PPRP in Print and Electronic Media
In Feudal Sindh, Zohra Bibi Challenges Status Quo
- April 21, 2012
- Amar Guriro
- Published in "The Pakistan Today"
Being a woman in the northern districts of Sindh – notorious for being the hub of tribal and feudal lords – is not an easy thing.
Most of them are not allowed to roam freely or take active part in politics or social work.
These districts are home to the infamous bandits of former dictator Ziaul Haq’s rule and the majority of the province’s women, who fall victim to honour killing or karo-kari. The small village of Chaho Labano of the Wazirabad union council in the Shikarpur district could be counted as one of the most dangerous villages for women.
But Zohra Bibi, a resident of this village who comes from a poor family and was forced to stay illiterate her entire life, struggled to set an example for the women of these districts by becoming the Florence Nightingale of the development sector.
Sandwiched between the villages of Mahar sardars (chieftains) and Jatoi sardars, two very powerful tribes of the area, is her village of Chaho Labano.
Until a few years ago, she could not have even imagined that she would one day stand tall and become a community leader in her village. But today, she is the leader of 22 community organisations (COs) comprising 323 women from the nearby areas.
A few months ago, Zohra had received an invitation from the Rural Support Programme Network to attend the Local Support Organisation (LSO) Convention in Islamabad along with other activists from all across Pakistan. For the first time in her life, she was travelling out of the district and that too by an airplane.
“During the convention, I met the wife of an elected representative of my area and when I introduced myself, she was shocked and surprised,” recalled Zohra.
Zohra briefed her about how she had organised the women of her village and was going to participate in a convention where female participants from different areas of the country were coming to share their experiences.
“The lady was very impressed with my simplicity, devotion, courage and commitment to my cause. I invited her to visit my village, and with her support, I have now organised the villages of the Mahar and Jatoi tribes,” said Zohra. This was her first step in organising the women of these areas, where being a woman is nothing less than a crime.
The attitude and behaviour of the Mahar and Jatoi communities towards her kin has also changed. She has taken all the responsibilities of her village on her shoulders.
A young boy of her village was killed during a cattle robbery. She persuaded the Village Organisation (VO) to set up a community-based security system for their village.
It was decided that six posts around the village would be established where three male volunteers would be deployed at each post. The villagers and their cattle and other valuables are safer now because of the initiative of Zohra.
Zohra then turned her focus towards education. The only school in the village was not properly functioning. The VO arranged for the teaching staff and now the school is functional.
Many such stories are emerging every day from the northern part of Sindh where women are commonly treated as sub-humans. They are killed in the name of honour for even speaking to a man not related to them.
But things have started changing. With the support of the provincial government, the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) has organised 267,544 women into 15,630 COs clustered into 5,294 VOs and federated into 41 LSOs in three districts of northern Sindh under the Union Council-Based Poverty Reduction Programme (UCBPRP).
Their level of confidence and dynamism in terms of leadership and involvement in self and community development and improvement has to be seen to be believed.
At the newly opened outlet of the products of the COs in Sukkur Bazaar, when someone asked the women present there who their manager was, they received the response: “What manager? We are the managers! We manage our shops!”
The UCBPRP was first initiated in the Shikarpur and Kandhkot-Kashmore districts, and after analysing the performance in these districts, the provincial government initiated this programme in the Jacobabad district in June 2010.
The programme aims at improving the quality of life of the rural communities, especially of the poorest of the poor, through the conceptual package of social mobilisation, organising them into “organisations of the poor” at community, village and union council levels.
In the beginning, the SRSO conducted the Poverty Score Card exercise in 166 union councils of these three districts to identify the poor and the poorest.
As all these women have no experience of conducting meetings, record-keeping or maintaining registers of their proceedings and accounts, training for capacity-building of the office-bearers of the COs, VOs and LSOs is one of the components of this programme because these organisations cannot effectively function without that.
Some 153,189 members of various COs, 35,496 of VOs and 371 of LSOs, as well as their office-bearers are trained in management and record keeping of Community Investment Fund (CIF).
These organisations have not only empowered the most neglected section of the society – women – but also made positive impacts on the social fabric of the society.
