Jimmy Lindero

The Kutchi Kohli people belong to one of the indigenous ethnic minorities of Hindu background in Pakistan. The government calls them ‘Scheduled Castes’ which really means outcasts or untouchables. Economically, they are very poor. Most of them are landless farmers who work for feudal landowners. They earn extremely low wages and landowners manipulate them and take advantage of their lack of education. So the Kutchi Kohli people are often caught in a debilitating cycle of debt.

In the late 1970s, the Mill Hill Missionaries responded to the invitation of the Bishop of Hyderabad, to work with minorities in Sindh. There’s a big population of Kutchi Kohlis living around Tando Allahyar. So the Mill Hill Missionaries chose and made this the center of this apostolate.

The Kohli people often live in constant fear. They fear their landlords and the majority and dominant populace. They fear for the security of their women and girls. And they fear the Hindu deities who are believed to be quick to inflict calamities and sickness on disobedient devotees. But in Jesus, they see a God who shares their joys and sorrows and freely offers them unconditional love, mercy and forgiveness.

Creating opportunities for children

A ‘Village Children’ program is conducted on an annual basis. Our pastoral team focuses on the faith formation of the laity and empowering the potential parish lay leaders. We strive to promote peace and justice, interfaith dialogue, and integral development of the Kutchi Kohli people. We do this through formal and non-formal education, medical outreach, community building, empowering women and livelihood projects.

Central to the missionary activity of the parish are the boarding houses for Kutchi Kohli girls and boys. On average, there are around 50 boys and 40 girls benefiting from the care and education they provide. One of the challenges we face is convincing parents to send their girls to study; many only prioritize educate their boys. So we have a policy that we will only accept boys if their sisters also receive an education, to ensure equal opportunities for these children. The parish has one main school in Tando Allahyar and several satellite schools in the villages which are all run by the Presentation Sisters.

We conduct a ‘Village Children’ program on an annual basis. We invite children from the villages to the parish center for three days of catechesis, prayers, games, and health and hygiene lessons. Around 300 children participate each year.

A new church for the Kutchi Kohli

Our parish pastoral team visits over 900 families scattered in more than 400 villages across an area of roughly 60 kilometers. So it involves a lot of travelling and overnight stays in the villages. And the Kutchi Kohli Christians are a minority within their Hindu community; their faith is young and fragile. They face discrimination and their own Hindu relatives or fellow villagers often pressure them to renounce their Christianity. So regular home visitation is a pastoral priority of our parish team, to support and help people.

But numbers of the Kutchi Kohli Catholics are increasing. And soon we found we needed a bigger church building for daily and Sunday Masses, and for other community prayers. We presented a concept to the faithful and the parish community agreed to support this project. They began fundraising for the new church building almost immediately.

Even Hindu friends and contacts contributed to this project, saying in Gujarati, ‘Isu Parbhu haro’, which translates to ‘For the Lord Jesus’.

Bishop Max J. Rodrigues officially opened and blessed the new church on the feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, our parish patron saint. Some 17 adults received the Sacrament of Confirmation that day. Before the final blessing, the parish priest thanked both local and international benefactors.

[In England and Wales, the Mill Hill Missionaries work with Missio through the Red Box to support faith communities and share the Gospel throughout the world]

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Courtesy: Missio (Posted on June 11, 2019)

The post The history and life of the Kutchi Kohli Christians in Sindh first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Nadir Ali Shah | Amna Ejaz

On February 17, 2022, a rural girl named Paras Mehrani opened the figurative doors to a thatched hut school in her nearby village Jai Ram Jogi. Hailing from the settlement of Mohammad Ismail Mehrani in Tando Allahyar, Sindh, Paras is the only girl in her village with a Bachelor’s degree.

