The improvement of community centers has been near to completion in all field areas. In this connection, kitchen gardening and vocational trainings were started in Bagh, Mansehra and Muzaffarabad. Most of the women are of the view that these trainings will enable them to earn and save money for their living.
All health centers are operational in all four field areas. During the reporting month, over 6348 patients were treated in all health centers in all four field areas. In Battagram the doctors regularly visited all the centers and checked the record of patients and the medicines. 10 TBA have been provided a 15 days training on various advance techniques and minimum hygiene standards in Malkaal Gali and delivery kits were given to all the participants at the end of training. The common diseases reported are respiratory track infection, Urinary track infection, anemia and gastroenteritis. In Mansehra, 10 disable people have been provided helping equipments such as wheel chairs with the coordination of Disaster Management Center Abbottabad. The HC-Shahkot issue has been discussed with the community organizations and the CO has given a written statement that in future they will be responsible for all the issues pertaining to the HC.
Most of the water sources have either dried-up and/or diverted due the massive earthquake which have created severe water shortage in the affected areas. ActionAid and the local communities in the affected area worked together to restore some of the water supply schemes. In this regard work has been completed on two water supply schemes in Bagh in which the communities have dig pitches for pipes while ActionAid has provided pipes and water tank.
In Battagram, WSS Pokal has been completed which will provide water to 8 villages in the close vicinity of Pokal while in Goryar installation of pipes is in progress whereas the water tank will be constructed after the completion of pipeline network. Moreover 4 hand pumps were installed in Jaisol while 3 borings failed as heavy stone came in the way, 5 hand pumps are in progress in Rabat. In Mansehra Dabi Mar and Shahdoor WSS have been completed. Similarly 25 hand pumps were installed while the work is in progress on the remaining two hand pumps. In Muzafarabad the 1500 gallons water tank has been constructed which will provide water to the villages of Hoterari, Doladri and Gharathe. In addition to that 17 latrines in Battagram and 43 in Mansehra have been provided to the communities in order to overcome the massive problem of household sanitation.
In Battagram, materials such as CGI sheets and nails etc were provided for community school in village Rajmera as the wooden shelter has been completed by community. While work has been started on wooden structure of GGPS Malkal Gali and the material will be supplied after completion of wooden structure and proposal for eight fair price shops in eight schools has been approved. These fair price shops will facilitate the school children to get stationary at reasonable price. In Muzafarabad assessment of seven schools has been done to determine the level of facilities in the schools and the problems faced by the poor children as both of these issues were highly contributing in the increased dropout of children from the schools. Similarly quiz competitions were held in the primary schools of Garathi, Nulla Shahlabagh and Kakliout in which 119 students participated. Prizes and trophies were distributed among the winners of the competition.
Three "electrician trainings" have been completed in which 30 participants participated in Bagh. The remaining two vocational centers in Choor and Panyali have been operational in which females have started vocational classes on regular basis. The students are paying monthly fees to operate these centers on self-help basis. Similarly vocational centers management committees have been formed to smoothly run these centers. In Bagh, five saw and five crush machines have been handed over to the concerned community organizations. These machines will highly contribute in creating livelihood opportunities for the people and will also provided construction material to the communities at reasonable price. In Battagram, proposal for three vocational centers have been approved while construction of irrigation channel has been delayed as the team was busy in DA appraisal and case history collection.
In Mansehra, flour machines enhancement was completed and installation of saw machines in Seri is being planned which would facilitate the vulnerable families. Five sewing machines have been provided to vocational center Mervania, furthermore community selected members are getting training to improve their skills.Drivers training was also completed in which 12 vulnerable community members participated. Fruit plants have been distributed, 1500 plants have been planted by the community members which will be a valuable source of livelihood for the community members and will also protect the land from erosion. Furthermore awareness rising regarding the organic seed cultivation was conducted in two villages Bela Langerpura and Lundy Langerpura in which 49 participants participated. After the awareness regarding the organic farming a vegetable demonstration plot was prepared.
One-day Admin Orientation meeting was held in Islamabad in which all the Admin officers from all four field offices of ERP participated. Members of Bagh and Mansehra participated in General Coordination Meeting which was held in Abbottabad and hosted by Mansehra team. In Bagh, three planning and reflection sessions were organized in which all the staff participated. Also all the staff members participated in monthly work planning and attended schedule meetings of COs in different villages and UCs. Furthermore one community organization has been formed in village Nikka Nara. In Mansehra, FC participated in two days meeting at Islamabad for review and planning and also participated in regular DRR INGOs Coordination meetings. In Muzafarabad, Community Management Skills Training (CMST) was organized in which 18 community members participated. The staff is regularly interacting with the communities in order to strengthen the community organizations. The restructuring of community organizations are in process in Muzafarabad and Bagh according to the strategy developed in the "Social Mobilization Workshop".
In Bagh, Earthquake Victims Rights Movements (EVRM) has arranged a protest against ERRA policies for delay in compensation payment, rejection of plinth/foundation houses, bribery taken by ERRA teams and lack of job opportunities for local people in NGOs (as some organizations have large numbers of non-local staff members). The policy focal person also met the identified families for Public Interest Litigation (PIL). In village Khilla meeting with the community members were conducted for identification of activists at their village level. Moreover the issues raised included ERRA's compensation policy, shifting of capital and other government policies of health, education and livelihood etc and the planning of policy initiatives for DEC extended period (April to December 2007) with the consultation of all community organizations.
Emerging Issue
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Lot of employees in different organizations (NGOs) are non local, so local youngsters are raising concerns as to why NGOs are recruiting staff from out side if enough human resource is available locally. So they are planning to launch a movement for recruitment of local people (except technical and highly professional positions) in NGOs.
