A fundamental goal of group formation and capacity building is to enhance the ability of people to evaluate and address the crucial issues related to policy choices and modes of implementation among different development options, based on an understanding of environment potentials and limits and of needs perceived by the people of the community concerned. Capacity Building also means organizational development, including community participation of women in particular and human resources development and strengthening of social systems. Why is Group Formation and Capacity Building Needed? Keeping the dismal picture of targeted area in mind, DASE evaluates that group formation and capacity building is direly needed for under-mentioned reasons; § The issue of capacity is critical and the degree of need is enormous, but appreciation of the problem is low. § The link between needs and supply is fragile. § There is a lack of down-to-earth funding. § There is need for support for transformation and change. § People are isolated and scattered; communications between
people and government institutions are poor. § Alternative ways of group formation and capacity building are not adequately recognized The support would cover the mobilization and training on a wide range of socio-political and developmental issues as well as organizational management, planning, execution and assessment of various activities and technical skill enhancement of the formed groups of targeted area. One of the most important objectives behind this involvement is giving power to the civil society organizations for having catalytic effect for sustainable community development. By group formation and capacity building, DASE would work for developing human resources of people’s organization by operating at three levels: § Community Mobilization and Empowerment Program (CMEP) § Women Rights Awareness Program (WRAP) and,§ Civil Society Strengthening Program (CSSP) By these programs, DASE wants to bring about: § Sensitized and mobilized community § People’s organizations with conceptual clarity on issues and motivation for intervention and § Social activism and vitality for sustainable, dynamic and democratic development Community Mobilization and Empowerment Program (CMEP) - Baseline surveys and identification of potential group to form CCBs/CBOs from targeted area
- Assessing needs for trainings and design training courses for their better functioning and intervention
- Conducting six training workshops with each CCBs/CBOs to build their capacity
- Conducting follow up visits and community meeting with CMEP partner CCBs/CBOs
- Developing and disseminating training and informative material for the conceptual clarity of the issues
- Conducting assessment of each training event
- Monitoring outputs, outcomes and impacts of each training in follow-up visits and community meetings
- Conducting two-yearly Impact Assessment Exercise (IAE) for Community Mobilization and Empowerment Program
Community Empowerment Program (CEP) Objectives § Organizing and activating community groups § Group Formation§ Capacity Building of selected groups of targeted area § Issue-based sensitization § Involving community groups to struggle for their socio-political rights and liberties§ Ensuring active participation of civil society in decision making Work Breakdown Structure
§ Seminars, rallies, press conferences, dialogues § Forums for civil society organization (trade union forum, media forum etc….) § REFLECT Circles on role of community groups in a democratic state§ Establishment of people’s resource and training center § Workshops on civil rights and civil liberties for civil society organizations and groups § Establishment of citizens’ assemblies on district level § Awarding people of their rights and liberties in a state (civil rights and liberties charter)
Mass Awareness Campaign
Objectives - To observe every event and day of global events and local concern in conscience awaking manner
- Bilateral cooperation, well-awakened populace and institutions
- Dealing with media and journalism consistently striving for craving a genuine egalitarian society
- Sensitization of masses for their awakening from dogmatic and ethnocentric slumbers and biases
Work Breakdown Structure
- REFLECT Circles (REFLECT Circles would be arranged against discriminatory policies and traditions)
- Walks, press conferences
- Publications, posters, press releases,
- Quarterly newsletter (The Mirror; DASE has got the services of some feminist scholars (though not eminent till yet), visionary pacifists and pluralists for its quarterly newsletters. Through The Mirror, social maladies and hypocrisies would be brought under magnifying glass to unveil the ugly realities behind beautiful slogans)
- Public Forums, issue-based seminars, Dialogues (with advocates, farmers, journalists, students, civil society organizations and government departments)
- Group Formation
- Resolution Movements
- Political education for people through REFLECT Circles and community meetings
- Community and Government get-together Conversation through public forums
Farmer’s Empowerment Campaign
Objectives
- Organizing tenants and peasants
- Legal rights awareness
- Lobbying and information access for peasants and tenants
- Information and lobbying against new liberal agenda
Work Breakdown Structure - Information on legal rights through workshops seminars and REFLECT Circles
- Information sharing on different socio-economic issue through above-mentioned techniques
- Informing them about outworn social patterns through REFLECT Circles
- Informing farmers about WTO Polices and their outcomes through seminars and dialogues
