SUCCESS STORY, “Al-NOOR Vocational Training Institute for Rural Women Development” in Sialkot, Punjab-Pakistan.
I, Shaista Bano being an educated and professional women belonging to a male chauvinist society, always realized the importance of Economic Empowerment of women and the fact that Economic Empowerment is crucial for eliminating discrimination against alleviation of poverty of resource less & neglected poor women. I always wanted to work for the suppressed women of our society especially the women belonging to my own village. The idea of establishing Al-NOOR Vocational Training Institute for Economic Empowerment of rural women was conceived on the basis of these core facts. From the platform of UGOOD, I recommended my native village Gondal, located nearly 25 kilometres away from Sialkot. Gondal is a hub of around 80 surrounding villages. There is a girl’s high school, but no further opportunity for females of further education especially development of “Technical Skills”. According to baseline survey of the area, UGOOD Technical Professionals discovered that majority of the young girls and women wanted to learn income generating skills and wanted to contribute towards family income, however, they do not had access to technical trainings and financial sources to start any work.
We made a team of young, talented and enthusiastic ladies from the area and trained them in the field of social mobilization and skill development as master trainers. Based on the market demand, we designed a project for the skill development of rural women and estimated our budgets. The greatest opportunity & luck for us was Ms. Noor Begum, a dignified old lady who was working for women since ages. She not only allowed us to use her own land & building for the purpose of project but also provided us immense support in influencing the local community to accept our project and make it a success and sustainable. The building was ideally located in the main bazaar of Gondal. Acknowledging her noble contribution we named the project on her name and approached Ministry of Women Development–Government of Pakistan for funding our project. It was a great achievement that the Ministry approved our project for funding and agreed to provide all the capital costs of the project. We had a good team of young ladies, who were so motivated that they worked day and night to start the project and it was implemented even before the expected start date. Although we encountered many problems, basically the mindset of the people for whom it was very unusual to see women going out of their houses to learn skills and start work, however, the greatest support for us was the strong local base and the dedicated team of females. So far, more than 1500 females have been able to obtain trainings from the centre that is still running very successfully due to the hard work of the teachers and team members. Now not only the centre is being used for providing 10 basic skill trainings to the females, but it’s also a central place for women to discuss and resolve various social issues.
As mentioned earlier, we made a team of young ladies who are responsible for the management of the project. The description of the team is attached. For the purpose of governance, UGOOD team from head office periodically visit the project and also monthly reports are an important tool for the monitoring purpose. We have delegated the decision making to the local management at the project level; however, policy decisions are still taken by UGOOD executive board in consultation with the local management.
The main objective of the project was to train the female of the area in various income generation skills along with creating awareness regarding various community issues. The Centre is offering 10 different courses. The duration of the courses is 2 month each, not more than 15 to 20 female are trained in one class.
The courses are offered in morning and evening shifts keeping in view the capacity of the centre and convenience of the general public.
Following trades and related skills are being offered for the females:-
1) Cutting and stitching of the cloth
2) Embroidery ( handmade & machine made)
3) Fabric painting (tie and dye)
4) Painting ( oil, water, glass and mirror)
5) Woodwork
6) Beauty parlour for training
7) Handicraft and candle making, paper moshe
8) Computer training
9) Marketing, procurement, and accounting skills
10) Photography and video making
Female after getting training from the Al-NOOR Centre can start their own small scale businesses with the help of others. They are being trained in such a way that they can work together in the form of group/s and could pool their resources to create scenery. The organization makes necessary arrangement in displaying Centre’s products for marketing made by student of the centre. The manager of the Centre & student are responsible to visit the market places and approach the target market. The Al-NOOR Centre also has a community Hall where exhibition are held and celebrities of the area are invited on regular basis to encourage the trainees. Moreover, weekly lectures on various social issues are organized in the community hall for community mobilization regarding status of women and women rights. UGOOD plans to start a micro credit program for the women of the area in near future.
UGOOD submit monthly and quarterly reports to the Ministry of Women Development regarding the progress of the project and this reporting is based on the monthly reports received from the Centre regarding the performance of students, the financial information & general progress etc. UGOOD head office professionals often visit the project area to monitor the project; uninformed monitory visits are also paid by the ministry as they are the Donors of the project. Furthermore, we have created internal checks at local level for the proper monitoring of the project. Teachers are required to keep record of each lecture, each and every expense and every receipt is pproperly documented.
We have a system of internal audit and external audit in place for effective monitoring and evaluation of the project.
There was a great impact of the project on the women population of the area , more than 2000 women have been trained in just two years and the ministry has even highlighted this project in their all publications as a success. The project was unique in the sense that it was started in a remote village by a group of common people having no previous work experience and strong background. Although I was the one who took the initiative but the whole credit goes to the young team who went along so well that we never looked back. Now, lot of women from the Centre are doing their own work, a group of women has started a business of candle making that is a great success for them. We never estimated such strong social impact of the project that has been brought out in terms of women who turn up to resolve the social problems using the Centre as a common platform. Many girls approached us to learn secretarial courses and English language, which we shall be starting soon with the cooperation of NAVTEC. The most surprising fact is that now boys have approached our team to establish such a Centere for the young boys, which we are now planning to start, provided we get a donor for this purpose. Following are some achievements of the project:-
i. FINANCIAL
• The products made by the trainees are displayed in the display Centre and are sold out. The proceeds of the sale are utilized for the purchase of training materials and for the betterment of the Center. This is necessary in order to realize the trainees that their work is marketable.
• Free of cost skill development training made available at the doorsteps of women.
• Financial benefit in the form of salaries to the employs.
• Indirect financial benefit to the families of the employees.
• Economical empowerment of the women in society.
• Poverty reduction by participation of major group of population in income generation activities. Circulation of resources, business and employment opportunities for the women.
ii. SOCIAL BENEFITS
• Social empowerment by way of economical empowerment
• Improvement in life style
• Community mobilization and development
• Discipline and time management
• Positive activities
• Development at grassroots level
iii. EMPLOYMENT GENERATION (DIRECT AND INDIRECT)
• Direct employment of at least 20 men and women as employees of the Centre
• Employment opportunities for at least 2400 skilled women in two years
• Employment opportunity for at least 3000 persons in various small businesses set up by the skilled women.
iv. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The project itself has no direct or indirect harmful impact on the environment. However, due to awareness campaign and education of the women it is expected that the skilled women shall take steps to protect the environment and make their surroundings clean and healthy.
The project is being sustained successfully from last two years. The ministry provided us funding for only the capital cost and we have been able to sustain for all recurring cost since the inception of the project. For future, we shall be introducing more modern courses for the young females and also take such initiative for boys of the area as well.