The settlement of Jai Ram Jogi is surrounded by other small settlements such as Mithoo Jogi, Manzoor Pitafi Hari and Mehboob Pitafi Hari, all of which are inhabited by a minority community of the Hindu Jogi tribe. According to the Poverty Score Card survey conducted by National Rural Support Program (NRSP) in 2016, the four sites have 165 households, with a total population of 884. This population comprises of 312 children (ages 5-16), 289 of whom are out of school and only 23 are enrolled at the government school of Moosa Khan Pitafi, which is on average seven kilometers away from the settlements.

The problem of out of school children is a global one. As per the data from UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS, 2018), approximately 258 million children and adolescents are out of school worldwide. Of this number, 59 million primary school-age children, 62 million lower secondary and 138 million upper secondary school-age children are not going to school across the globe. The highest rate of out of school children in all grades is 59 million in Sub-Saharan Africa and the second-highest in Southern Asia at 13 million. The World Bank Development Indicators (2020) reports that 8.8% out of school children (primary school years) are in South Asia.

According to a report by Pakistan Education Statistics (2017), out of 51.53 million children (age 5 to 16 years), 22.84 million children do not go to school in Pakistan, which is the second-largest number in the world, leading to the second-lowest literacy rate in South Asia. As per the report, ‘The Missing Third’, released by Pak Alliance for Maths and Science, in Sindh 6.48 million, or 44% of the total children between the ages of 5 to 16 in the province, are out of school. Recently, about 4,901 non-viable schools in Sindh have been closed by the Literacy Department of the Sindh School Education citing reasons such as unavailability of suitable school buildings, low or no enrollment of students, and non-availability of teachers.

The majority of the population of the Hindu Jogi community in the aforementioned four settlements spend their days begging in the streets along with their children. Paras Mehrani, who lives about four miles (6 km) away from these settlements, noticed that many children did not go to school in these areas, and identified a lack of schools in the area as one of the reasons. This is when Paras decided to open a school to enroll out of school children and start teaching them for free. She held separate meetings with women and men of the concerned communities to raise awareness about out of school children and encouraged them to enroll their children in her school free of charge.

Paras states, “I worked hard to open this school. I have been working as a Community Resource Person for the last five years under the community-driven-development based EU-SUCCESS program and have been working with the community women of these four villages and leading awareness sessions on the importance of education and health. I realized that most the of the local children were not going to school so I made up my mind to try to get a small school building in this scattered area of 16 acres. In this regard, I visited government offices such as the office of the Department of Education in Tando Allahyar but I was not successful. So I took the self-help initiative to open this school in a thatched hut with the support of community people.”

So far, Paras has managed to enroll 228 children, of which 166 boys and 62 girls. She also reveals that parents were bringing their children from other nearby villages for admission at her school and she is hopeful that enrollment will further increase in the coming days.

Sustainable Development Goal SDG 4.1 emphasizes that boys and girls must complete free, equitable primary and secondary education by 2030. According to the report of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) ‘School Education in Pakistan’ (June 2019), Pakistan spends on education the lowest percentage of only 2 per cent of the Gross National Product compared to neighboring countries. Its population around 43 per cent is not literate, 55 per cent of women are not literate at the national level, while the situation is worse in the Sindh province, as 80 per cent of rural women are not literate. As per article 26 of the UN declaration that education is a fundamental human right and article 25-A of the Pakistani constitution explicitly emphasizes free and compulsory education for children (5-16 years) in the country. The biggest challenge facing Pakistan is to ensure that all school children must be enrolled in schools. At this point, the decision to open a school on a self-help basis by a rural girl, Paras Mehrani is commendable as it is the need of the hour due to the dire situation in the education sector of Sindh province.

According to Jai Ram Jogi, “The opening of this school in the village is a good sign as our children can get an education to change their lives and be saved from begging on the streets with their parents. I am grateful for Paras Mehrani’s efforts in this charitable act.” In addition, an elder in the village, Mithoo Jogi said, “I never thought in my life that a school could be opened for our children because we are a poor community that no one cares about. But, today I feel like I was wrong as the school opened here. Now, our children can read and write to open their minds.”

