Compiled by SRSO Team
Mandam is a 30 years old resident of village Mashori, UC Pathan, District Larkana. She was married to her close relative at the age of 18. Her husband lost his eyesight a few years ago. Take care of her husband was a daunting task. She had to take care of her six children, three girls and three boys, while performing chores within and outside her home. Life was difficult but she stood strong in the face of adversities.
She became the member of community organization (CO) when a team of Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) visited her village to launch the EU funded SUCCESS Programme, and convinced the local women to organise. During the first meeting with the SRSO team, the locals for the first time heard about the importance of organising and working together. The SRSO team offered them a partnership which, they said, was highly beneficial for the rural women if they agreed to participate.
“The women of our Goth started thinking about the idea shared by SRSO team”, said Mandam. “It was interesting to see every woman thinking deeply about the offer made by SRSO. Most of the often did not have much say in the affairs of the village, so this offer presented a unique situation to us”, she added.
Few days after the meeting, some women started asking individuals about their decision. The result was a pleasant, because almost all women of the village wanted to participate in the social mobilisation process, and join the Community Organisation (CO). The women contacted SRSO and informed them about the unanimous decision. Schedule for another meeting was fixed, and the CO was formed within a few days. Their CO is called Sobh, Sindhi word for morning. The CO members unanimously decided to choose Ms. Mandam as the Manager of their organisation, because she was a trusted person, and an active member of her community. The spirit of the village women was lifted by the formation of the CO. They started discussing their issues, meeting each other and socializing. In the meantime, their CO was invited by SRSO to attend the Community Management Skills Training (CMST) within their village.
Ms. Mandam said that during the training she were informed about her roles and responsibilities as the CO’s manager. She also learnt skills, like conducting meetings and maintaining records. Followed by this training, she was also nominated by their CO for representation in the Village Organisation, a bigger institution comprising several COs. She didn’t stop at being a member only. Seeing the potential in her, the VO Ghazi Mashori members made her their Manager. She also attended the Leadership and Management Skills Training (LMST), provided to the VO leaders. Through LMST training she learned about the importance of health and education. She also learned about creating linkages with various stakeholders, and organizational management.
The lessons learnt during the training helped her get a lot of new information, which made her reflect on her family life, and the life the people of the village lived. She started seeing her society from a different viewpoint. She could see that the village’s environment was not healthy for children, due to lack of access to health and education. “The lessons learnt during the training made me realize that many things needed to be changed, and through i training sessions i also got ideas about making the changes possible”, she said.
Mandam started from her house. She took her 2-month-old son to the rural health center (RHC) Gerrello for vaccination. The RHC is about 12 kilometers away from her village. After vaccinating her child, she started thinking about the other children of the village. She wanted the best for all children of her village.
She talked to the In-Charge of the RHC, urging him to visit the village and vaccinate the children. He replied that the locals had not cooperated with the visiting teams. The locals, he said, had refused to vaccinate their children. She assured the in-charge that she will try to convince the people to vaccinate their children against diseases. She returned to her village and started talking to the women about the benefits of vaccination. After repeated visits, sessions, meetings and convincing, there was not much success initially.
However, she did not lose hope.
Her continued efforts and dedication worked in the end. Gradually the women started listening to her more carefully, and understood her message. A barrier had been broken. The women were ready to vaccinate their children. The RHC came on an agreed date, and vaccinated the children. Mandam accompanied the vaccination team to each household, to smooth out any reservation that may still have been shown. A paradigm shit occurred. Those who had refused to vaccinate their children in the past were now ready. Each child in the village got vaccinated. The CO has agreed that on the 25th day of every month the RHC team will visit the village to vaccinate the children, and also check their health.
“It was the happiest day of my life. With the support of the women and men of the village, we were able to remove a hindrance affecting our childre’s life. We hope to continue this, and also unite for other causes in the future”, Ms. Mandam concludes.