Education
SCF has deeper understanding on the need of education for everyone for communities to prosper. SCF has been engaged in education sector through advocacy and enrolment and retention campaigns in various districts and have been successful in increasing retention rate and decreasing dropout rate through its various education related projects like take a child to school, transportation support for girls education, etc. SCF understands the importance of teacher’s training for creating conducive environment and hence SCF has actively involved in capacity building of teachers in modern teaching techniques. SCF also trained more than 200 female schools teachers on the gender based teaching methodology , inquiry based science education , concept of entrepreneurship and also trained 40 female head teachers on modern art and skills of planning, management and leadership to run school and enrollment campaigns effectively. This has increased retention of girl’s students in lower secondary grades in 20 girl’s secondary schools in both districts.
Additionally, SCF has also involve in equipping the schools with physical infrastructure like, equipping science laboratories, providing access to safe drinking water etc. SCF has contributed in increasing the enrollment and retention ratio of the primary schools in Matairi and Tando Muhammad Khan districts of Sindh. It enrolled and retained more than 6000 children in 180 primary schools of both districts of Sindh who had low enrollment and retention ratio. SCF contributes in increasing secondary education by enrolling and retention of 400 girls in districts of Matiari and Tando Muhammad Khan of Sindh. SCF has also provided sports and furniture fixtures in number of schools and provided schools bags to 1096 girl’s students. SCF has also implemented and piloted a project; curb child marriage through transportation support. It supported 50 girl students from poor socio-economic background who otherwise were vulnerable to child marriage. The transportation support helped 50 girls to continue the secondary education in three schools. This facility has motivated the parents for continuation of their girl’s education to secondary schools after completion of primary schools. This project also helped in increasing awareness among other parents on the importance of secondary schools.
With this, the girls vulnerable to child marriages have been protected against the early or child marriages. The ratio of girl’s secondary education increased in the rural areas. Girl’s education has become one of the prioritization of the parents.VEC have played vital role in mobilization and motivation of the parents and community members against early or child marriages. The leadership skills of the 50 girls are improved and these girls cascade their knowledge to their peers to raise awareness on right to education and adverse impact of early marriage. 150 girls and young women who never went to school or dropped out have increased literacy level writing and reading basic calculation applying in their daily lives.SCF has also established 7 science laboratories in 7 by government girl’s secondary schools to increase science education among the girls. These laboratories are providing greater practical and conducive learning environment to more than 1800 girls. Beside, SCF has also advocated for implementation of Right to Education article 25-A in constitution of Pakistan and recent legislation of Sindh Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act at local and policy levels.
Adult and Adolescent Literacy and Training Program
SCF has been engaged in women and girls empowerment and has undertaken number of activities to create access to secondary education for adolescent girls. It also provided literacy training to the adult women, men and adolescent girls and boys who never went schools. In this regard, in cooperation with Sindh Community Foundation, SCF established Adult and Adolescent Literacy and Training Center at Bulri Shah Kareem; a small town of district Tando Muhammad Khan. The center has provided basic literacy packages to ; A total of 176 male ( 101) and (75) female learners developed the basic literacy Skills through 8 months long literacy package. 65 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. Duration of literacy package is of 8 months long. Male female trained teachers are offering their services to adults and adolescents. The participants of literacy classes were taught through various methodologies such as games and audio visual to make them understand on various subject matters. SCF also arranged recreational activities for women and adolescent girls to boost their confidence level to learn various other social issues. Pakistan day, 23rd March day, international literacy day were celebrated. The learners are engaged in creative leaning through demonstration and exercises rather than lecture based. More than 56 women learners first time attended classes and now they are able to read and write their name and read sentences and can calculate. Center is equipped with space, furniture fixture, audio-visual equipment, and library, computers and sports material.SCF conducted a number of door to door social mobilization meetings with parents to prevent the learner go dropout and retained them through strong motivational by social mobilization team and motivated teachers.
