POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN THE THAR DESERT - UPDATE OCT 2005
First Quarter June - August 2004Activities Conducted:
Selection of Beneficiaries
300 beneficiaries selected on the present criteria. About 60% belong to minority community (Hindus) and 40% majority community (Muslims). The household profiles of these 300 profiles have been made. This will facilitate recording of progress annually.Formation of Village Development Committees.
20 Village Development Committees of men and women have been formed in 10 selected villages. There are about 600 men and women members on these 20 committees formed.Training on Project Management.
All 300 beneficiaries are given project management trainings. 20 Trainings were conducted covering all 300 beneficiaries. 10 trainings were conducted with men and 10 with women beneficiaries. Each training was of two days duration covering such items as problem identification, prioritization of problems, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.Signing of Agreement with Village Development Committees (Goth Sujag Markaz Committees) .
Formal agreement was reached with VDCs for implementation of Community Supported project. Responsibilities were assigned to VDC members for implementation, monitoring, review of progress and reporting.Implementation of project activities:
5000 bair fruit trees grafted: Although it was planned to graft 7500 trees for 300 beneficiary households, due to scanty rainfall and water problem only 5000 trees could be grafted. It was also planned to plant 7500 fodder trees by 300 beneficiaries, but due to failure of monsoon rainfall in sufficient quantity this activity could not be carried out by the beneficiary households.
300 rainwater harvesting tanks built: Although it was planned to build 75 water tanks in the first quarter (June-August) all the 300 water tanks were built due to demand from the beneficiaries in the hope of monsoon rainfall. Many of these tanks were filled in the recent rainfall. However, in 50% of the tanks water had to be carried from another spot to fill the tanks. At present all tanks have stored water which will hopefully last for about two months more.
100 Fuel Efficient Stoves constructed: Fuel efficient stoves constructed by 100 households after training provided for building these stoves. This was planned for this quarter and targets achieved according to plan. These stoves are being used by the beneficiaries contributing towards reduction in fire wood and smoke free environment inside the houses.
20 Community Trainings conducted: 20 trainings conducted with community comprising of all 300 beneficiary households. 600 persons were covered. One male and one female from each beneficiary household participated in the Project Management Trainings.
Staff Trainings: Three staff members appointed in this project were given project management training before implementation of this project. The training included such topics as skills for developing household profiles of beneficiaries, implementation of the project in coordination with Goth Sujag Markaz Committees, monitoring, review of progress and periodical evaluation of the project.
Monitoring visits: Six monitoring visits were paid by Project Manager of PVDP during the reporting period, to review the work in this project.
Staff visits to project beneficiaries: 25 staff visits were conducted during the reporting period in order to mobilize the community, form VDCs, sign Agreement with beneficiaries and implement the project activities together with GSMCs in 10 selected villages.____________________________________________________________________________________
Second Quarter September - November 2004
The onset of drought has disturbed the project activities; especially the fodder and fruit trees planted this year. According to the assessment report, about 40% of the newly planted/grafted trees have been affected due to drought. There has been a pest problem as well as shortage of water due to which many trees are drying up. The community people are trying to save as many trees as possible. PVDP has provided a light pesticide which has helped somewhat. However, as water has become short, human, animals and plants are all suffering.
When we discussed the issues of plant with the project communities, they were very concerned about the plants drying up and dying, but they also said that all plants which are lost will be replenished next year by the community with no cost to PVDP. This also shows that the importance of trees is growing among the project community.
The representatives of 20 VDOs are preparing the information you required.
The training on Project Management was good. Men and Women participated and learned how they will be organized, implement and monitor their activities together with PVDP staff. Women were more active than men and were eager learners on Project Management.
As mentioned in the report, the activities on civil and political right awareness could not be implemented. There are technical problems. We have to get permission from the District Education Officer to involve the teachers and students in the awareness programme. We hope this problem will be solved soon and by January 2005 the activities relating to civil and political right awareness will be started.
Activities Conducted:
Construction of Fuel Efficient Stoves
150 economy stoves were constructed as planned during this period. All the economy stoves were constructed by women beneficiaries after their trainings by PVDP staff.Fodder Tree Plantation
5000 fodder trees were supplied and planted during the late monsoon rainfall in the project area. The tree saplings were purchased from Mirpurkhas Sindh nursery and transported to the project area.Embroidery Support to 225 women
Embroidery support planned for 225 women could not be implemented due partly to lack of skills among women to produce saleable products and partly due to migration of about 40% of the beneficiary households to canal irrigated areas due to severity of drought in the project area. For remaining beneficiary women a training has been planned in December to enable women to produce marketable embroidery products. After this training, the women will be given embroidery support material.
