Free counselling: Punjab Youth Helpline faces funding challenge

The current financing agreement ends in December.

LAHORE:

Almost a year has passed since the Punjab Youth Helpline (PYH) received its first call in December 2012. Since then, it has provided free counselling on 4,500 telephone calls, progressing from 100 calls per month, to 500.

The project has been funded by Plan International, a non-government organisation, and operated under the Department of Youth Affairs, Sports, Archaeology and Tourism. However, the agreement will end in December this year.

The PYH was launched in September 2012, following recommendation in this regard in the Punjab Youth Policy. It became operational in December.

The PYH offers free counselling on psychological, health and reproductive, academic and career issues to the youth on its toll free helpline 0800-12145. The set up was housed at the department’s office in the Punjab Stadium. The PYH team comprises four psychologists, two academic and career counsellors and three support staff. The helpline is accessible seven days a week, from 9am to 5pm.



The department had signed an MoU with Plan International under which the PYH would be provided technical and financial support from June 2012 to June 2013. The project was later extended till December 31.

PYH Team Leader Ali Hassan said the project was now up and running and was receiving a great response since it opened for calls in December. He said they had advertised the project on Facebook. It had also been advertised on the government’s youth projects’ web portal (www.youth.punjab.gov.pk). Hassan said that most of their callers had found out about the helpline through the internet, but the service had not been advertised on other media. “How can we hope to provide a service that people aren’t even aware of?” he says.

Plan International Liaison Coordinator Iftikhar Mubarak said they had provided Rs10 million for the project from September 2012 to October 2013. An additional Rs700,000 was provided when the project was extended till December.



Plan International Country Director Rashid Javed said that the project had been extended twice, while Plan International could offer support in terms of capacity building and technical support, it would not be able to sustain the project financially after December.

He said the project had been extended because it was integrally linked to youth development. “The government had committed to the project through the Punjab Youth Policy,” he said, “We hope that the government’s intent translates into action needed to sustain the project.” He said that Plan International had its limitations in terms of funding and it would not be possible for it to extend financial support to the project any longer.

The department officials said that they were committed to running the project. Youth Affairs, Sports, Archaeology and Tourism Additional Secretary Javed Akhtar Mehmood said the PYH had been initiated under the Punjab Youth Policy and all efforts were being carried out to ensure its sustainability.

Mehmood said they had had to request Plan International to extend the project owing to their reservations regarding the project’s performance. “The situation has now improved,” he said, “We sometimes receive as many as 50 calls a day from all over the country.”

According to PYH data from December 2012 to October 2013, the helpline received calls from Sindh, Azad Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Most calls, however, came from Lahore, around 900; more than 100 calls have been received from Multan, Khushab, Kasur, Jhelum, Muzaffargarh and Faisalabad each.

According to the data, apart from crank calls and those in which the caller remained silent, 2 per cent of the calls were from the transgender community, 43 per cent of the calls were from girls and 46 per cent boys. More than 1,000 calls were about academic issues, 800 regarding psychological problems and over 400 calls were about career problems.

Mehmood said the department had been talking to various international agencies, including the UNICEF and the UNFPA, regarding the sustainability of the project. He said they had asked Plan International to support them financially in the first quarter of 2014, and said they were hopeful about that.

“The project is performing well,” He said, “We are now simply working though a transition.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2013.