Humanitarian Response to Flood 2022
Devastated heavy rainfall flood badly effected more than 33 million people in Pakistan, 11 million people in Sindh. Around 33 million people have been affected by the heavy rains and floods, including at least 7.9 million people who have been displaced, of whom some 598,000 are living in relief camps. Nearly 800,000 refugees are estimated to be hosted in more than 40 calamity-notified districts. 13 districts in Sindh have been declared most affected by the disaster. Over 2 million houses have been impacted by the devastating floods in Pakistan as of 11 October, with over 1.3 million houses partially destroyed and 800,000 fully destroyed , a large number in Sindh . In total, 1,700 people have died, and 12,867 have suffered injuries.
SCF is responding to the recent floods in Sindh province of Pakistan in worst effected districts including Matiari, Dadu, Sanghar, Badin, Jamshoro and Hyderabad. SCF has distributed immediate foods bags to the 1200 flood effected families and hygiene kits among 1200 women and girls . SCF also conducted mobile services units/MSU camps which provided health treatment-counseling to 900 women , men and children. SCF has pooled its own funds and mobilized the corporate sector and its previous donors to support the flood response. SCF received initial support from ARROW, Soorty Enterprise, Indigo ( Pvt) Limited and JDC Foundation .
SCF has experience in conducted Rapid Need Assessment and in process of the designing WASH and early recovery interventions in health, shelter, protection, WASH, and livelihoods sectors.
Immediate response
SCF responded to the recent floods in Sindh province of Pakistan in worst effected districts including Matiari, Dadu, Sanghar, Badin, Jamshoro and Hyderabad. SCF has pooled its own funds and mobilized the corporate sector and its previous donors to support the flood response. SCF received initial support from ARROW, Soorty Enterprise, Indigo ( Pvt) Limited and JDC Foundation for Food assistanxe and health facilities to the 3220 flood effected population in 5 worst effected districts including Sanaghr, Hyderabad( Rural)Dadu, Khairpur, Qamabar Shahdadkot and Badin of Sindh. SCF has trained and qualified human resource in effective humanitarian response, accountability, financial management, project cycle management, international humanitarian coordination system, response trained by Concern worldwide. SCF has also membership with National Humanitarian Network and various clusters activated by UNOCHA including WASH, Shelter, protection and Health.
Reproductive Health Mobile Camps
The women and girls suffered a lot from the floods living in camps and returning to the home when water receded. They were experiencing lack of there access to the reproductive health services and support during displacement. SCF provided medical and RH assistance to the 1220 women and and girls in 5 flood effected districts of Sindh.
Water and Sanitation in Emergency
SCF also provided the safe drinking ring water services for one months to 1000 people living in camps outside the road in Takluka Saeebaad of Matiari District and also provided them mosquito nets. SCF field staff also carried the health and hygiene sessions in camps
In this regards SCF also conducted mobile services units/MSU camps which provided health treatment-counseling in five districts of Sindh. SCF arranged 12 mobile health camps equipped with medicines, qualified female doctors and paramedics staff.
SCF has also conducted Need Assessment in the context of early recovery and in process of the designing early recovery interventions in health, shelter, protection, WASH, WASH and livelihoods sectors. SCF has trained and qualified human resource in effective humanitarian response, accountability, financial management, project cycle management, international humanitarian coordination system, response trained by Concern worldwide. SCF has also membership with National Humanitarian Network and various clusters activated by UNOCHA including WASH, Shelter , protection, Health.
SCF provided dewatering support in village Bagoo Kaka of Saeedbaad Taluka one of the most badly impacted villages where population and agriculture land was under water. SCF provided dewatering support and cleared 500 acres lands in the villages including underwater houses and cleared the path for walking.
Winterization Kits among 200 flood affected families in Matiari district
Sindh Community Foundation in cooperation with Internatrional Organization for Migration IOM duistributed the winterization kits among the 200 flood affected famailies. This benifctied 1400 fmaily mmebers of 4 badley affected villages of Taluka Saeedabad of district Matiari.
