Support programme: To make it big, 350 students given tools

The programme also trains mothers and gives loans.

SUKKUR: The National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) has distributed tools among 347 students to help them start their own businesses.

With funding from the European Union and technical assistance from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the programme hopes to change the lives of underage children in Pannu Aqil who were doing dangerous jobs.

According to NRSP regional general manager Amjad Iqbal, children between the ages of five and 14 years are given non-formal education at NRSP’s centres in different neighbourhoods. After they complete their course, the children have to give an aptitude test after which they join mainstream government schools.

The main purpose of the programme is to pull out children being exploited as labour and make them useful citizens of tomorrow, said Iqbal. The programme is also running adult literacy centres for boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 17, he added.

At the adult centres, the students are given six months of non-formal education and then they are trained in various skills, Iqbal explained. The boys are trained to repair motorcycles, mobile phones and taught stitching. On the other hand, girls are given courses in stitching and embroidery, and are taught to become beauticians. After two months into the programme, the students are given free starter kits, depending on their expertise, so they can start earning and become self-sufficient.

Amjad also added that they are training the mothers of these children as well. These women are taught how to manage business, livestock, etc, and are provided soft loans through the Sindh Rural Support Programme so they can also start their own businesses.

Later, starter kits were distributed among the candidates.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2013.