Khimchand Sanjo
Ghulam Qadir Lund is a small settlement located near the Green Belt, adjacent to the Indus Highway, in the Buthi Revenue Village of Union Council Yar Muhammd, District Dadu. The settlement has 31 households, most of them from the Lund community.
The people of Ghulam Qadir Lund village are conservative. Limits and controls have been set for the women, who are not allowed to interact with other people, from within and outside the village. The women of the revenue village played little or no role in the family or community’s decision-making processes. In such situations, the field teams find it very difficult to get permission for talking to the women, who are the primary beneficiaries of the European Union funded Sindh Union Council and Community Economic Strengthening Support (SUCCESS) Programme.
Recently, Field Teams of Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP) visited Ghulam Qadir Lund settlement to meet the community leaders and get consent for conducting an introduction meeting of the SUCCESS Programme. The men of the community refused to cooperate. They did not allow the women to participate in the introduction meeting.
This was a set back, but not a unique one, because similar reactions are initially faced in many different areas. The TRDP Field Teams did not lose hope. Instead, they upped their mobilisation efforts in the nearby villages, where the people were relatively more receptive.
A few days passed after the set back. This was to change very soon.
One day, when the TRDP field team was busy conducting a Community Skill Management Training (CMST) for local Community Organization (CO) leaders in UC Yar Muhammad Kalhoro, a 22 year old woman named Khushbu, from Ghulam Qadir Lund settlement happened to visit her relatives. She heard about the CMST session and got interested. She went to the venue and expressed her desire to join the session. The TRDP team welcomed her warmly.
During the Ms Khushbu, whose name means “fragrance”, had an opportunity to hear the CMST participants and learnt about their reasons for fostering COs. Their perspectives and reasons inspired Khushbu. She asked the TRDP team to also visit her settlement. She was told about the resistance and rejection the team had faced from the men. Khushbu urged them to visit again, pledging to make efforts to make the meeting happen. TRDP was more than happy to revisit the settlement.
This time, the response was overwhelmingly different. The men were ready and willing to allow the women to participate in the programme. Khushbu had remained successful in convincing them. Her coincidental exposure to the CMST had a magical effect on her, and the village men. The process of change had set in, due to the timely and effective intervention of Ms. Khushbu, who is a part-time student also. Eager and determined to change the lives of the women in her community, she was able to start a process that promises change and empowerment.
Her determination can be gauged from fact that when her wedding date and CMST dates clashed, she put off her wedding for a couple of days, with the support of her family.
Since then, Ms. Khubhu has supported TRDP in undertaking social mobilisation in all the six settlements of revenue village Buthi. A Village Organisation has been formed, including leaders of all the Community Organisations formed in these settlements.
Khushbu is now working as a Community Resource Person (CRP) for the Village Organisation. In her role as CRP, Khushbu supports the COs with record keeping, managing savings, and conducting awareness sessions using the Community Awareness Tool kit (CAT).
The women of Buthi are very happy with what Khushbu was able to achieve for them. They are now able to work for their own development, because they feel important and powerful, compared to the past. The women now look forward to working with TRDP to improve their lives.
As proven by Ms. Khushbu’s story, a single determined change agent can spread the ‘fragrance of happiness’ in the lives of hundreds of women. Identifying, training and mentoring such change agents is crucial for the success of the SUCCESS Progrmame.
The contributor is Documentation Officer at TRDP-SUCCESS.