Sughar Women Program (Engaging Customs to End Honor Killing)
Sughar aims to end the wrong side of tribal traditions in Pakistan like “Honor” Killing, Exchange Marriages and Child Marriages by providing women in tribal areas socio-economic empowerment to use the beautiful side of traditions such as embroidery as means of business and to defend themselves against customary violence. We do this by establishing Sughar Centers in each village which would provide women with a 6 month course on value adding the traditional embroidery, Provide Education Skills and Awareness about their rights & equal status in Islam.
By using Embroidery as a main part of the program Sughar not only intends to creates income generating opportunities for women but magnifying the positive customs creates emphasizes on the importance of letting go of negative customs.
About You
About You
First Name
Khalida
Last Name
Brohi
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI)
Organization Website
Organization Phone
92-21-35842762
Organization Address
PDI House, Second Floor, Plot # 34-C, Street # 10, Badar Commercial, DHA Phase- V Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Organization Country
Pakistan
Country where this project is creating social impact
Pakistan, S
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Sughar Women Program (Engaging Customs to End Honor Killing)
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Sughar aims to end the wrong side of tribal traditions in Pakistan like “Honor” Killing, Exchange Marriages and Child Marriages by providing women in tribal areas socio-economic empowerment to use the beautiful side of traditions such as embroidery as means of business and to defend themselves against customary violence. We do this by establishing Sughar Centers in each village which would provide women with a 6 month course on value adding the traditional embroidery, Provide Education Skills and Awareness about their rights & equal status in Islam.
By using Embroidery as a main part of the program Sughar not only intends to creates income generating opportunities for women but magnifying the positive customs creates emphasizes on the importance of letting go of negative customs.
What are the primary activities of your project?
The main activities of Sughar for each village we work are as under:
1. Mobilization and organization of the local communities
2. Selection and Training of local facilitators inside the village for imparting the main course
3. Implementation of Training of Trainer Workshops for the local facilitators
4. Establishment of Sughar Women center in the village
5. Initiation of the course cycle with its three structures: Education, Awareness and Embroidery Business Skills
6. Creating a Marketing Strategy
7. Establish linkages for marketing of the products
8. Initiate online marketing platforms to sell products
9. End of the 6 month training course and Providing loans to start small businesses
10. Start of the second course cycle
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
The most innovative approach that we are applying is that we are directly working with the tribal communities against their negative traditions.
Challenging strict tribal customs is a very serious and sensitive matter, and when it comes to directly intervening with the tribal communities who believe of traditions as main part of their code of honor is a great challenge. This is the reason not much of organizations give emphasis on working with local communities directly that’s why the important root cause isn’t tackled which is the tribal mindsets of the communities.
Our approach is innovative as we not only seek to advocate for these women but also engage directly with the tribal communities and women towards changing their tribal perspectives. By promoting colourful aspects of traditions like the traditional embroidery we meanwhile engage in providing socio economic empowerment to women in the process by establishing Sughar Women Centers. This is a very effective approach as we tend to respect the existing traditions and rather then standing against their customs we promote the beauties it holds and offer significant measures on how its certain aspects need changing and can be changed. This allows us a greater participation of the local communities and their genuine interest in our activities.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Sughar engages the tribal areas of Pakistan targeting the women in those communities. As women in these areas face gender inequality with almost no decision making powers. The women are given in marriages against a bride price. The role of women in decision making concerning marriages is limited with daughters having no real say in their marriage. Their fates depend upon the decisions made by their fathers or the eldest male of the family.
There is a general tendency that proper and good meal should go to the male segment and the remnant is availed by the women. This renders them malnourished and anemic. The male usually go out for earning and stay out for days and nights. Women stay back at home and are supposed to take up all the responsibilities of looking after the kids, livestock and managing the entire household.
These women belong to poor and marginalized families, where there poverty at most times become the reason to the violence they face. All these women also have prior skills to be further developed and refurbished by Sughar Women Centers which not only would help increase their income generating power but enable them a leadership role having access to their own small property in the form of income they bring.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
I am Khalida Brohi from Balochistan Province of Pakistan. My town is located in Balochistan province bordering with Afghanistan and Iran.
