|
Protection & Learning Centers
for Flood Affected Children in Sindh
Project Partner: UNICEF-Sindh, Pakistan
Project Implementation Districts: Badin, Nawabshah (SBA) and Sanghar
In October
2011 PODA expanded its partnership with UNICEF Sindh to provide
immediate and urgent protection services for 20, 000 flood-affected
children by setting up 50 Protection and Learning Centers in three
districts.
With support from UNICEF we are setting up 20 Protection and Learning
Centres/Places each in Nawabshah and Badin and 10 in Sanghar
districts, at selected locations where large scale flooding and
consequent displacement has taken place.
This
project is providing
immediate and urgent protection services for 20, 000
flood-affected women and children in these three districts.
The objective is to improve the safety and humanitarian conditions of
an estimated 50, 000 women and children. An estimated 1000
beneficiaries through each centre established. The fifty centres
established in the three districts shall provide necessary protection
and shelter to the targeted beneficiaries through an integrated
mechanism of social protection. These 50 centres established shall
provide essential emergency response support and serve as integrated
emergency response and social support centres with reference to
protection mechanisms and services delivery towards these vulnerable
groups, provide them with referrals in emergency non formal education,
recreational facilities, health checkups and access to health
services, besides psycho-social support and counselling sessions for
groups of women and children.
PODA aims to provide essential emergency response support towards
vulnerable groups of women and children. The organization shall
coordinate with local authorities in the three targeted districts and
engage a team of outreach officers and social mobilizers consisting of
males and females both to identify and address the critical needs of
the above vulnerable groups that have been worst affected, as well as
particular hazards and risks confronting them. One field team shall be
deployed through each centre and facilitate in locating and
highlighting displaced groups of women who require protection from
threat of social abuse, violence, forced labour, discrimination and
who have had limited or no access to basic necessities such as health
care, hygiene, sanitation, and psycho social support needs. Many of
them still require urgent support in order to meet their regular
nutrition as well as safe drinking water supply needs.
The outreach teams shall provide pivotal support through facilitating
with necessary information and identify support mechanism on how to
report missing and separated children, and incidents of violence,
discrimination, abuse, and exploitation against women and children
both. They would in the process also seek to address priority issues
and grievances in coordination with relevant humanitarian and
government partners.
The protection and learning centres proposed here would serve to
provide displaced and most vulnerable groups of women and children a
support mechanism and system whereby they could have easy access to
basic protection, education, health care and counselling needs in
order to cope with emergency situation. During this time they shall
also be sensitized on significance on basic preventive mechanism
against water borne diseases, towards importance of consuming safe
drinking water and of ensuring a safe protection mechanism whereby
they can seek guidance and support for prevention and protection
against all forms of violence, abuse, discrimination as a consequence
of emergency situation and hence limited support at family
institutional level.
Qualified
resource persons would be involved for providing awareness raising
and facilitating non formal education, recreational, counselling
sessions for women and children, besides facilitating them with
knowledge building on health and hygiene issues and providing them
basic emergency health services as appropriate. The staff shall
include women who have sufficient exposure in dealing with trauma and
GBV cases, and those with understanding on how to provide protection
to women and children during emergency situations.
Over the period of three months and later during the recovery phase,
the project activities will be implemented and monitored closely in
partnership between UNICEF and PODA. To ensure good use of available
resources and best possible results, PODA will ensure close
coordination with local authorities and other humanitarian partners as
per the requirement during the emergency response as well as recovery
period and beyond.
Date: 17th Nov 2012
Highlights
·
Total
15,000 children have been inducted at 40 Places in districts Nawabshan
and Badin
·
6020 women
have been targeted during outreach and capacity building sessions at
40 Places in districts Nawabshah and Badin
·
Out of
3908 participants registered at 40 locations, there are 1692 boys,
1148 girls and 1076 women beneficiaries.
1.
Situation
Majority of
the health and
education facilities and their infrastructures have been damaged in
the two districts and hence services have been disrupted.
·
Though the
water level is decreasing day by day, children are at high risk of
deadly water born diseases like Diarrhea, Dysentery and AWD
Due to lack of
clean water and sanitation services, cooked food supplies provided to
displaced population is also found to be extremely unhygienic
2.
Humanitarian needs
·
Nutrition
needs f children and adolescents need to be addressed including that
of girl child
·
There is a
need of extensive reproductive health services and primary health care
especially in the areas near to camp sites
·
Awareness
on Health and Hygiene, as it is a major issue in the displaced
population
· Need
to bring out the troubled young children from mental anxiety and
involve them in recreational activities
·
Delivery
of humanitarian assistance to isolated communities living far-flung
areas must be priority
3.
Inter-Agency
collaboration, coordination, cluster leadership and key partnerships
· PODA
has been in coordination with the district authorities through the DCO
offices even before the initiation of the project. Aping of services
provided through development and humanitarian sector parters is being
prepared by the district coordinators deployed by the organization.
· PODA
is an active member of Protection and GBV working groups and had
maintained close liaison with other humanitarian partners regarding
coordination of delivery of services at community level.
· It
is also in close liaison with NDMA on resource mobilization issues and
strategic partnerships for interventions in Sindh. and accountability
challenges that curbed relief and rehabilitation efforts somehow.
· PODA
aims to collaborate with other parners and pursue a community based
partici[atory approach for emergency response and during early
recovery period in Sindh
4.
Response (Progress of the project activities)
Child Protection:
·
15,000
children receiving services from 40 Places in district Badin and
Nawabshah
·
6020 women
receiving services from 40 Places in district Badin and Nawabshah
· 30
teachers and 35 social mobilizers from Badin attended orientation
training in field office Hyderabad
· 29
teachers and 24 social mobilizers from Nawabshah attended orientation
training in field office Hyderabad
·
Counselling sessions have started in friendly atmosphere in all the
Places
· Recreational
activities are being implemented with boys and girls to bring them out
of fear and depression
· Both
indoor and outdoor recreational activities are being provided to young
girls, hence promoting gender response interventions at community
level as part of humanitarian response.
5.
Next steps (next activities)
·
Sindh
Cultural Day shall be celebrated in all the 40 locations at Places
established and at TLCs on 20th Nov 2012. PODA plans to
hold funfairs on this occasion with music, dancing and storytelling,
besides food stalls. Recreational activities shall also be implemented
at this occasion- such as games competition, sports, charts making
etc.
|
CHAKWAL,
19 Nov 2011: ‘Children are human beings and have basic human rights’
was one of the slogans chanted by rural children demanding their
rights during a rally held on Saturday in connection with the
International Day for Prevention of Child Abuse.
While
addressing the participants, Deputy District Officer (Social Welfare)
district Chakwal, Mr. Kausar Bilal said that the child abuse was a
grave problem for every society and it must be resolved by taking
urgent steps. He said that his department was trying its best to
eradicate child abuse. Mr. Ateequr Rasool shared that PODA is working
in Chakwal, Multan and Hyderabad for the rights of children project in
collaboration with partners like UNICEF, PLAN and the Global Fund for
Children (GCF) to promote and protect children especially in disaster
hit areas. He said that PODA and Plan have established a special Drop
In Center for garbage picker children that currently has 66 children
enrolled in this program. “These children are the victims of child
labour and other abuses. We would provide them free education and
other facilities at the centre”, he added. Mr. Toqeer Ahmed, a school
teacher, said that the issue of child abuse should be addressed on
priority basis and children engaged in hazardous labor should be
protected.