Paras Mehrani works as a volunteer teacher without charging a penny from the parents of her students.  She did this social work to satisfy her inner and spiritual needs. Locals have begun to recognize her contribution, calling her a social activist, education activist and Malala Yousafzai of Tando Allahyar. While Paras herself sees this act of hers as only a small effort to teach the children, in reality she is providing her students a ray of hope to become productive members of the society in the future.

The story of Paras – a rural girl and the only one with a Bachelor’s degree in her village – is one that teaches many lessons to parents and policy makers alike. It is said that when you educate a girl, you educate a family. In this case, the education of one girl is leading to the education of 228 children. For policy makers, Paras prove the value of volunteers and social entrepreneurs who must be identified and provided with necessary resources to aid in bringing a positive change in the country’s rural areas.

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Nadir Ali Shah is an Anthropologist working as Field Researcher at Rural Support Programs Network (RSPN). He can be reached at nadir.ali@rspn.org.pk

Amna Ejaz is Team Leader Research at Rural Support Programs Network (RSPN). She can be reached at amna.ejaz@rspn.org.pk

The post A Rural Girl’s Initiative Towards Fighting Illiteracy first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Nadir Ali Shah

Ahmed Khan Loond-Village Organization (VO) is a women-led organization formed on 13th June 2017 under the EU-SUCCESS program in Union Council (UC) Dad Khan Jarwar, taluka Chambar, district Tando Allahyar. In this VO, there are 10 Community Organizations whose heads also received ‘Community Management Skills Training’ from the National Rural Support Program (NRSP) before joining the Village Organization. Some 202 households are listed in this VO out of which 98 households are identified as poor through the Poverty Scorecard survey. VO president is Bhagul* who also works as a Community Resource Person (CRP) and conducts awareness sessions about health, cleanliness and education with members of COs every month.

According to Bhagul, she had never thought that one day she would be leading the Village Organization as president. “Before joining VO, I was so shy to speak but now I have the confidence to give a presentation about the performance of my VO to the participants of the VO meeting,” she said and added, “We, rural women, keep ourselves engaged in household chores, fodder preparation for livestock and daily wage farm labor but after joining the VO, we have realized that we can also perform community development work to make our society better”.

In this VO, 42 households have received ‘Community Investment Fund’ (CIF) that is a revolving grant under the EU-SUCCESS program and the majority of the households invest the fund to buy livestock, mainly goats for raising to sell at the time of Eid al Adha to receive more monetary benefit. As per the words of Laxmi*, “I have taken CIF two times and bought goats for rearing and caring as it is easy for us to raise them in the village. Now, I have 7 goats that are a huge asset of my household that values around Rs.60000.”

In addition to this, 47 women have received ‘Technical and Vocational Skills Training’ (TVST) in different trades such as tailoring and aplic work from which women beneficiaries are now earning money. According to Zubaida* she went through the training of tailoring two years ago and now she is taking orders for sewing the new dresses and earning PKR 10 to 15 thousand per month. “During the Eid festivals, I receive more work which boosts up my income to a good extent. Now I am able to support the household expenditures as the quality of our life has improved”.

Further in this VO, 10 households have also received ‘Micro Health Insurance (MHI) cards for any medical emergency case (hospitalization) to be covered under this program intervention. In some cases, women beneficiaries have used this facility in delivery cases at hospitals for better treatment. Bashiran* (MHI beneficiary) shared that one year ago, she went through the seizure at the hospital in Tando Allahyar without paying the amount because all the medical expenses around Rs.25,000 were covered under the MHI facility. In this way, her household could save itself from taking the loan by using MHI card.