Youth Empowerment and Engagement
Youth is the foundation of the country’s development and hence the investment in youth must be the fundamental agenda of any country. SCF has deeper understanding that addressing issues of youth and Youth is the foundation of the country’s development and hence the investment in comprehensive youth empowerment and engagement model implementing the intervention ranging from organizing and creating awareness among young people on social issues as well creating spaces for learning, developing technical skills, and enhancing knowledge on job related skills to compete with the challenges of modern world. Having this understanding, SCF has been engaging youth for social development. SCF received a small grant from United Nations Habitat –Youth Fund for a one-year Youth Empowerment. This project imparted knowledge and skills to youth living in Slum settlements of Hyderabad. SCF has implemented a dozen of projects focusing on youth people in different thematic areas including citizenship, governance, human rights, peace, social development and climate change. SCF is also striving to provide functional literacy to the adolescent who never been to school and engaged in informal income generation. SCF is providing them literacy packages and skill training which has proved to be very much effective for income generation modern competitive job market.
Agro Based Training Skills for Youth
SCF is organizing agro based skills training for young people in rural areas . In this regard has trained 25 Young People of District Tando Muhammad Khan One Month Training Solar PV Installation on tubewell & Performance Measurement . The training was supported by Youth Affairs Department, Government of Sindh . It has resulted:
- 25 youth from district Tando Muhammad Khan in rural areas are trained on Solar PV Installation on tubewell & Performance Measurement and have increased income generation and self employment opportunities to earn 20000 t0 25000 Rs per month.
• Technical human resource is available for local /private agriculture farm houses employers/growers in rural areas as well for overseas employment in agriculture sector.
Economic Justice of Women Agriculture workers
More than half million women cotton pickers are engaged in cotton pickers in Sindh. Their social and economic rights are exploited. They are working with very low wages which is far low than the existing market rate and their working conditions are also miserable. SCF believes that for the prosperous community and the country, understanding of economic justice is must among both employers and employees and rural agriculture workers. SCF values the economic justice and hence has been working for the economic justice for women cotton pickers. It has been successful to some extend such as organizing them in a group and registering them as a trade union so that they can voice out for securing the increased wage and raise voice for wage fixation in the legislation and improving their working environment securing the safety nets while they are on duty.SCF has supported 10 women group get registered with labor department, these are the first ever trade unions of women cotton pickers in province. SCF has also carried out advocacy for the rights of women cotton pickers.SCF has organized more than 3000 women cotton pickers on labor rights, collective bargaining and negotiation skills to negotiate fair wages and improved working conditions of women cotton pickers during the picking.
Women and Girls Empowerment
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.
Water , Sanitation and Health Education
Access to water and sanitation is a major issue of the people living in remote rural areas as well in slums of urban centers. SCF has implemented WASH projects in Jamshoro and Tando Muhammad Khan districted for people effected from the flood in 2010 and 2011. SCF implemented project Improving Water Supply and Sanitation Systems of 27 Flood Effected Villages with support of The Consulate General Japan, Karachi. The project achieved; 23000 flood affected population have access to safe drinking water and latrine facilities and hence improved the ir health status. The targeted communities were also provided with awareness on personal health and hygiene. SCF also implemented project Community Based Water Supply project in 10 villages of District -TM Khan. The project ensured availability and access to water facilities to 5060 flood affected population and created awareness on personal health and hygiene. With the support of UNDP under its disaster resilient communities project SCF also provided latrine and water facilities to the 100 households. Health education and awareness is the core part of the WASH program . SCF also promoted awareness on washing hands practices and demonstration in communities in urban and rural areas of its targeted areas mainly in Hyderabad and Matairi districts of Sindh. Currently SCF is implementing project of Safe water in Matiari district.
Environmental Justice and Climate Change
Pakistan is confronting severe environmental degradation and adverse effects of climate change. Climate change has become an alarming threat for both developed and developing countries. Efforts have been made at global level for retarding the pace of change in climatic conditions and reducing its impacts. SCF has taken environmental problems in account and designed comprehensive programs to mitigate the environmental degradation and climate change effects through action research, capacity building and awareness campaigning in Sindh province.
