development activities undertaken by the center. Typically the centers are housed in a building that is either donated by the community or an existing government defunct building in the area to increase the level of community ownership in the enterprise.
These centers not only provide basic literacy skills but have also provided a platform for the formation of a women’s social development organization, Goth Nari Sangat (literally translated as village women organization) at each center. One of the strengths of the program is its flexibility and responsiveness to the requirements of the community. These requirements are assessed by the community social organizers after extensive engagements – in the form of Monthly Performance Reviews (MPRs) and center support visits – with the targeted community. The Annual Plan of the program therefore is developed through this democratized engagement through which the financial, technical and human resource requirements for the coming year are also determined.
Program Enrichment:
As a step towards integrated approaches to development, SEF introduced health care and awareness regarding health issues across the centers. The aim is to help these women enhance their knowledge and understanding regarding health particularly maternal health and early childhood care, benefiting not only their children but also their households and eventually the whole community. Besides awareness sessions on health and nutrition, orientation on early childhood development, cleanliness and hygiene are also conducted with the women learners as well as with other community members. More recently SEF in collaboration with a private donor piloted an integrated rural development model in one of its centers. The resource center serves several key areas of the Millennium Development Goals including primary health services, early childhood education, women economic empowerment and women support services such as childcare and counseling.
Given the scarcity of public resources and the multiple demands from various development areas, historically policy making has always given importance to those areas where social change is measurable and quantifiable. To that end, WLEP has focused on indicator rich areas of empowerment i.e. literacy, health, Early Childhood Development (ECD), and the agency of the Goth Nari Sangath (GNS) as the focal point for advocating social changes. The emphasis on indicator based intervention is directly linked to facilitating the process of replication of the intervention in other communities and more significantly as a promoting point in public policy forums.
Networking with relevant line departments and NGOs working in the area of women, education, health and environment has been an integral part of the strategy of WLEP. Linkages with the Behbud Association, IUCN – The World Conservation Union, Shirkat Gah, Aga Khan University, Infaq Foundation, Thardeep, Jinnah Post Medical College (JPMC) and Women Political School have been established to enrich programmatic content. Integration of environmental education in collaboration with IUCN is one instance of contextualizing the literacy program to suit the learning needs of local women. For registration and strengthening of women body consortiums, a linkage was established with Social Welfare Department. Moreover SEF, through WLEP, has enjoyed strategic representation in UNESCO’s Commission for Adult Literacy and has consistently contributed towards curriculum development and capacity building vis-à-vis adult education.