My community like any other tribal areas follows tribal traditions and customs, and thus in a tribal community, the lives of women and young people are severely constrained. Child marriage, wata sata (exchange marriages), prevention from getting higher education and having no access to essential services are the key issues affecting my community. Honour killings, though illegal, are a cultural reality.
But fortunately I even being from the very tribes escaped these laws and could get my studies in Karachi, I got every single opportunity to step further making my approach towards a brilliant success right when girls in my community couldn’t even dream of all those things. And that “freedom” that I got was the true inspiration for me to want the same for other unfortunate young women and girls in my family and community. So at the age of 16 I started with a dream to change lives of women and girls and becoming a great of Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI) I was able to reach out to young people, mentors, advisors, friends and family when I influenced them enough to a mission to give economic and social empowerment to women in tribal areas, because from what I have learned and witnessed, girls and women who are a bit aware of their rights and those who bring income home receive a different treatment (more respect) then those who are unaware and not empowered. Sughar makes that dream a reality now!
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
Till today we have been able to reach out to more then 500 women in Sindh and Balochistan and we measure our success with the ability of enabling women even in the most toughest communities to come out and join hands. A very good example is of Balochistan.
As Sughar initially began in Khuzdar, Balochistan, targeting ten villages to establish ten Sughar Centers where women were provided with training's and empowerment opportunities. The area being very strict regarding the tribal systems was a great challenge for Sughar but with the mobilization strategy in the program and the innovative approaches of the team to involve the local leaders and to actually convince the local communities to join became a great support and everyone was thrilled for the project activities. We saw women with heavy veils walking towards the Sughar Centers and spending hours daily in wonderful learning and growing opportunity for them.
Hence that being a success, Sughar is now brought to Sindh with the Support of International Labour Organization and we once again plan to target ten villages of Thatta District and choosing 30 women per each village plan to benefit 300 women in the first course cycle. We at Sughar do know that with time our strategy have become refined and our methods of approaching communities have also become compelling and the fact that we try to employ our staff mainly from the areas we select has been a true help since these people are amazingly dedicated to give their best at their position for their own communities!
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101-1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1,001-10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
We at Sughar plan to take this program as a step by step process for not only to develop qualitative results but also to ensure that the women we are reaching out to have sustainable businesses even after the services of Sughar. Each year we plan to further grow the program into different areas like it moved from Khuzdar district to Sindh and in Thatta, just like that we plan to reach out to various districts that are clearly under tribal restrictions which impose violence as a custom upon women.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
PDI foresees the following risks during the project life span:
Risk 1: Outside interference (political interference, religious fundamentalism) in PDI’s work when projects are implemented at village level
• Cause: Orthodox systems and traditions are prevalent in Pakistan and especially in the operational areas of the organization. PDI mobilizes the communities to empower themselves through harnessing their own potential. This situation is sometimes unwanted for local power brokers (political and religious) and it may lead to untoward conditions.
Prevention: All the stakeholders include local power brokers should be sensitized and taken into confidence about the project activities to avoid future conflicts.
Trigger:Local leaders informed and consulted about the social mobilisation processes for communities in operational areas and involved in major events
Risk 2: Community conflict may be one of the risks as the project will not include all the women and men in the trainings.
Prevention: To mitigate this risk, PDI will conduct initial meetings with the communities and form community organizations. The final selection of the trainees will be through these organizations
Tell us about your partnerships
The Key partners in this Venture of PDI are:
1. International Labour Organization (ILO) GE4DE Project:
ILO’s GE4DE Project focuses on promoting gender equality for decent employment in the clothing and textiles sector,the hospitality sector and in coastal communities.
2. UN HABITAT Youth Opportunities Fund
UNHABITAT’s Youth Opportunities Fund UN HABITAT is aimed for:
• Mobilizing young people to help strengthen youth related policy formulation;
• Supporting the development of interest-based information and communication-oriented networks;
• Piloting and demonstration of new and innovative approaches to employment, good governance, adequate shelter and secure tenure;
• Facilitating vocational training and credit mechanisms to promote entrepreneurship and employment for young women and men, in collaboration with the private sector and in cooperation with other UN bodies and stakeholders; and
• Promoting gender mainstreaming in all activities of urban youth.
