Pakistan

Girls empowerment

“Let us reach out to the children. Let us do whatever we can to support their fight to rise above their pain and suffering.”
Nelson Mandela

Case Story

Menahal Yousaf was a student in the 8th grade. She has 4 sisters and a brother, while her father is a drug addict. He used to be a driver, but drug addiction made him unemployed because he loses his mind in this condition and had a car accident twice. He is unemployed and unable to take any job due to his bad condition. “My mother is forced to work as a maid in a nearby company. We siblings are unable to finish our studies. In the meantime, I learned that Father Riaz wants to set up a sewing center for the whole community to give them a chance to enroll and receive training in sewing. My sister and I wanted to do something to help our younger sisters get training, so we signed up for training at the sewing center. We both sisters successfully completed the 9-month course and received sewing machines, stands and kits. Thank God, I got the 3rd place in the sewing course and now I can sew properly after 9 months. The sewing center in our community has proved to be a blessing for the poor and needy people. It has enabled us to develop our own source of income which will help us to continue the education of my younger sisters.”

Make a Difference

Feroza is a small village situated in Tehsil Khanpur of District Rahim Yar Khan in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. This small village is located in the central part of the country having a total population of 630 persons including women and children. There are in total 90 families (households) in this village which all are from Christian faith. Predominantly these families earn their livelihood through daily-wage based labor in the nearby agriculture fields which are under the Muslim Community heads. Due to lack of education, young generation are forced to work as laborer, painter and sweeper.
Young girls are getting early marriage because they are unable to get education and parents are lacking resources to feed them.

We have identified that women and girls are participating less in income generation activities.  Rural Women in the project area suffer from being both economically and socially invisible. Economic invisibility stems from the perception that women are not relevant to the wage and self-employment. But they have been playing very important and significant role. These women were engaged in small scale agriculture, livestock vending and working as maid. Still there is continued vulnerability and inequality in all sectors economic, social, political, education and health care, nutrition and legal.  There is need to empower these women to counter this menace while strengthening women economic security.

Facts

Description:

Beautician course for self-employment abilities strengthens interfaith cohesion

Where:

The proposed project activity will be implemented in Chak # 74/A, Feroza which is a small village situated in the District Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab, Pakistan.
For whom 40 girls, for the economic uplift of women through skills development is the overall goal of the project. The beautician course which will be offered to the beneficiary community for the uplift of the marginalized community women & girls from the all the faiths of religion either Christian, Hindu & Muslims.

Effect:

The target beneficiaries will be selected through vulnerability assessment criteria so that the marginalized individuals of the community are benefited.

• To build capacity & mobilization among the community and the trainees about the importance and necessity of vocational skill
• To registering the trainees for beautician course
• To adopt unique and innovative techniques to initiate quality Beauty Parlor skill development training.
• To provide necessary guide to beneficiaries to get appropriate trainings, employment ability.

Costs:

• Starting costs 2000 USD
• Costs for materials each 3 months 650 USD
• Staff Salaries monthly 90 USD