- Press releases, forums, rallies on concerned issues
- Theatrical performances to educate the reference groups
- Establishment of Legal Awareness Center
- Making the people know that that they are no more subjects but citizens
Gender Relation in Pakistan Gender relations in Pakistan, it is said, are rest on two basic perceptions: that women are subordinate to men, and that a man's honor resides in the actions of the women of his family. So far as an agro-based society is concerned, it is rule not exception. In the targeted areas of DASE, life for women is very restricted, and women are expected to comply with outworn beliefs and traditions. Any woman who deviates from these traditions, such as being seen with a man to whom she is not related or married, can suffer severe penalties, including death. The women observe strict purdah (seclusion of women) and are rarely seen outside their homes. However, in urban areas women have relatively greater social mobility. Women in Pakistan's urban centers, although a small minority of the total female population, have the greatest mobility, with considerable access to jobs and education and greater freedom in marriage and divorce but this is not to be dreamed of in rural areas where women are leading their lives with their curtailed rights. Clear violations of international law on the rights of women occur daily in Pakistan. Laws that discriminate against women remain on the books and are actively enforced, discrimination in access to government resources and services continues unchecked, and discriminatory practices go unpunished. In particular, violence against women remains a serious and widespread problem-to, which the government responds with inaction and inertia. Women, as a daily practical matter, are far outside the mainstream of political life. The officially pronounced literacy rate for Pakistani women is only 25 % (less than 3 % in targeted area of DASE); the maternal mortality rate is disturbingly high at 600 per 100,000 births whereas situation is even worse in Southern Punjab. Poor rural women, this area, are only responsible for transplanting rice seedlings, weeding crops, raising chickens and selling eggs, and stuffing wool or cotton into comforters (razais). Here, in Southern Punjab, women work for consumption or for exchange at the subsistence level. For example, the 1981 census reported that 5.6 percent of all women were employed, as opposed to 72.4 percent of men; less than 4 percent of all urban women were engaged in some form of salaried work. By 1988 this figure had increased significantly, but still only 10.2 percent of women were reported as participating in the labor force. Studies on women and state have shown that the State is not a gender-neutral entity. Political dispensation at the State level can either reinforce female subordination or support female autonomy. The changing attitude of the Pakistan State towards women ranges from half-hearted policy measures at best, to inaction and outright discrimination by enactment of retrogressive law particularly during the military regime of 1977-88.
There is strong need to sensitize civil society against gender discrimination and traditions that are curbing women’s liberty. This will enable general populace to exercise their political consciousness and rights in the favor of craving out a gender-neutral society. Designs for Intervention
- Brining women in mainstream of political life through Democratic Rights and Political Education Program for Women (PEPW)
- Reducing maternal mortality rate, that is disturbingly high, through Reproductive Health Program (RHP)
- Making the society a gender-neutral entity through Gender Neutral Society Campaign (GNSC)
- Sensitization of civil society against gender discrimination and criminal traditions through Gender Sensitization Program (GSP)
- Engaging maximum number of women in some form of productive work through Indigenous Skill Enhancement and Economic Empowerment Program (ISEEEP)
Democratic Rights and Political Education Program for Women (PEPW)
§ Identification and mobilization of dynamic women leadership § Evolving women groups in 20 UCS of Tehsil Sadder § Defining curriculum of Democratic Rights and Political Education Program and dissemination of the material through meetings, 6 workshops and 6 forums with theatrical performances within 2 years of project period - Conducting assessment of each training event
- Monitoring outputs, outcomes and impacts of each training in follow-up visits and community meetings
- Conducting two-yearly Impact Assessment Exercise (IAE) for Democratic Rights and Political Education Program for Women
Reproductive Health Program (RHP) § Establishment of Reproductive Health Center to provide standard gynecological health services to most marginalized UCs of the targeted area within first six months of the project period § Providing round-the-clock reproductive health services to expectant women along health education and awareness through pamphlets and booklets, containing information on adopting health friendly contraceptive measures, and trainings from other networks Gender Neutral Society Campaign (GNSC) - Brining out monthly publication (The Mirror in English and Urdu) to highlight gender issues criticizing prevalent social attitudes most effective way
- Translation (and publishing in episodes works of western feminist scholars like Simon de Beauvoir and other modern feminists)
- Dissemination of published material, press releases
- Conducting research on related themes (biased material in textbooks being used in street schools, linguistic duality, gender insensitive newspapers etc.)
