Promoting Child Rights in Cotton Farming Areas of Sindh
Promoting Child Rights in Cotton Farming Areas of Sindh Donor: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Partner: Rural Support Program Network (RSPN) Districts: (Ghotki) and (Khairpur). Duration: September 15, 2015 to September 14, 2016 (one year) Major Activities: There are 25 million children in Pakistan between the ages of 5 to 16, who are not in school. When a child does not go to school, he or she is vulnerable to all sorts of abuse and exploitation. They are also more likely to be involved in child labor, depriving them of their childhood, their health, and their education and condemning them to a life of poverty. With the number of child abuse cases rising each year in Pakistan, there is an urgent need to protect these children and ensure that they have opportunities for a better life. The Pakistani agricultural sector has low rates of mechanization and the use of low-wage labor is rampant; cotton pickers are paid as little as 50-80 rupees (USD 0.5-0.8) per day. To meet day-to-day expenses, people from these families often take out loans in advance against their expected income from picking cotton but cannot always repay these loans, which means they get trapped in a vicious circle of debt. To repay loans, these families also engage their children in cotton picking. In addition, the belief that soft hands are ideal for picking cotton encourages using young women and children as cotton pickers. As a result, children drop out of school to work in cotton fields and risk exposure to various forms of violence and abuse. RSPN has partnered with the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) to promote awareness of children’s rights in cotton-picking areas of Sindh and to discourage families from sending their children to work in cotton fields.Awareness will be raised among people regarding the rights of children and the negative impact of child labor.By setting up a social fund and offering poor women income-generating grants, rural communities will be allowed to earn a better livelihood and stop engaging their children in labor.To Conduct training of selected Incom Generation Grant(IGG) beneficiaries on Livestock Management Training.Social Fund allocation to selected villages(351) for social development schemes.Multifunctional community centers are also being set up to provide adult literacy classes, skills training for women, and so on, to help people develop marketable skills that they can use to earn a better living.Identification and training of Community Resource Persons(CRPs).Street Theatre for awareness raising about child rights and child protection. Back
Construction of Low Cost Housing Units
Construction of Low Cost Housing Units Donor: Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Cell (SBBHC) Govt. of Sindh Districts: (Shikarpur) and (Jacobabad). Major Activities: Construction of 510 low-cost houses in Shikarpur and Jacobabad districts. Selection of beneficiaries in selected districts that are below the poverty line and especially those that are houseless, with special emphasis on women. Back
Non- Formal Education (NFE)
Non- Formal Education (NFE) Donor: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-Sindh Reading Program Districts: (Kashmore-Kandhkot) and (Jacobabad). Major Activities: The project aims to enroll & educate out-of-school children ages 10-15 years in Non-Formal Education centers. A total of 67 Non-Formal Education centers will be opened (34 centers in Kashmore and 33 centers in Jacobabad) and 2,000 out-of-school children will be enrolled in March 2016. The hiring of Teachers who will be trained in the use of SRP-provided NFE material. Two master Trainers per district will be selected who will serve as trainers for teachers of NFE centers. Provision of NFE material (three books per student). Supervision of NFE centers with proper record keeping and drop-out monitoring. Back Project Information Back
Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) – RSPN Waseela e Taleem
Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) – RSPN Waseela e Taleem Donor: Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Waseela e Taleem Program Partners: Rural Support Program Network (RSPN) Districts: Kashmore-Kandhkot and Jacobabad. Duration: 2 Years Major Activities: SRSO entered into a partnership with RSPN for the implementation of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme ‘Waseela e Taleem (WeT,)in Kashmore and Jacobabad , districts of Sindh (clustor 2) , initiated by Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) . BISP Waseela e Taleem was initiated to financially support the primary education of 4 to 12 years old children of BISP beneficiary families for their enrolments in local schools and retention. Upon completion of 70 percent attendance by registered children in schools, the BISP beneficiary families will receive cash assistance of Rs. 750 per child per quarter. The payments will be made after quarterly verification of each child’s minimum attendance. This conditional cash transfer will continue till the child completes his/her primary education. key components of the WeT program; Micro Supply Capacity Assessment (MSCA) of Schools. Under this component, the list of available schools in a particular vicinity or locality enables both BISP and parents to agree on the selection of the most suitable school for a child’s admission. Social Mobilization:BISP Beneficiary Committees (BBCs) will be formed through the mobilization of beneficiary families. The objective of this activity is to register beneficiary families with the program and motivate mothers to send their children to schools instead of engaging them in labor.On average 15 BBCs will be fostered into one cluster. It will have membership from BBC, where each BBC will nominate its representatives for the cluster. Cluster members will discuss issues of BBC members in their regular meetings and directly communicate them to BISP for support. Registration Admission and attendance compliance:Child enrolment will be done digitally using Android tablets having exclusive compliance applications with indicators for the collection of attendance data. Funds will be transferred to the beneficiary families on 70 percent attendance compliance. Payment/ Cash Transfer Back