SCF addressed the issues of deforestation and climate change at small level through launching action research on socio-economic impact of deforestation in District Matiari and also launched awareness campaign of reforestation and tree plantation among school children and communities in 12 villages. SCF has also launched Climate change awareness campaign and trained 40 youth leaders for environmental activism in Hyderabad districts, SCF has planned to extend this campaign in other districts of Sindh to reach at wider population of rural areas and youth in province to sensitize and educate them on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. SCF has also undertaken project Building New Constituencies for Women’s RH: Climate change and Health (Pakistan) Research and Advocacy. In this regard, SCF conducted scoping study on impact of CC on women’s health in Sindh and brought the associated issues for further debate and discussion on Climate change and DRR polices at government and NGO levels. SCF also shared the recommendation and findings of the study with a wide range of civil society organizations, media and policy makers at provincial level through dialogue. It has formed CSOs Alliance on Climate Change and Health. SCF also trained more than 22 CSOs across the country on climate change and health impacts.
Human rights and Good Governance
Human rights and governance status in Pakistan is the most serious issue in the entire Asian region, impacting regional and international peace and security. Pakistan has unsatisfactory score in human rights and good governance. Women, rural communities, youth and minorities are being denied even for their basic rights. The strong feudal and patriarchal social fabric of Sindh province has left worst effects on the lives of people. Honor killing, domestic violence, tribal conflicts are evidences of violation of human rights. SCF since its inception has been engaged in human rights, working through advocating human and women rights at grassroots level. SCF has addressed various issues of human rights via creating awareness of human rights, women rights, social, economic and democracy rights. It has also organized education and capacity building program for youth, women and girls, rural communities and minorities on various areas of human rights.
SCF has trained a descent number of rural youth, girl’s students, and university students on Human rights, governance, democratic rights and leadership to play active role in human rights activism in their respective areas. SCF has conducted, 02, 10 days long courses on Youth Leadership for Human rights and democracy and engaged young people in voter mobilization, CNIC registration, right to vote, citizenship campaigns in different districts of Sindh.
Peace Building
Pakistan currently is experiencing extremism and religious fanaticism. Intolerance, violent behavior is common in Pakistani society. The religious extremism has increased and it has left very severeeffects on the society that led violence against women, instability of peace, and violation of basic human rights and destroyed the fabric of religious and interfaith harmony. The violent behavior and religious extremism have been prevalent and found among youth in every province of Pakistan. This situation has seriously influenced SCF to address the issues with very cohesive approach to initiate peace education programs. SCF trained more than 200 young leaders/activists and young artists on peace building.
Disaster Risk Reduction and Humanitarian Response
SCF has experience to work in disaster risk reduction and relief activities. SCF has prior experience in distribute of food to 5000 to 10000 families in district Jamshoro and District Mirpurkhas during flood 2010 and 2011. SCF has trained human resource in relief response, food distribution n and management. SCF has already familiarization with the communities we want to serve through this project. SCF has implemented project Disaster resilient communities in Jamshoro District covering 31 villages affected by floods in 2010. Under the project SCF trained communities on local level DRR as well trained government officials and CSOs on DRR planning and management. The project resulted Improved socio economic condition of the women and increased the coping capacity of the communities against disasters. The project was supported by UNDP Pakistan. SCF has been working with national and international donors including UNWFP, UNESCO, UNDP and others in humanitarian responses. SCF has also responded the recent Covid19 crisis and supported 300 households, daily wagers home based workers, cotton workers , trans and disabled people in urban and rural areas by providing g Rashan and Hygiene kits.
Advocacy for Sustainable Development Goals
SCF has been engaged in the debates and advocacy for the implementation and localization of the SDGs in Sindh. It conducted a wide range of consultation to localization the targets in Sindh province at provincial as well district level by prioritization exercise held in 24 districts of Sindh. The report on prioritized interventions was developed and shared with the SDG Unit. Besides this, SCF has implemented awareness and advocacy project on implementation of the indicators 6 of SDGs 16, the inclusive and responsive institutions. SCF developed a district mapping of issues and shared with media and CSOs, citizens groups and government stakeholders. SCF has formed Sindh CSOs alliance on SDGs joined by 22 CSOs.
Community Theater: SCF has been applying theatre as one of its tool and prove to an effective tool for sensitization and awareness among its targeted audiences on various social issues including important of vote, women participation in good governance and electoral process, violence against women, human rights, and right to education, youth problems and environment, DRR issues. SCF has a theater groups comprised on 8 male female members