Coordination Meeting with GEP District Partners of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The Second Coordination Meeting workshop was held successfully on 26th July 2016 with four GEP partners of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa i.e. CSF, Blue Veins, DTCE and SKYIANS Welfare Organization at SPO Peshawar Office under the project of National Coordinator for Bar Council/Association Engagement/Sub- Grant cycle 8 (GEP). The participants of the meeting from four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Peshawar, Swat, Haripur and Abbottabad were present in this meeting. The total numbers of participants were six; three females and three male. The meeting aimed to discuss work plans, database development, progress and challenges faced by IPs in project implementation and planning for future regional dialogues at the district level.
Midterm refresher Training of Trainers (T.o.T)
Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) conducted Midterm Refresher T.oT. under the project of National Coordinator for Bar Council/Association Engagement/Sub- Grant cycle 8 of Gender Equity Program of Aurat Foundation (with the support of USAID) from 12th July to 14th July 2016 for five GEP partners of Baluchistan (CTE, Association for Integrated Development, Social Justice and Development Institute, Taraqee Foundation) and Sindh (Centre for Peace and Justice Pakistan) at Social Development Enterprise Quetta.
Formulation of Provincial Human Rights Strategies Orientation Meeting
SPO recently signed a project related to Human Rights with Foreign & Commonwealth Office in June 2016. The project will be implemented in partnership with the collaboration of Ministry of Human Rights. It aims at institutionalization of the concept of human rights into the provincial ministries by preparing provincial human rights strategies, lobbying meetings with cabinet members and parliamentarians and capacity building on national and international human rights obligations and implementation of respective provincial human rights strategies. The objective will be achieved through a series of trainings in all provinces for provincial HR ministries.
Regional Dialogue on Effective Implementation of Pro Women and Women’s Access to Justice. “Mindset needs to be changed, laws need to be implemented.”
Civil society activists, lawmakers, lawyers and media persons demanded the government to implement laws related to women and their rights. The speakers believed that before implementation of laws, the mindset that creates hindrances need to be changed. The first regional dialogue titled ‘Effective Implementation of Pro Women Laws and Women’s Access to Justice’ held at Mehran Hotel on Wednesday was attended by civil society activists, law makers, legal experts, journalists and others. The dialogue was organized by the Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) in collaboration with Gender Equity Program (GEP).
Six-day Batch 1& 2 Training brief organized for Youth network members of Liyari, Korangi and Sultanabad on “Mobilization awareness raising and advocacy, Community leadership, Negotiation and Communication skills and Conflict resolution”
The Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) is implementing a one-year project titled, “Enhancing Opportunities for Youth’s Livelihood and Employment in Garment Sector through social and community mobilization in Karachi Project” from 5th November 2015 to 5th November 2016, under UNDP’s Youth Employment Project funded by UNDP in District Korangi, Liyari Town and UC Sultanabad. The project envisioned to mobilize 3200 youth between the age of 18-29 with 50% ratio of girls and boys and engage them in garment sector related training and create jobs for them.
Sufism and Peace Festival organised by SPO in Khairpur
SPO team under the umbrella of ‘Peace my Right Campaign’ and ‘Citizen First project’ organized a ‘Sufism and Peace Festival’ in Khairpur on 25th May 2016. The festival was organized at Arts Council Khairpur with the collaboration of the district government. Despite of the extreme weather conditions the event was attended by almost 2300 people including men, women, youth, religious minorities and people belonging to the excluded group. The chief guest of the event was Mr. Fayyaz Jatoi, Deputy Commissioner Khairpur.
Promoting Social Cohesion & Resilience
Story of Sumera and Sawera The things went wrong when both families decided to finish all relationship on a tiny thing that one family forgot to invite other in a small family function. They left all behind against their ego and anger. It’s the story of Sumera and Sawera’s family, living in Deenpur UC of Jacobabad district where both families (relatives) were not in good terms over some petty issues. Once, one of the two families had a celebration and a certain person was assigned the task to invite the other family on it, but he forgot to convey the invitation message. This issue became a bone of contention for both the families and as a result they cut off all the contacts with each other. More than 5 years passed, but the families didn’t contact each other and with every passing year the enmity and disdain became more.
Training on Community Based Monitoring of Service arranged by SPO
SPO Hyderabad has organised two Days Training on Community Based Monitoring of Services organized for citizen groups of 12 selected villages at District Khairpur Mir’s under Citizen First Oxfam Novib Project.
NARI Festival
SPO organized two Mega events at Dadu and Mirpur Khas called “Nari Festival”, in which more than 460 women and 290 men of 120 Villages participated along with District Govt. Officials, UNWOMEN, ILO, FAO, ACF, INGOs and civil society organizations.