- Preparing database on multiple kind of violence against women
- Decoding gender myth in folklores and local wisdom through research
- Documenting regular feedback on publications
Gender Sensitization Program (GSP)
- Conducting research on prevalent gender insensitivity in targeted areas
- Training gender sensitive groups to make them aware of and resist gender biases in their areas
- Imparting Reflect and other behavioral change kits (like lateral thinking model, water logic etc.) in humanized way to target groups to sensitize their respective communities through six trainings in two years
- Disseminating Urdu version of Mirror, posters and pamphlets among target groups
- Collective forums and dialogues and theatrical performances to get desired behavioral ends
- Conducting assessment of each training event
- Monitoring outputs, outcomes and impacts of each training in follow-up visits and community meetings
- Conducting two-yearly Impact Assessment Exercise (IAE) for Gender Sensitization Program
Indigenous Skill Enhancement & Economic Empowerment Program (ISEEEP) Objectives § Reducing economic dependence of women § Encouraging self-employment among women § Providing opportunities for women to improve their skills and developing market wisdom § Improving indigenous skills and introducing innovations to capture market § Imparting at least basic education in addition to earning skills Work Breakdown Structure -
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- Group formation
- Capacity Building
- Saving and credit
- Adult education and skill centers
- Women handicrafts exhibitions
- Indigenous skills enhancement and market access
Gender Bias Reduction Program (GBRP)
Objectives
§ Dispersing gender myth concerning women secondary status § Pricking patriarchal and male centered value patterns § Eliminating linguistic dual connotation § Confidence building in women § Emancipating women from customary clutches § Granting women right to take initiativs
Work Breakdown Structure § Group formation and capacity and competency building§ Workshops with active women on women’s legal rights § REFLECT Circle with community against gender discrimination § Awareness raising through print and electronic media§ Advocacy through newspapers and publishing material § Quarterly Gender Magazine§ Posters, pamphlets and propaganda campaigns § Sign boards for gender sensitizations § Theatrical performance for highlighting gender issues and exposing fossilized values designed to curtail women’s mobility and competency Need of Peace Within, for Peace Without
DASE’s object is peace within and peace without. DASE wants people to live peacefully and gladly make their full contribution to the peace and prosperity of the world. Peace, love and harmony are direly needed today. We cannot lead a happy life without establishing deep-rooted peace in society. Wells of love and fraternity are quickly drying up by material hectic. Man thinks that his happiness is linked with material gain and possessions. He had forgot that he his spiritual animal along with social and economical animal. DASE wants an integrated peace campaign to be launched in the land of Sufis with the aim to promote and revitalize Sufi wisdom to bring eternal peace in the heart of people who had lost their spiritual values and have become alien in their own land; and consequently have developed antagonism, xenophobic tendencies and extremist behavior. DASE wants to bring the massage of Sufis through theatrical performances based on Sufi wisdom (anecdotes of mystic saints, their poetry) to bring about desired ends of peace and harmony. It would great to spread massage of universal brotherhood and peace through theatrical media to bring about rapid positive change by reducing friction, low and high intensity conflicts. Spreading Sufi wisdom would make people confident of their indigenous cultural wisdom, language and heritage. In other words people would be made more curious and interested in their folklores, myths, humanitarian philosophy and spirituality. These programs would also shatter the crisis of identity that is sole cause of their indifference and empathy. DASE would also conduct research on different Sufis, their massage, their works and stories related to them. DASE wants to highlight the massage of hope, friendship and mutual love though spreading the examples of saints that would be culled through research. Program Objectives
- Infusing the spirit of harmony, mutual love and peace in the community
- Creating social harmony among poles-apart socio-political and religious groups
- Bringing populace to their local wisdom through Sufi massage
- Promoting Sufism and its massage of universal brotherhood
- Bringing different co-cultures together and cementing them by Sufi wisdom of fraternity and harmony with nature
- Catering for people’s spiritual needs and aspirations
- Making people confident of their indigenous wisdom
- Promoting diversity of cultures and their colorfulness
- Maintaining culture sensitive social equilibrium
Interfaith & Interclass Harmony Program
Objectives
- Harmony expedition between different groups of civil society to reduce Low Intensity Conflict
- Interfaith Harmony
- Reducing friction between political and religious partisans
- Protection of minorities rights
Work Breakdown Structure § Seminars, forums, walks§ Establishment of Peace Theater (PT) to transmit Sufi massage of universal fraternity § Research on minorities and their problems in Pakistan § Posters, theatrical performances of Sufi teaching § Visual Education (playing CDs on local cable networks of peace theater) § Establishment of minority rights protecting cell. § Minority’s cultural shows, fairs and get-together § Interfaith and interclass exposure visits for trust building§ Quarterly publications on peace and brotherhood § Translation of great pacifists’ and Sufis works in local idiom Community Action
Advocacy and Group Formation enables CBOs and people’s groups to translate their information and learning into practical and feasible action at community program level. Community groups would be given orientation on how to assess their particular needs and develop projects proposals in to address the realized need within the span of two years. Staff would then conduct assessment visits of these CBOs/CCBs during which the details would be discussed with members community groups as well as the other members of community to boost them up. After having completed the assessment, the group would be encouraged to develop linkages with governmental and non-governmental organizations to get their need addressed through proposal planning and project making. DASE would help them planning projects on health and education, micro-credits, skills training women, non-formal education and so on. In the long run, the groups would be able to run long-term sustainable projects on their own behalf. In this way, scattered masses would become vehicle of change in stagnant community. DASE would alos imprint the concept of social activism in their sub-consciousness to ensure sustainable community empowerment. Regular community visits would be conducted to facilitate the partner groups in implementing their programs and deal with their community problems in an effective manner. These groups would also be supported to improve their internal systems, community linkages, social communications, and appraisal and monitoring mechanisms. Following community actions have been planned in the light of next five years plan: 1. Technical Support to people groups 2. Help them assessing their needs 3. Identifying and supporting linkages Developing their linkages with donors, SOs