BISP Door-to-Door Survey NSER – National Socio-Economic Registry
BISP Door to Door Survey NSER – National Socio-Economic Registry Donor: Benazir Income Support Program (Government of Pakistan) Partner: Rural Support Program Network (RSPN) Districts : Karachi Major Activities: The government of Pakistan launched the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) as one of the main social safety net programs in 2009. The main objective of the program is to support the poor and vulnerable against the negative effects of food crisis and inflation. The government in its pilot phase adopted a “Targeting Process” through the Poverty Score Card Roll-out survey. Based on the successful completion and learning of the test phase in 2009, the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has launched the “National Poverty Targeting Survey”. BISP developed a Proxy Means Test (PMT) based Poverty Score Card(PSC) and conducted a National level PSC Survey in 2010-11 through which complete information on the socioeconomic and welfare status of almost 27 million households was collected across the country . As a result of this huge exercise, a National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) was established containing basic information on household size, education, employment, disability, assets, etc. BISP has the mandate to conduct periodic registry updates as per the “BISP Act 2010”.BISP has decided to carry out a national rollout of NSER Update using Android-compatible Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). In this regard, RSPN on behalf of RSPs formed a partnership with BISP for carrying out NSER’s “Qaumi Khushali Survey”. RSPs are one of the key stakeholders in poverty alleviation in Pakistan. Poverty targeting is in line with RSP objectives. Through the RSPN partnership, the SRSO has to survey the targeted Cluster-6 Sindh, which includes Karachi. SRSO will collect good quality socio-economic data of every household in Karachi following the standard procedures and NSER guidelines. Back
Advancing Girls Education and Skills (AGES) Project
Advancing Girls Education and Skills (AGES) Project Donor: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Partners: Rural Support Program Network (RSPN) Districts: (Jacobabad) and (Ghotki). Goal Of AGES: Empower adolescent girls and young women with the human and social capital to engage in and retain greater livelihood opportunities, and actively participate in Pakistan’s economic, social, and political development. Major Activities: Young girls in Pakistan face barriers and lack access to education opportunities from an early age due to poverty, cultural norms, and geographic isolation. Empowering girls and ensuring their access to quality education has long-term, transformational benefits for their future, their families and communities, and for Pakistan’s economic prosperity overall. Advancing Girls’ Education and Skills (AGES) works with communities, families, governments, employers, and young women themselves from across Pakistan to advance interventions that improve young women’s participation in education, economic empowerment, and social mobilization. Increasing access to school and skills training to help girls and young women succeed. Support training, scholarships, and internships for talented but financially disadvantaged adolescent girls that create paths to higher education, entrepreneurship, and employment. Partnering with the private sector to create work opportunities for young women. Engaging communities to encourage girls and young women to reach their full potential. Back
Improving Adolescent Lives in Pakistan
Improving Adolescent Lives in Pakistan Donor: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), IKEA Foundation Partners: Rural Support Program Network (RSPN) Districts: Ghotki and Khairpur Major Activities: SRSO entered into a partnership with RSPN for the implementation of Improving Adolescent Lives in Pakistan in Ghotki and Khairpur , districts of Sindh, with the financial assistance of UNICEF and IKEA Foundation. This 3 years project is for adolescent empowerment to provide adolescents with assistance in realizing their own expertise and giving them a platform to act from. The primary focus of this project is to support a reduction in child marriage, particularly among adolescent girls.In addition to this, there is a key focus on providing basic and advanced information and knowledge and equipping adolescents with life skills through different meaningful key interventions that will boost their capacity. This will enable adolescents to build and express their innovative and creative opinions with self-assurance and determination, a skill that will be invaluable for promoting and protecting their rights and providing a platform for freedom of expression. Parents and communities will be capacitated to understand adolescents’ rights and support their realization through enhanced access to community-based structures equipped to strengthen the protective environment for children, the prevalence of anemia and malnutrition, and attitudes towards domestic violence and abuse. Back Success Story Back