Civil and Political Right Awareness.
One meeting was held on 15th November 2004 with two teachers, Village Development Committee members and project staff in village Jaman Samu. The issue of civil and political rights of the community was discussed. It was decided that formal permission of the Education Department of government will be requested to conduct formal sessions and training workshops with Teachers and Students of the 10 project villages. In this regard, the Programme Officer of PVDP Islamkot will meet with the District Education Officer in December 2004 to seek official permission.Information Promotion
Information relating to drought preparedness and coping mechanisms were produced and distributed among the Thari community including all the beneficiaries. The community was also informed of the way they should take care of their plants (fodder and fruits) planted during this year's monsoon. Information on the use of TerraCottom (water retention techniques) was also produced and distributed among the beneficiary community and neighboring areas.Training of Staff
Staff trainings were held on Disaster Management and Coping Mechanisms. One woman and two male staff members from this project received this training at Hyderabad.Community Trainings
10 community trainings were held on Disaster Management and Coping Mechanism. The PVDP staff which was earlier trained, conducted these trainings with about 300 beneficiaries in the project area.Another training of the community was conducted on making economy stoves at household level. A group of 30 women participated in a one day training. 150 women learned to make economy stoves in five trainings ( of one day each).
Monitoring of the Project
Six monitoring visits were paid by project staff to monitor the project together with the beneficiary community. The monitoring report showed severe problems created due to droughts. The trees planted are facing severe water shortage problems and insect attack. PVDP is motivating people to water these plants from the deep wells. In many areas the deep wells have brackish water which do not suit the plants. Neem pesticides have been made available to address the problems of pest attack on plants.____________________________________________________________________________________
Third Quarter December 2004 - February 2005
Activities Conducted:
Construction of Fuel Efficient Stoves
50 economy stoves were constructed as planned during this period. All the economy stoves were constructed by women beneficiaries after their trainings by PVDP staff. Overall 300 fuel efficient stoves were constructed over three quarters of this year starting June 2004 and ending February 2005. The target for constructing 300 stoves for 300 beneficiaries in year one has been achieved.
Embroidery support to women.
150 women were given training in making marketable embroidery work. This training was given by PVDP staff. After the training, material support was provided to the trained women so that they start making the embroidery goods for sale in the market. The women were also encouraged to sell their finished products to the local traders (middlemen) if they offered reasonable rates of their work. We hope that the income of 150 women who represent 150 beneficiary households under this project will start earning some money from their handicraft work.
This is all the more vital in the present situation as there is already a drought in Thar and if people have no means to earn their living, they will be forced to migrate to the canal irrigated areas in the western part of Thar. PVDP is discussing with various handicraft dealers the possibilities of marketing the embroidery work of PVP supported women.
Plant Nursery
Planning is being made to raise locally the fodder plants for coming monsoon season. In this regard a shed was built in Islamkot town near PVDP office. Plastic bags are bought plus sand, farm manure and seeds are acquired. As there is now government water supply available which provides sweet water, it is possible to raise plants locally. Last year the fodder trees were purchased from outside of Thar. They were not of desired quality and therefore many died soon after planting. This time we plan to raise our own nursery to provide desired quality plants to the beneficiaries.
Community Trainings.150 women were given trainings on making marketable embroidery goods. Beside this 300 more people were given trainings on Drought Preparedness and Mitigation measures under the present drought situation. People were advised to use their water resources more judiciously and take good care of their fruit and fodder trees when have been planted/grafted by the beneficiary households under this project. They are also advised to use the fuel efficient stoves which consume comparatively less wood than the traditional stoves.
Civil and Political Right Awareness
Two meetings were held on 7th February and 8th February 2005 with four teachers,Village Development Committee members and project staff in villages Bitra and Momin Mangario. The issue of civil and political rights of community was discussed. The formal permission sought from Executive District Officer of Education has still not been given granted due to mistrust at local government level on NGOs work and lack of policy of Government to work with local NGOs. PVDP is however hopeful that permission will soon be granted by Executive District Officer to work with teachers and primary school students on awareness creation about Civil and Political Rights.
Staff trainings
Staff capacity was developed in micro enterprise development for handicraft work. In this regard two male and one female staff were sent on a project visit of Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) at Karachi to see their system of loaning and marketing for improving livelihood of the poor households. The idea of exploring the handicraft market at Karachi for sale of embroidery material of women is being discussed. We will inform you of any development in this respect.