3. IFAD-IPAF
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, IPAF is a facility of IFAD called the Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility (IPAF)
IPAF supports projects that:
i. include indigenous peoples in development operations
ii. improve their access to key decision-making processes
iii. empower them to find solutions to the challenges they face
iv. promote collaboration in the public and private spheres
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$10,001‐50,000
Explain your selections
Sughar mainly gets its support from Grants, while at times people donate their money directly for the project or to a specific beneficiary in need via individual donation systems.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
We at Sughar keep refining our strategies throughout time, while many innovative activities also become a part of our program. For the coming three years we aim to be able to create and implement a powerful plan for Sughar where the beneficiary profiles are filmed and used for awareness and advocacy means, while we are also planning to use technology to connect our beneficiaries to the world by various means. This would not only allow the women to understand more about the world and how different it is on the other side for women to decide for their own selves and also doing this would enable the customers to understand better what a good investment they are making.
We are also in the process of meeting up with strong government organizations from which we plan to create a network of support in trainings and resources while this would also help us in the advocacy against the wrong policies on Honor Killing in Pakistan.
We are also creating a friends of Sughar group which would have mentors, advisors, supporters from around the globe and Pakistan who would offer their help via various means.
Challenges
Which barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of skills/training
SECONDARY
Restrictive cultural norms
TERTIARY
Lack of visibility and investment
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Lack of Skills/Training:
The major activity of Sughar is to establish Sughar Women Centers in villages to provide women with training on value adding the traditional embroidery and use it as a form of business while also raising their awareness, providing them basic education and understanding of markets.
Restrictive Cultural Norms:
Another objective of Sughar is to change the wrong perspectives of tribal communities towards the status of women and that includes access of women to markets and businesses.
Lack of Visibility and Investment:
Sughar uses various innovative ways to provide visibility to the beneficiaries via their product marketing as each product when sold includes a case study of the producer with her story and how purchase of that product would change her life.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
SECONDARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
TERTIARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
Currently we are initiating our work in ten villages of Thatta District of Sindh, Pakistan with the support of ILO. The District being a new area of us is an interesting step for us as there are many cultural differences from where we initially have been working. We are now doing frequent visits to the communities trying to get them to sit, talk and discuss with us and getting them to understand what our approach is and how they can be a great part of it.
In the recent future we are planning to initiate online marketing strategies for the products due to a big demand. We would be looking for best options to reach out to the people around the world introducing to them the beautiful traditional embroidery as well as to connect them to our beneficiaries via various innovative approaches.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Government, NGOs/Nonprofits.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
We have been in collaboration with the government organization National Commission for Human Development from the very beginning to get assistance and resource help for adult literacy at the centers. NCHD have been providing us with free books for the centers while also advising on various stages regarding how better we can be in providing adult literacy.
We also have been and are in great networking and communication with the NGOS/Nonprofits in Pakistan who have been indulged in entrepreneurial or micro credit schemes and programs to get their strategic advice and assistance as well as help in reaching out to the best resource persons in our work.
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| tot-training.jpg | 70.71 KB |
| women_products.jpg | 139.57 KB |
| exhibiting-traditional-emroidery.jpg | 223.06 KB |
| traditional_embroidery.jpg | 210.21 KB |
| speaking-to-women.jpg | 96.68 KB |
 | 44 weeks agoObiezue Omeili said: Nice Idea. I hope your work ends Honor killings about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 48 weeks agoKhalida Brohi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 48 weeks agoKhalida Brohi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 49 weeks agoKhalida Brohi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 49 weeks agoKhalida Brohi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 49 weeks agoKhalida Brohi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 49 weeks agoKhalida Brohi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 50 weeks agoKhalida Brohi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 50 weeks agoKhalida Brohi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 50 weeks agoKhalida Brohi submitted this idea. |
