FOOD SECURITY , LIVELIHOOD & INCOME GENERATION
The Food Security and Livelihood through Income Generation lies at the center of SCF’s poverty reduction strategy. The organization firmly believes that sustainable livelihoods are the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. To this end, SCF empowers individuals and communities by offering a range of opportunities for income generation. Initiatives under this theme include providing goats for breeding, sewing machines to foster skill development, grants to kick start small businesses, and toolkits for aspiring entrepreneurs. Additionally, SCF conducts vocational and technical training programs, equipping individuals with the skills they need to secure a better future for themselves and their families. Through these programs, SCF not only imparts skills but also instills a sense of self-reliance and entrepreneurship. Women and girls are considered marginalized group in Pakistani society. Majority of women are not given space for their involvement in development process. Limited actions are taken at state level, specifically for women development. One of the major reasons to slow growth of country in Human Development Index (HDI) is because of limited or no space for women population for their involvement in economic activities. SCF has addressed women development issues providing space for income opportunities, leadership skills and various training on skill development. SCF has worked for the protection of the rights of women and girls and provided a numbers of actions for their social and economic empowerment. SCF has also addressed gender based violence specifically child marriages in Sindh and implemented awareness and prevention projects to create awareness among parents and to develop support mechanisms for the protection of the girls against child marriages. It also trained police officials on the law restricting child marriages as well as other pro- women laws. SCF has also been engaged in advocacy for pro- gender programming, policies, laws and budgeting process through research and policy advocacy intervention at provincial level. SCF has to provide 1050 with income generation training for economic resilience in the changing climate in the area and its worst impacts on the livelihoods.
Support Small Business Start-ups
SCF has conducted assessment in 4 villages of its area of operation of Safe Water Project to understand the vulnerability and poor economic situation of widow women for support to improve their livelihoods sources. The data was collected based on the information required in Zakat Form. SCF team also visited the houses of the beneficiaries and understood the situation for the support. A detailed discussion was conducted with selected beneficiaries on the idea for the starting micro-business to earn their better livelihood. SCF conducted assessment of the 10 widow women and selected 6 women based on their vulnerability and poor-socio-economic condition. Need assessment formats have been assessed and following situation has been observed. Out of 10, 6 women and 2 men one disable and one orphan were selected for the small enterprise support for their economic empowerment and livelihoods support with the generous support of Muslim Charity UK.
Skills Development
SCF believe that trained and skilled human resource is the main pre-requisite for the economic development. SCF under the skills development program of Sindh Education Foundation provided skills training to 60 young women and men in Bulri Shah Kareem District Tando Muhammad Khan 60 male female youth are being provided with skills training at AALTP center. These 56 men and women learners received skill development training as per their need. These skills trainings will be soon start next year which will enable them to earn good income and living an economically prosperous life which will ultimately reduce the poverty in rural areas. The project has left to enable the 60 young people, male and female, for employability to utilize the acquired skills into practice and earn at least 10000 to 15000 per month. The project has increased the income level and financial position of the trained young people in its different market based skills in the rural areas of District Tando Muhammad Khan. The training also create a positive financial behavior among the young people.
Offseason poverty reduction program for women cotton workers
Women’s participation in income generation is the key to economic empowerment and is pivotal in the nation’s development. At the certification ceremony, the development experts discussed the poverty reduction program for women cotton workers to uplift their economic status by providing them training for small home-based enterprises. Women cotton workers often experience offseason poverty as the cotton picking is the six month long cash job them for earn livelihoods while remaining months they engage in a very short type of agriculture activities. Consideration this situation SCF Sindh Community Foundation held this training under the Asia Gender Equality Fund of the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network -AVPN. SCF completed four three-day training programs for 120 women cotton workers on poultry rearing, vegetable and food preservation, and livestock management. SCF trained four batches, each of 30 trainees consisting of 10 women from each batch from 12 villages of district Matiari.