Information Promotion
Two staff members were trained to develop information on regular basis on Community Fund Project. Regular documentation of information and reporting to the local stakeholders will be undertaken. Six months work done under this project will be translated into local languages (Urdu and Sindhi) and will be distributed to the local civil society organizations and other stakeholders including government departments.Monitoring of the Project
10 monitoring visits were paid by project staff during the quarter under review. The severity of the drought was recorded in which people faced water shortage, food and also fodder shortages. The migration was recorded of cattle and some families from the project area.There has been a severe strain on the existing trees of fodder and fruits (bair). All efforts of the community were made to save these trees, however, due to water shortage and most of the available water turning heavily saline, many trees were dying. It was said by the community that the recent cold spell (due to snow fall in NWFP, Baluchistan and Punjab many natural vegetation had been burnt (by cold). Many of the trees planted under this project were also affected. Data is being collected to determine the actual loss of trees.
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Fourth Quarter - June - August 2005
Introduction
The second year of this project started from 1st June 2005. The first year progress was encouraging as most of the activities planned had been carried out by Goth Sujag Markaz Committees (Village Awareness Committees) and PVDP. The second year started in the hope that there will be monsoon rainfall in June or July enabling people to start off agricultural activities. The first light shower of rain came on 7th of July 2005 in which people started ploughing their land and sowing seed. The second light shower came on the 6th of August after an interval of 30 days. The rain was not even and fell only sporadically in some parts of the Thar Desert.As people of Thar had suffered drought from the previous year (2004-5) they had no financial resources of their own to purchase agriculture seeds and implements. Everything had to be borrowed from money lenders with interest rates ten times higher than the bank rates. If the crop failed due to lack of subsequent rainfall needed to ripen the crop, the people will be go deeper into debt and fall into a virtual cycle of slavery.
After August 6 rainfall, there was no subsequent rainfall and people were getting worried as the 2nd year of drought has started knocking at the doors of the Thari community. The continuous second year of drought will have disastrous effects on the lives of the people.
Activities Conducted:
Selection of 300 beneficiaries
In the month of June and half of July 2005, the planned 300 beneficiaries had been selected by the project team in consultation with the community and Goth Sujag Markaz Committee members in 10 project villages. The name list was prepared and base line profile was established of these 300 households.Re-formation of Goth Sujag Markaz Committees
After selection of 300 beneficiary households based on the preset criteria, the committees were constituted in each village. The new members were assimilated with the previous members in such a way that in each village there are men and women committees formed. In each village there is a committee comprising of 30 men and 30 women members. So in 10 villages we now have 600 members altogether (300 previous year members and 300 current year members).
Bair Tree Plantation
After the first rainfall in July 2005, 7500 bair plants were acquired from nursery in Mirpurkhas and were transported to Islamkot for distribution among the 300 beneficiaries. Each beneficiary household was delivered 25 plants of bair for planting in their plots. By the end of July 2005 the plantation of bair trees was completed.
Fodder Trees Plantation
7500 fodder trees were ordered from the nursery in Mirpurkhas could not be delivered due to transport problem during local government election in August 2005. The moisture in soil was also not enough to plant more trees. The second rainfall on August 7 was not good enough to support tree plantation in Thar. If further rainfall occurred in September 2005, the fodder trees will be planted, however, the hope for further rainfall is very little according to meteorological department.Rainwater Harvesting Tanks
300 new water tanks were constructed by 300 beneficiary households of current year. The cement for tanks was provided by PVDP plus the cost of the mason. The beneficiary households contributed their labour free of cost. There was some water collected in the second shower of rain which came on 6th August. However, as the rainfall was insufficient, not enough water could be collected in the newly built water tanks. Most beneficiaries collected water from the far away wells and filled their tanks so that women's time of fetching daily water would be saved.
Fuel Efficient Stoves
After the training to women beneficiaries in June 2005, 300 fuel efficient stoves were made in 10 villages. These stoves were put to use by women beneficiaries and it was reported that the stoves were useful in reducing smoke and saving of fire wood. There were also reports of replication of this fuel model by neighbors who are not beneficiaries of this project.Training of Beneficiaries
Five trainings in Project Management were conducted for men and women in July and August 2005. In August five trainings were conducted in Fuel Efficient Stove making by women. In these trainings more than 150 women and 100 men participated from 10 project villages.
PVDP Staff Training
In the month of August 2005 PVDP staff given Project Management training in Hyderabad city. 15 Porject Officers of PVDP received trainings. This was a three day event which covered beside the Project Management, Community Mobilization Processes, Report Writing and Community Training Skills.
Visit by independent assessor, Eddie Thomas, from the UK
See also