Nasim is the elected head of her organisation of her village Mudd Khoso. Their tribe was in conflict over a piece of land with the other tribe residing in their neighbourhood.
That feud has taken the lives of 38 people on both sides. Nasim took the initiative and led a delegation of women of her tribe. They went to the houses of their rival tribe and invited their women to join their organisations.
They replied: “The males of your tribe will kill our women if we come to your houses.” But Nasim and her colleagues took the responsibility of their security.
When those women came to Nasim’s house, they were given a lot of respect. Then these women belonging to both tribes compelled their males to settle their feuds.
The bone of contention, the piece of land, was eventually distributed among the families of those killed in the conflict.
The UCBPRP also includes a component whereby the youth from economically and chronically poor segments of the society are provided scholarships for receiving training in vocational skills.
Under this component of the programme, 29,547 participants have been trained in different trades. After being trained, many of them have opened up motor rewinding workshops, refrigerator and mobile repairing shops, beauty parlours, etc.
The Craft Enterprise initiative is for capacity-building of the skilled people of the area, development of their products and designing marketing strategies to enable these marginalised craftswomen to have access to local, national and international markets.
Orders of up to Rs 133,409 were placed last month for different products manufactured by the craftswomen of the Kandhkot, Shikarpur and Khairpur districts.
The poorest of the poor, including widows and people living with chronic disabilities, are provided grants to purchase livestock or anything that could help them generate income on a regular basis.
It has helped so many people to step out of the shadows. The Income-Generating Grant has been given to 5,640 members.
The most effective, powerful and result-oriented intervention of this project is setting up of a village-based revolving fund at the community level. This fund, the CIF, provides interest-free loans to the members of the COs for investment.
This fund has a very encouraging impact on the lives of the common people and has saved them money that they used to pay as huge interests for their agricultural inputs and other things. Almost 75,000 women have benefited from this fund. It is organised by their COs.
The VOs are to be given schemes of sanitation and drinking water supply as grants. Shelter support is being provided in terms of low-cost houses to the extremely poor households who live in thatched huts and require shelter. Some 5,284 low-cost houses have been initiated, whereas 4,161 houses constructed.
After the 2010 flood, the regular interventions of the UCBPRP were temporarily suspended, and with the support of the provincial government, relief and rehabilitation work was started with special focus on providing shelter to the flood survivors. Construction of over 6,000 houses has been completed in different areas of the province’s three districts.
SRSO Efforts Put Northern Dists on an Even Keel
- April 19, 2012
- Ramazan Chandio
- Published in "The Nation"
KARACHI - Zohra Bibi of village Chaho Labano in Wazirabad union council of Shikarpur district, who belongs to a very poor family and is absolutely illiterate but quite dynamic, has become the leader of her village. She has organised 323 women in 22 community organisations.
The result-oriented intervention of the Union Council-Based Poverty Reduction Programme (UCBPRP) of the Sindh government has changed lives of thousands of people, especially women, in northern Sindh.
The intervention is being termed as a silent revolution, which has empowered the most suppressed sections of the society. During a visit to the area, TheNation observed that Zohra Bibi has taken overall responsibilities of her village on her shoulders.
Narrating her story, she said, “A young boy of her village was killed in a cattle robbery. She persuaded the village organisation (VO) to set up a community-based security system for their village and it was decided that six posts around the village would be established, where three men volunteers would perform duty. Her initiative has made the lives of her village people safe. Afterward, Zohra started focusing on education. The only school in her village was not functioning properly. The VO arranged teaching staff for the school, which is now functional.
There are so many such stories that happen every day in the northern part of Sindh, where commonly women are treated at the subhuman level. They are killed in the name of honour if they just talk to any male. But, now the things have started changing; the Sindh Rural Support Organisation along with the Sindh government has organised 267,544 women into 15,630 community organisations, clustered into 5,294 village organization and federated into 41 locals’ support organizations in three districts of northern Sindh under the UCBPRP, which was initiated on February 1, 2009 in Shikarpur and Kandhkot-Kashmore.
After analysing its performance in the two districts, the provincial government initiated a similar programme in Jacobabad district in June 2010.
The UCBPRP aims at improving the quality of life of the rural communities, especially of the poorest of the poor, through the conceptual package of social mobilisation, organising them into “organizations of the poor” at the community, village and union council level.
