Technical training for flood-hit women

PESHAWAR, March 27: Speakers at a ceremony stressed the need for empowerment of women by imparting them technical skills so that they could play an active role in development of the country. "Imparting technical skills to women is need of the hour. The women affected by natural and man-made calamities desperately need to learn vocational and technical skills to be able to earn livelihoods for their families," said Asmatullah Khan Gandapur, director general technical and manpower department, on the occasion of inauguration of a vocational training centre in Nowshera Kalan on Sunday. He said that the centre would offer courses in beauty care, tailoring and embroidery to enable flood-affected women to improve their economic conditions. The project `improving family health through capacity building of women in flood-affected districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" has been launched by Prime Foundation Pakistan in collaboration with Canada-based International Development and Relief Foundation to help flood-hit women. Mr Gandapur said that women formed half of the country`s population so bringing them into mainstream could proved beneficial in long term. "The women will transfer their skills to others after getting training at the centre," he said. Dr Usman Raza, Prime Foundation deputy director, said that they launched the project after devastating rains and floods in the country last year. The flood, he said, had directly affected more than 3.8 million people, including 70,000 pregnant women, only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. "The project activities also include refresher trainings for midwives in flood-hit areas of Nowshera and Charsadda. Another vocational training programme will be launched for women in Charsadda," he said. Dr Raza said that health-related issues were intertwined with deplorable economic conditions of households owing to which they combined vocational training programme with a basic health literacy course for women in flood-affected areas. "It will not only provide them with a long term means of income for their families but also help create healthy behaviours in them," he said. Dr Saeed Anwar said that goal of the project was to contribute to improvement of family health through strategies targeted at capacity building of women in flood- affected districts of the province. The project, he said, was aimed at improving maternal health through capacity building of midwives practicing in Charsadda and Nowshera coupled with promotion of family health through integrated health and economic interventions for flood-hit women in those districts. "The project will directly benefit 128 practicing midwives by providing them an opportunity to improve their practical skills," he said. An estimated 12,800 women of child bearing age, along with their families, will benefit from this programme in a one year while the vocational training component of the project will directly benefit 80 women.