A delegation of Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) on led by its Chief Executive Officer, Muhammad Dital Kalahoro called on Sindh Minister for Women Development, Syeda Shehla Raza.
While talking to the delegate, Minister said that the Provincial Government of Sindh is committed to bring a change in the living standards of women.She said that she would play her role to empower the rural women and further hands will be strong the all our stakeholders, partners like SRSO.
CEO SRSO, Muhammad Dital Kalhoro briefed the Minister about his organization and gave first-hand knowledge about the problems being faced by rural women.
Ms. Shehla Raza appreciated the work of the SRSO about women empowerment and stated that SRSO has got special popularity and have done a lot for the development and empowerment of rural women in Sindh. She assured that her department will encourage the participation of women from all the fields of life for the betterment of women in Sindh.

In an exquisite display of traditional crafts at the Dolmen Mall in Clifton, Karachi a wide mixture of Sindh’s handicrafts made by rural women were exhibited, including home textiles, baskets, jewellery, dresses, dupattas and shawls, embellished with traditional embroidery, cutwork, crochet work and straw work Products etc. Sartyoon Sang Crafts Exhibition was arranged by Sindh Rural Support Organization from 4 to 6 May 2018 with an aim to provide market links to rural women and artisans. Special Assistant to Chief Minister Sindh for Women Development Ms. Irum Khalid inaugurated the three-day event. She lauded the efforts of the SRSO for arranging the event and expressed hope that the event could be further helpful for development of links and easy market access for the artisans of skilled products.

To celebrate women’s achievements – from the political to the social , while calling for gender equality, Sindh Rural Support Organization Naushehroferoze organized a ceremony to mark the International Women’s Day on Friday March 16, 2018 at District Council Hall Naushehroferoze. Women from various walks of life and organized community members attended the event. Ms. Shahnaz Ansari (Member Provincial Assembly of Sindh) was the chief Guest on the occasion. The participants at the event highlighted the role of women in social and economic life of the country, raised and confronted challenges, and aimed to work towards the equal participation of women within all areas of society.

"Your organisation, your leadership, RSP partnership & government support are what have made it possible for you to be where you are today. Neither would be possible without the other," concluded Shoaib Sultan Khan at a Community Conference organised in village Wahid Bux Gopang in Kamber Shahdadkot today. Deputy Commissioner Kamber Shahdadkot, Shahmir Ali Bhutto, also attended the conference and commented that, "these are the things that will bring real change and reduce poverty in a sustainable way, it's a social tsunami if we speak of one."
The chairman and visiting delegation were later hosted by Commissioner Larkana, Muhammad Abbas Baloch, for lunch.

The new building of the Government High School SAMI in UC SAMI of taluka Sobhodero and district Khairpur, was formally handed over to the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) on Wednesday February 28, 2018.
The school was inaugurated by Mr. Riaz Hussain Wassan, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Khairpur accompanied by Mr. Faiz Mohammad Jiskani( Deputy District Education Officer - Khairpur), Mr. Dittal Kalhoro, CEO-Sindh Rural Support Organization, representing the EMO of the school, officials of the Community Mobilisation Program, including Mr. Abdul Hameed Bullo, Mehboob Naich, teachers, students, parents and notables of the area also attended the ceremony. The ribbon cutting ceremony was carried out along with the round of the new school building.

This Govt School was built with the financial Support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through USAID Sindh Basic Education Programme (SBEP). The school is equipped with 14 spacious classrooms along with library, science and computer lab, separate washrooms for male and female, admiration block, principal office, clinic, courtyard and playground. The project aims to increase and sustain student enrollment in primary, middle and secondary public schools in selected areas of the Sindh province, with a special focus on bringing back children who have dropped out of schools. Through this public-private partnership approach, these innovative solutions help improve school governance and quality of teaching. Children will receive free and quality education.

The European Union has approved the four years Programme for Improved Nutrition in Sindh (PINS) to be implemented in ten districts of Sindh. PINS will build upon the social mobilisation approach to community driven development (CDD) of SRSO and RSPs. The primary focus of the programme is to improve the nutritional status of children under the age of five and of pregnant and lactating Women (PLW) on sustainable grounds and major focus, under the Program, will be reducing the stunting rate from the existing 48% to 40% by 2021. SRSO is implementing this program in District Larkana, Qamber-Shahdadkot & Shikarpur in a partnership with Rural Support Program Network.

Launching ceremony of the expansion of UC-based Poverty Reduc­tion Programme was held on Monday 08 January 2018 in Sukkur. SRSO is implementing the Union Council Based Poverty Reduction Program in 9 districts of the Sindh Province with the financial support of the Govt. of Sindh. The Sindh government has extended financial support to the rural support programmes (RSPs) for rural people to enable them to articulate their aspirations and to effectively marshal the resources they need to meet their identified needs.

