Pakistani support groups fight militancy, poverty, ignorance

ISLAMABAD (Via centralasiaonline) – Village- and community-based Local Support Organisations (LSOs) are working to bring education, health, infrastructure and peace to the populations they serve. 

“There were security challenges and nobody dared go there to help these people. Now the people want support, so SRSP (the Sarhad Rural Support Programme) is reaching them,” Noor Ajab Khan, district manager of the SRSP for Upper Dir, told Central Asia Online. “First we are building roads, and then would move on to buildings, schools and other social services infrastructure.” 

 

Different organisations made presentations highlighting their performances at the LSO’s fourth national convention November 2 in Islamabad. The meeting was organised by the Rural Support Programme Network (RSPN) – an umbrella organisation for RSPs and LSOs in Pakistan.

Sher Muhammad, an elder from the Haigay Sharkay Village, addresses the 4th National Convention of Local Support Organisations (LSOs) in Islamabad November 2. LSOs fight militancy, poverty and ignorance in their areas. [Raheel Khan]

 

“RSPs mobilise people to form community- and village-based organisations. Then these people’s organisations identify their needs and projects and we facilitate them.” said Shoaib Sultan Khan, chairman of the Board of Directors for RSPN and the National Rural Support Programme, who has worked with RSPs for 33 years.

The RSPN consists of 11 RSPs working in 108 of 131 districts and 2 of the 13 tribal areas. The RSPs collectively work with a rural membership of community organizations (LSOs, Village Organizations and Community Organizations) to serve 4.16m rural households, according to the RSPN website.

“I have been saying that government should invest in the people and then there would be education, good health, peace and prosperity,” Khan said.

Sher Muhammad, an elder from Haigay Sharkay Village in Upper Dir and president of the Haigay Village Organisation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, discussed how his group came to fight militants who fled from Swat to their area.

The RSPN consists of 11 RSPs working in 108 of 131 districts and 2 of the 13 tribal areas. The RSPs collectively work with a rural membership of community organizations (LSOs, Village Organizations and Community Organizations) to serve 4.16m rural households, according to the RSPN website.

“When the military operation was started against terrorists in 2009, (the militants) came to our area as it was the only route to Afghanistan,” Sher told Central Asia Online. “First we hosted them and treated them as guests, but then they started kidnapping people.”

“When our local group forced the militants to release a kidnapped journalist, Akhter Jan Kohistani, they reacted later by conducting a suicide attack in our village mosque, killing more than 33 people and injuring more than 15,” Sher said. “Since then we have been fighting the militancy.”

His village organisation is creating awareness among the masses about the harm militants do, he said.

“We suffered a lot and we don’t have livelihood-earning opportunities. Last year when four of our villagers went to Chitral for small-time jobs, they were pursued by militants and mercilessly slaughtered,” Umar Khaliq, general secretary for the Haigay Village Organisation, said. “Now we are working with SRSP in order to help us create job opportunities and provide health and education services.”

Shahida Parveen heads a community women’s organisation in Takhtbai, Mardan District, that works to improve education and health.

“Being Pashtun, it was difficult to come out and form an organisation of women for addressing health and educational issues,” she said. Women learned of a project named for Bacha Khan, the Pashtun leader who fought to restore Pashtuns’ honour. They formed a local support group for women.

“We put a ban on early marriages and set a fine of Rs. 50,000 (US $580) if a girl below age 20 is married,” she said. “We established child-care centres. Similarly, we encourage girls and women to enroll in adult education programmes and embroidery learning centres. I think we are changing people’s lives.”

“Community-based local support organisations are very important for development through self-help and participatory development approach,” said Mir Ali Shah, development sector expert told Central Asia Online. “When people organise themselves into communities, then they can identify and prioritise their collective needs, access government departments, international NGOs, NGOs or other donors for support.”

The idea of the LSO was first (2003) conceived by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, established in 1982, in the Chitral, Gilgit and Baltistan regions. 

http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2011/11/03/feature-01