Thinking big: Helping people help themselves

ILO training programme aims to enable poverty-struck people in rural areas to start small businesses

KARACHI: With his recent training, Suneel Kumar plans to inculcate his skills in 50 more unemployed youngsters in taluka Khairpur Nathan Shah district Dadu, aiming to help them create their own business rather than relying on public sector institutions.

"I'll pass on my skills to the community," promised Kumar. "My target is to approach all those 50 people who need this training and who can set up their own businesses," he added.

Kumar is one of 26 participants who attended a 10-day training programme on 'Know About Business' (KAB), organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) at the Movenpick hotel. The trained facilitators will pass this training onto the landless peasants in flood-prone districts of Sindh.

"It was one the best trainings of my life," commented Khan Muhammad Tunio, another participant. He said that the people whom he plans to train could start their own business with this knowledge, adding that it will reduce the unemployment in far flung areas of the province.

Abid Niaz Khan, ILO's focal person in Sindh, said that the focus of the programme is on the two districts of Dadu and Mirpurkhas. "Both these areas face natural disasters like floods and drought," he said. Khan said that people, especially peasants in these two districts, lost everything during the floods and drought and with this training they would be able to generate their own means of livelihood.

He said that 7.6 million youth live in Karachi city alone, while 38 to 40 per cent of the total population of rest of the province comprised youth. "They involve themselves in negative activities because of unemployment," he speculated.

Speaking at the certificate distribution ceremony, Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui said that it was not possible for the government to provide jobs for all the unemployed youth. "Therefore, new ways of livelihood should be focused on," he said. Siddiqui said that the youth of Pakistan had the capacity to create new opportunities for themselves. "We have a lot of potential, especially in our girls," he said.

"It'll strengthen the socio-economic structure," he said, highlighting the importance of the training. "People will make their own ways - their own business. It is very essential for the development and progress of the nation."

Sadaf Abid, the master trainer, said that around 900 students have been trained by the KAB in different parts of the country. "These trainers will bring a change in society. They are silent soldiers," she said, adding that economic conditions will be better once the people are trained. The ILO officials said that the training would help the landless peasants to start small enterprises and help themselves with income generation instead of depending on public charities and government supported grants.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd, 2015.