SINDH RURAL SUPPORT ORGANIZATION

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Against Rain & Flood-2022

SRSO Distributions

  • Rs.1.37 billion by extending
  • Their immediate relief and recovery
  • Services to 186,331 families of
  • Pakistan under SRSO Flood
  • Emergency Response 2022
  • From August-December 2022.

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.