Chairman Pakistan People's Party Mr. Bilawal Zardari accompanied by the Chief Minister of the SIndh Mr. Murad Ali Shah graced the occasion with their presence and inaugurated the Expansion of UCBPRP. Ex CM Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah and SRSO chairman Shoaib Sultan, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khur­sheed Ahmed Shah, Sindh PPP President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and other senior party leaders of PPP, elected public representatives, as well as senior officials of various departments,Members of Districts Councils and other dignitaries of the concerned districts,14000 Women members of Community Organizations and community leaders/ CRPs and media representatives attended the ceremony.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that poverty alleviation programme had been approved by [then prime minister] Benazir Bhutto and launched by [then Sindh chief minister] Syed Qaim Ali Shah. Now it was being extended to eight more districts. With the required funding expected to be received from the European Union next year, this programme would be extended to all districts of the province.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Mr. Bilawal Zardari said on the occasion , the PPP believed that NGOs including charity and public welfare organisations were carrying out a commendable job by looking after people at grass roots level and in urban as well as far off rural areas of the country. Their public welfare programmes greatly benefited the needy, destitute and other deserving people, he observed, and said such programmes were essentially required to ensure a continued impro­ve­ment in the standard of life in this country. He said that his party always worked with NGOs and social organisations because public-private partnership was beneficial to masses and helped bring about prosperity in society. It also created employment and business opportunities, he added. He appreciated the SRSO and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for their efforts in this regard and noted that by extending financial and administrative support to the SRSO to implement the programme, the Sindh government discharged its duty of alleviating poverty at UC level. Mr Bhutto-Zardari told the audience that the programme was launched in 2009 to initially cover around a few thousand deserving families in the UCs of four selected districts. “I am informed that by 2016, more than 600,000 families living in 395 UCs of 52 talukas in 11 districts were benefiting from the programme,” he said. Appreciating the progress, the PPP chairman expressed his confidence that within the next five years, the coverage would touch the figure of 1.1 million families. He said the PPP and Sindh government had resolved to alleviate poverty from across the province for which several other programmes, projects and schemes were also in progress. He stressed the need for women empowerment at all levels. He noted that the PPP and Sindh government arranged for interest-free loans extended to womenfolk to enable them to run their own ventures in different trades like livestock, tailoring, embroidery etc. “It’s heartening to see that 97 per cent of the women paid off their loans while running their businesses,” he said. Mr Bhutto-Zardari highlighted the role of his mother, Benazir Bhutto, in public welfare activities and women empowerment throughout her life, and said that being the first woman prime minister of the Muslim World, his mother did her best for the self-respect of womenfolk in Pakistani society. “A dictator in collusion with terrorists snatched my mother from me and the people of Pakistan lost a great politician,” he said, adding: “But I regard every mother as my mother and have same the respect for each of them”. He held out the assurance that the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), as well as all other such PPP initiatives, would be extended more vigorously to the people across the country after the PPP would return to Centre in the next election. He said PPP would continue to support any institution which came forward with the cause of empowering women of the low-income group. He hoped that the SRSO programme would reach each and every district of Sindh. “By making joint efforts, we and you can eliminate poverty from society,” he said, and pointed to former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to say that he was the man who had implemented the SRSO programme in 2009 to alleviate poverty and empower women, specially the rural ones.

PPP women wing president MNA Ms. Faryal Talpur, speaking to the audience, said that those who were talking of a “change” should realise that the real change was bringing about prosperity and ensure massive development in the country۔

Speaking at the occasion, the Chairman – SRSO (Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan) was most grateful to Syed Nasir Hussain Shah for arranging the visit of Chairman – PPP (Mr. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and also inviting other dignitaries of the area where SRSO works. He was happy to meet the third generation of Bhutto family. Mr. Shoaib Sultan briefly illustrated the incorporation of SRSO. He informed about his efforts in convincing the Govt. of Sindh through the then Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, back in 2009, for the approval of UC based poverty reduction program in Shikarpur, Kashmore-Kandhkot & Jacobabad. He further added that upon acknowledging the results of the said program, the EU offered funding for implementing the same in eight more districts of Sindh in 2016. The same program was further replicated in another six districts in 2017 by the Govt. of Sindh. He also thanked all those who facilitated at every step including the Chairman P&D Mr. Muhammad Wasim and the Secretaries. He lauded the tremendous support of Sindh Government for approving the poverty reduction program for the Province. He also acknowledged the efforts and dedication of staff for making it a success. He was happy to see how these poor rural Sindhi women got organized actively and very positively responded to these programs. Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan further requested the Government to approve the remaining districts for UCBPRP. His request was recognized by the CM – Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah who in his speech announced to implement the same program in the remaining districts of Sindh, during the current year. The guests were greatly delighted to see these organized women, inspired and appreciated their work..

From 05- 07 January 2018 at the Ocean Mall Clifton Karachi , Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) hosted a three-day crafts festival displaying work of around 2,000 women artisans of rural Sindh . The event was inaugurated by Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan (Chairman of the SRSO).
Sartyoon Sang Craft Exhibition was being organised by the SRSO for the fifth consecutive year with the motive to support ethical fashion of the Sindh and to promote crafts of some of the most marginalized women in the province.5th Sartyoon Sang Crafts Exhibition 2018 got an overwhelming response .The exhibition was appreciated by the honorable guests.

Sartyoon Sang is a social enterprise and works towards the core objective of connecting artisans especially women to market. These series of “Sartyoon Sang” Crafts Exhibitions have gone so successful and attracted a large number of visitors and buyers / shoppers of the city. These were only made possible with the generous support of SRSO’s partners, donors and different stake-holders. These events were aimed to boost the local crafts and begin a sturdy process for connecting our Business Development Groups (BDGs) and artisans to high end market of Karachi. This is purely an effort to develop market opportunities for rural women especially those from extremely remote villages of Sindh, and the profit being earned from these exhibitions is transferred to these artisans.