More economic powers to Chitrali women promised

By Zahiruddin



CHITRAL: Chairman of Biyar Local Support Organisation (BLSO) Syed Sardar Hussain Shah has said that the organisation is working on an extended programme to give economic emancipation to the womenfolk.
Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, he said that the BLSO was established three years ago with the help of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP).
He said that the organisation gave top priority to the women development from the day of its establishment in its area of activity in union council Charun.
Giving details of the programme, Mr Shah said that initially 140 women were imparted training in small enterprises in the leading institutions of Islamabad and Lahore who further trained the educated as well as the illiterate housewives.
He said that micro-credit scheme was then introduced which enabled the women to launch their own business on small-scale while guidance and counseling was provided to them on each step.
Mr Shah said that utilising their training in different trades, the women started manufacturing different articles like shampoo, organic jam, tomato paste apart from embroidery and raising household poultry and honeybees. He said that the women were also trained and helped to grow vegetables on commercial scale to supplement their income.
Describing the story of success, he said that the embroidery articles produced by the women were of superb quality and were put to exhibition in Islamabad on national level and the BLSO received demand of the articles from different countries including India and UAE. He said that the women also made carpets from pure wool, which were also in great demand.
The BLSO chairman said to discourage the middlemen, the organisation established a display centre at Booni to pool the produce of the women for onward marketing.
He said that according to a recently held survey, the women associated with BLSO earned more than Rs20,000 a month which helped them lead a respectable life while the number of suicide cases in the area had also declined.
Mr Shah said that the BLSO had also set up a maternity home at Charun Oveer which was a remote area and it had greatly helped to reduce the number of maternal and neonatal deaths.--Dawn