Earlier to that, the SRSO conducted a “Poverty Score Card” exercise in 166 union councils of the said three districts to identify the poor and the poorest.
As the women in these districts had no prior experience of conducting meetings, record-keeping and maintaining registers of the proceedings and accounts, special training sessions were organised for the capacity building of the Cos, VOs and LSOs’ office-bearers. The training is one of the most important components of the programme, because unless it is not done, these organisations could not function effectively.
As many as 153,189 women belonging to various COs, 35,496 of VOs and 371 LSO members and office-bearers are being trained in management and Community Investment Fund (CIF) record-keeping.
These organisations have not only empowered the most neglected sections of the society, ie, women, but also made positive impacts on the social fabric of the society. Nasim is the elected head of the organisation in her village Mudd Khoso. Their tribe had a conflict with another, residing in their neighbourhood, over a piece of land. That feud had taken the lives of as many as 38 people from either side.
Nasim took the initiative and lead a delegation of women of her tribe; they went to the houses of their rival tribe and invited their females to be the part of their organisation.
“They said to me that male members of my tribe will kill them if they came up to them,” according to Nasim, who then took the responsibility for their security.
When those ladies came to Nasim’s house, they were given a lot of respect. Then, the women of both the tribes compelled their male members to settle their feud. The bone of contention was over when the disputed land was distributed to heirs of those killed in the clashes.
According to Dr Sono Kangrani, chief of the SRSO, the UCBPRP also included a component whereby the youth from economically and chronically poor segments of the society were given stipends for receiving vocational training.
Under this component of the programme, 29,547 participants had been trained in different trades. After training many of them have started earning by starting their workshops of motor rewinding, fridge, mobile repairing, beauty parlours, etc. The poorest of the poor, including widows and people living with chronic disabilities, are provided grants to purchase livestock or something that can help them eke out a living on a daily basis.
The most effective powerful and result-oriented intervention of the project was setting up of a village-based revolving fund at the community level.
Under the fund – Community Investment Fund – interest free loan is provided to members of the COs. It has a very encouraging impact on the lives of the common people and saved their money which they used to pay with a huge interest for their agricultural inputs and other things. Almost 75,000 women have benefited from it.
UCBPRP Empowering People to Overcome Psychological Problem & Opposition of the Oppress.
- April 19, 2012
- App Sukkur
- Published in "APP Sukkur"
Sukkur- Union Council Based Poverty Reduction Programme (UCBPRP) a Project of Government of Sindh, implemented partnership with Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) empowering the people of the remote areas like Shikarpur, Kashmore-Kandhkot and Jacoabad to overcome psychological problem and opposition of oppress. Such steps by the Government cannot be denied.
UCBPRP is a multi-sector, poverty and women-targeted programme with aims to improving the quality of life of rural communities, specifically targeting the poorest of the poor.
It is mention that CIF is a community-managed fund which consists of a revolving fund provided to community organizations, specifically to poor women. From the self managed CIF, the poorest women are provided with micro loans which they are able to invest in income-generating activities only. It also created the confidence and capabilities of poor rural women due to poorest women who make the decisions and not external agencies.
“Position of women has improved in the areas after launching UCBPRP” this said by Ms. Suhagin, 42 of Village Malhar Bajkani, UC Tagwani, District Kashmore-Kandhkot while sharing her views to APP on Monday. She said that she get CIF loan with her Rs. 9,000 loan and purchased a goat more than one year earlier.
According to Ms. Suhagin, same goat gave birth to two offspring after which she sold the adult goat for Rs. 13,000.
When SRSO first came to our village and explained the CIF programme, she said that the men in her village (including her husband) were very suspicious.
Nazia, 18 Years of age, recently moved to Village Dakhan School, UC Ghulanpur, district Kashmore-Kandhkot when she got married. Upon arriving in her new village, Nazia learnt about the Concept of COs and VO. She become a member and obtained a loan of Rs. 5,000. She used the money to purchase a goat which soon gave birth to two kids. Nazia recollects the moment when she received her CIF loan cheque which was made out in her name.