Adolescent and Adult Learning and Training Program (AALTP)
Adolescent and Adult Learning and Training Program (AALTP) Donor: Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) Government of Sindh Districts: (Shikarpur) Duration: 30 Months Objective: The AALTP aims to provide accelerated formal primary education for vulnerable adolescents and basic functional literacy for adults together with a certified Skill Development / Vocational Training course for each learner to enable them by providing them with varying opportunities for human capital development and socio-economic growth. Major Activities: Adolescent and Adult Learning and Training Program (AALTP) is designed for those adolescents and adults who never attended school or dropped out from school due to any reason and have missed an opportunity to avail primary education and who may prefer continuing their education further. SRSO will impart an accelerated Primary Education course which will be provided by the SEF. The course comprises three Packages namely A, B, and C. The duration for imparting these Packages is 08, 08, and 14 months respectively. Package A is designed to cater to grades Kindergarten to I. Package B is designed to cater to grades II and III and Package C is designed to cater to grades IV and V. All Packages of the accelerated primary education course must be imparted to the adolescents and they should only be imparted with Package A along with a functional literacy and/or an entrepreneurial. Technical Training Component will be provided for Adolescents & Adults after the learning phase. Initiation of an enterprise/business, individually or in groups through the creation of business incubators linked with interest-free micro-finance facilitated by the Sindh Education Foundation(SEF) funded by the Sindh Government. Back
Prime Minister’s Interest Free Loan (PMIFL) Scheme
Prime Minister’s Interest Free Loan (PMIFL) Scheme Donor: Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) Duration: 04 Years (2014 – 2018) Districts: (Ghotki), (Kashmore-Kandhkot) and (Shikarpur). Objectives: Interest interest-free loan scheme is an opportunity and catalyst for change and economic development in the poorest segment of society, especially women. Interest-free loan schemes further boost productive economic activities, and youth are given proper guidance and financial support through this scheme and better access to innovative technology as they can play a positive role in development. Major Activities: SRSO has entered into a partnership with PPAF – LEED Group under Prime Minister Interest Free Loan Scheme amounting Rs. 120,000,000/- (Rupees One Hundred and Twenty million only). It is a revolving loan facility for a period of four (04) years. PPAF will disburse in four quarterly installments within One year. Based on satisfactory revolving during 4 years, the loan amount will be transferred as grant to community institutions with approval of PPAF. The said facility to be revolved by SRSO through its branches / Loan Centers, in 12 Union Councils of Ghotki, Kashmore-Kandhkot and Shikarpur. Aims to provide productive micro-loans to the doorsteps of the poor and the destitute,those on a score of 0-40 on the Poverty Score Card so that they may enhance their incomes and improve their quality of life and facilitate their empowerment both economically and socially. Borrowers will be encouraged to return the loan that will go back to permanent fund available to the community for future lending. Fund will also educate the borrowers to convert from being “takers” to “givers”, so that the fund will continue to grow. Back
Support Government of Sindh (GoS) to Prepare for and Respond to COVID-19 Pandemic.
Support Government of Sindh (GoS) to Prepare for and Respond to COVID-19 Pandemic. Donor: European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid- ECHO-HIP Partners: Rural Support Program Network (RSPN) Districts: (Shikarpur) and (Larkana). Duration: Oct 2020-March 2021 Major Activities: The key objective of the project is to support the Government of Sindh in preparing for and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in target districts of Sindh, Pakistan and to create awareness in rural communities to protect from COVID-19 pendemic. Primary and secondary healthcare facilities are supported to improve Infection Prevention and Control and ensure the continuity of health and nutrition service. Establishment of hand-washing stations and SRSO has constructed and installed 106 Handwashing-stations in schools, Markets and hospitals. Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) and awareness-raising among communities about hygiene promotion, reliable information for reducing fear and misinformation and improving handwashing social norms, and COVID-19 prevention. Training of community institutions (COs, VOs and LSOs and CRPs) to divisional and district stakeholders about this project. 33,200-awareness sessions were held and approximately, 265,600 were-direct beneficiaries of these sessions. 9,624, megaphone announcements were made. 4,736 PCR test were conducted in collaboration with Rapid Response teams. 12000 soaps were distributed in schools and markets to ensure handwashing activity . Provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs)includes Surgical Masks, N-95 Masks, Gowns, Goggles, Exam Gloves, Heavy Duty Gloves, Hand Sanitizer and Chlorine tabs to DHQ, DHO and project staff. Back