orphanages: Tashkent orphanage for children under
the age of three; Mercy Home No 14 in the town of Chirchik; Mercy Home No 10 in
Samarkand; Mercy Home No 23 in Tashkent.
On 25 September 2014 Lola
Karimova-Tillyaeva
announced on her Facebook page that her charity was currently building new
premises for children living in another Samarkand orphanage, Mercy Home No 6.
“A year ago, following the
reconstruction of Mercy Home No 10 in the city of Samarkand, we set ourselves
new tasks on improving the standards of living of other children brought up in
Samarkand orphanages. The inspection of Samarkand Mercy Home No 6 revealed that
the current premises of the orphanage - which is home to 160 children aged
between 4 and 16 - were in a poor state and lacked the conditions needed for
children’s overall development and education. Therefore, “You are not alone”
foundation has decided to build a new home for these children at a new
location, to fit it out with modern furniture and advanced facilities, create
everything necessary for children’s comfortable living and development.
”The construction of the new premises
got under way last spring and the project involves the experts who worked on
the construction and relocation project for Tashkent orphanage No 23. These are
people with broad expertise in the area of the education, training and
socialization of children left without parental care.
”The construction work is currently in
full swing and we plan to open the new premises of the mercy home in 2015,” Karimova-Tillyaeva said in her message.