“It was the first ever cheque that I had received in my life. She said and added that moment I felt a Great sense of satisfaction and a feeling of freedom; at being able to spend that Rs. 5,000 on something that I wanted”
Community Investment Fund (CIF) in Kashmore-Kandhkot and Shikarpur has ultimately resulted in a Provincial Government funding one of the most groundbreaking projects in the history of Sindh as well analysis shows the findings of CIF which had been recorded in other areas of the country, proved the fact that a community-managed microfinance project could indeed be implemented with only the poorest of women and at such a large scale.
42 Flood Affected Villages Rehabilitated by SRSO is indeed a Heartwarming Sight
- March 27, 2012
- App Sukkur
- Published in "APP Sukkur"
Sukkur - Chairman Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) Shoaib Sultan Khan has said that on the basis of findings regarding Union Council Based Poverty Reduction Programme (UCBPRP) poverty has been completely eliminated from programme`s targeted rural districts like Shikarpur, Jaccababad and Kashmor-Kandhkot but the findings only indicate an indisputable trend of the effectiveness of UCBPRP strategy and approach to banish poverty from the rural areas of Sindh if a 7-10 year programme based on UCBPRP principles of development is implemented.
“I experienced first hand the achievements of UCBPRP” he said during his three days visit to UCBRPS areas while talking to APP.
He said that the achievements of UCBPRP in a short period of three years were mainly due to the willingness of the communities to fulfill the obligations of development partnerships, secondly honest and competent leadership chosen by the communities to lead their organizations and dedicated and committed leaderships and field staff of the support organisation like SRSO and above all the ownership and support by Government of Sindh (GoS).The willingness of the communities was reflected in over 182,651 women getting organised in 10,556 COs and getting a large cadre of service providers of men and women trained. These were the social capital of the UCBPRP and the mainstay of the program,
During my visit, he said the VOs have not confined themselves to UCBPRP interventions only. Once organised, they have ensured access to government programmes of eligible households be it BISP, Watan Cards or NADRA Cards. Some have also facilitated entry of the entitled members of COs in Voters List. Some have taken initiative in preparation of birth and death registers, weekly cleanliness of village campaign, periodic health seminars, exhibitions, tube legations for family planning, marriage of poor girls, prevention of child marriage, helping the destitute due to physical infirmity.
He further said In health, besides making use of the micro health insurance being offered by SRSO through Adamjee Insurance which is ensuring commendable health facilities to insured clients as we witnessed at a Sukkur hospital being run by Blood Bank of Fatimid Group, the VOs are also participating in polio campaign and in getting traditional birth attendants well trained.
According to SRSO`s chairman the visit to one of the 42 flood affected villages rehabilitated by SRSO, under the Sindh Government Village Rehabilitation Project, conceived by Dr. Kaiser Bengali and Ms Naheed Shah Durrani was indeed a heartwarming sight. A neat and clean village with every house having their own toilet, handpumps and water tank on top of the toilet added that Rehabilitating 42 villages in a span of 18 months covering thousands of houses is indeed an incredible achievement by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) SRSO Dr. Sono Kahngharani and his staff adding that Dr. Sono and UCBPRP field staff, despite the area affected by floods in 2010 and 2011, worked with tremendous dedication and commitment meeting most of the targets of the programme.
He said that SRSO has by now imparted vocational training to thousands of males and females by outsourcing it to NRSP- Institute of Rural Management (N-IRM). One of the steps N-IRM took to meet the challenge of training such a large number of rural women was to establish Vocational Field Training Centers and we visited one of those at Thull. Such Centres greatly facilitated training of rural women, who according to tracer studies, carried out by Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, engaged a very large proportion of such women in gainful employment. All these factors contributed to the Extremely Poor and Poor families improving their economic status, he maintained.
He told that more than 75 women activists came to meet us at Sukkur representing over 30 LSOs from different districts spoke of their achievements and how they have tried to improve governance by collaborating and forging linkages with Education, Health and other departments and organizations.
According to Chairman SRSO, Khan the women of LSOs gave a most impressive demonstration of their qualities of leadership and the activities they had undertaken in a short period of less than two years which reflected what institutions of people are capable of achieving including good governance by persuading government departments to deliver services effectively and be accountable to people and forging linkages with outside agencies.