VO Manager Halema* informed about the self-help initiatives and works done under her Village Organization (VO) that the VO members took giant steps for the formation of 235 CNIC cards of the community members in coordination with NADRA staff as they contacted them from the platform of VO. This VO also formed 55 ‘Nikah Nama’ of the married couples of the community and 300 ‘Child Registration Certificates’ (CRC) also known as B-forms of children to be used for school enrolment. Vaccination of mother and child around 320 was ensured and vaccination of 600 animals in livestock was completed. Moreover, 215 out of school children were enrolled in school and 840 trees were planted in the different areas of the village keeping in view the importance of tree plantation and environmental change.

About the future planning of VO, Bhagul (VO president) shared that VO will identify the remaining poor households in the village to include them in the SUCCESS program so that they can also avail the opportunity of getting more benefits from the program interventions such as revolving grant and vocational training for income-generating activities. Efforts will also be taken to ensure the complete enrolment of out of school children so that no child can be deprived of the basic right of getting an education in the village. Furthermore, concrete steps will be made to ensure that community members must understand the importance of community awareness sessions and seriously act upon them for bringing betterment in their life in terms of behavioral change. In addition, hand-pump water testing for potable water will be done to get rid of the water-borne diseases in the village.

In the end, VO members expressed the desire for close coordination with government line departments like health, education, NADRA and social welfare to ensure the process of progress must not stop and continue to achieve future milestones for the welfare and betterment of rural communities. A famous quotation of Henry David Thoreau is a right-fit here:  “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”

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*Names changed to protect privacy

Nadir Ali Shah is an Anthropologist and working as Field Researcher at Rural Support Programs Network (RSPN). He can be reached at nadir.ali@rspn.org.pk.

The post Women-led Village Organization Scores Much Better first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Construction of Cultural Complex and Sports Stadium awaits completion

Several maintenance and repair schemes suffer due to shortage of funds – Commissioner Abbas Baloch reviews performance of district administration

Hyderabad: Commissioner Hyderabad Division Muhammad Abbas Baloch was informed in a meeting on Wednesday that only 36 out of 77 Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Ultra Filtration Plants are functional in Tando Allahyar district.

The Commissioner had convened the meeting to review the performance of the district administration, attended by the Deputy Commissioner (DC), both Additional DCs, posted and under-training Assistant Commissioners and Mukhtiarkars of the different Talukas of district.

DC Rasheed Ahmed Zardari in his detailed presentation informed that there were 159 development schemes for the district but due to shortage of funds, the Maintenance & Repair (M&R) schemes have not been completed. He further told that the non-ADP schemes of Cultural Complex and Sports Stadium have not been completed and the concerned department has been requested for timely completion of the development work.

DC Zardari informed the Commissioner that 20 revenue cases were decided while 64 cases are in pending.

He said that 73 acres of forest land has been retrieved from the illegal occupants, 20 illegal petrol pumps were sealed and 13 persons involved in use and sale of Gutka and Mainpuri were arrested this month.

DC told that plantation of 2 lac trees has been planned in the district.

Commissioner Abbas Baloch while reviewing the performance said that the officers have to work extraordinarily to ensure the better facilities for public.

He urged for early disposal of pending matters particularly related to revenue, court cases and implementation on directions of higher authorities. He directed all the Assistant Commissioners to play their defined role to facilitate the public at large in their respective talukas and as administrators of local councils, they should initiate public welfare activities like sanitation, rehabilitation of parks, tree plantation and organizing healthy sport events in their jurisdiction.

“The public never forget the good officer, who served with one’s true spirit and interest as responsible public civil servant,” Commissioner Baloch added.

Commissioner said that due to COVID-19, the holding of open Katchehries, field visits and inspections were reduced, from which the actual feedback used to come from public to rate the performance of the officers. He added that the meetings of different districts administrations of the division have been schedule to review their performance.

Additional Commissioner-I Syed Sajjad Haider Shah, Deputy Director (P&D) Sanaullah Rind, Assistant Commissioner Revenue Hyderabad Division Ms. Surhan Aijaz Abro and other officials also attended the meeting.

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Sindh Courier

The post Only 36 of 77 RO Plants functional in Tando Allahyar District first appeared on Sindh Courier.