Documents
These documents are available for download in .rtf format – readable by most word-processors
Report November 2007: from John Perkins and Clive Southerton’s Visit to Pakistan
You can use these forms to give us financial support
Umeed Partnership (UK)
Annual Report 2009
1. Introduction
The Umeed Partnership Project has continued to expand its income and activities during 2008/09, and this is despite Pakistan’s well-documented but negative media image. It is true that Pakistan is experiencing political instability, but life for the large majority of the population continues largely unaffected by the troubles. The Umeed Project continues its activities in all parts, and has been untouched by the events reported in the media.
The mission of UPP is unchanged. That is, it provides education and vocational training at grass roots level, leading to employment opportunities, for disadvantaged girls and women (and increasingly boys and young men) of all faiths and cultures in Pakistan. As most supporters will know, UPP was created by Yousuf Gill in September 2000, and initially concentrated on providing a programme of basic education for young girls in the tribal areas of Baluchistan. This spread rapidly to Lahore slum districts, and in 2005 UPP Education Centres were opened in Yazman. Operating at grass-roots level, UPP has no bureaucratic administrative infrastructure which means that all funds raised in the UK are applied directly to the Project, running the education & training centres and the two schools.
Demand for participation by both girls & women, and boys & young men has continued to increase dramatically, and expansion is constrained only by funding limitations. UPP activities continue to be concentrated in four diverse areas of Pakistan, viz Loralai District in the tribal areas of Baluchistan; Quetta City; slum areas of Lahore; and low-caste Hindu communities in southern Punjab, centred in Yazman and in Bahawalpur District on the margins of the Cholistan Desert.
2. Umeed activities in Pakistan
I visited Pakistan during January and February 2009 to observe the activities of the Umeed Partnership, Pakistan (UPP), and to discuss a strategic plan for future development with the UPP Project Coordinator, Yousuf Gill.
I was accompanied this year by Mrs Anita Henderson from Co. Mayo in Ireland. Anita had expressed an interest in the Project and Yousuf was keen for her to visit the Project and so hopefully raise its profile in Ireland (where the whole thing was conceived in 1999).
A very full programme had been arranged to enable us to see every part of the Project. Unfortunately, due to inter-tribal conflict and security concerns, we were advised not to visit the UP activities in Baluchistan (Quetta, Loralai and Duki). In the other areas where Umeed is active there were no security problems and we were able to satisfy ourselves that the money raised in the UK is being spent wisely and in line with the original mission statement - a grass roots project giving hope and opportunity through education and training.
We visited the following Umeed Training Centres and Schools:
- slum communities (mainly Christian) in Yohannabad (Lahore) – 2 new sewing Centres, 1 woodwork Centre and 4 new embroidery Centres. Attended embroidery certificate awarding ceremony.
- Bahawalpur – 1 woodwork Centre, 4 new embroidery Centres;
- Yazman – 1 new multi-faith Umeed Middle School, 1 existing multi- faith Primary School, 3 woodwork Centres, 3 new embroidery Centres. Attended embroidery certificate awarding ceremony.
The five woodwork Centres and the two sewing Centres were established last year with the support of the Rotary Matched Funding grant following a successful application by Prestatyn Rotary Club and Lahore Cosmopolitan Rotary Club. (A similar bid is currently being made by Bangor Rotary Club to facilitate the erection of a security wall and sanitation at the Umeed Primary School in Yazman).
The most recent development has been the opening, in February 2009, of a multi-faith Umeed Middle School in Minority Community DB52 in the Cholistan Desert between Bahawalpur and Yazman. The building is owned by a local landlord in the Muslim Sector of the Community, but the aim is to relocate midway between the Muslim and Hindu sectors of the Community in a new building. There are at present 100 non-fee-paying pupils from both the Muslim and Hindu sectors, ranging in age from 6 to 16 years. A full range of educational materials has been provided, and the demand for places is very strong. This has been funded largely through UP(UK) with money raised over the past 12 months from sponsorship and other fund-raising activities in the UK (mainly north Wales – the Santa Run in Prestatyn in particular).
In January Yousuf was approached by a couple who run a private fee-paying school in a desert community near Yazman, with a view to UP taking it over and running it under Umeed principles. Sadly, this school closed on 1 March because local families were unable to afford the fees. I visited this school in February and found that the building is in very good order, and the staff still in place. We decided, however, that this is too ambitious an initiative for Umeed at present due to the uncertainty of future funding.
In addition to visiting the Umeed activities, I was given an opportunity of raising the profile of the UP in Pakistan by addressing the Cosmopolitan Rotary Club in Lahore and also research students at the College of Health Sciences at the University of the Punjab.
The Bangor University School of Education has made a valuable contribution to the Project through its Literacy Progamme. Under the guidance of Jessica Clapham, Riffat Rizvi delivered a series of seminars in Lahore for members of the Umeed Partnership from across Pakistan. A teachers’ guide was produced by Jessica – Strategies for Supporting Literacy – and this was used to underpin the seminars.
So, the Umeed Partnership is demonstrably improving the quality of life for women, children, families and communities. In addition to skills training and education, Umeed is evolving into a support network for vulnerable women who may be victims of domestic violence, illness and bereavement.
3. Financial matters
Whilst the Umeed Project is in good heart in Pakistan, it is very heavily reliant on funds raised by the UP Committee in the UK, and at present funding is intermittent, and the only assured income stream is derived from the monthly donations made by supporters through a monthly standing order. Whilst very important, this sum is nowhere near enough to sustain the Project at its current level of activity. The Committee will have to give serious consideration to encouraging further regular donations through the Gift-Aid Scheme.Fundraising is not easy, especially in the present economic downturn. Also, Pakistan has been the focus of unwelcome media attention following civil unrest in parts of the country and this has inevitably caused a certain amount of donor resistance. This, of course, offers a more compelling reason to support these vulnerable communities by offering opportunities through education and training.
In the 2008/09 financial year income from fundraising events increased significantly, as did income from individual supporters making one-off donations. The impetus for this increase in support followed the very successful profile-raising visit by Yousuf Gill, the Project Co-ordinator, to north Wales in May 2008. Thanks are due to all those who hosted Yousuf during his two-week stay in north Wales, and who arranged meetings and presentations.
It is invidious to highlight individual and corporate donors, but mention must be given to the funding opportunities opened up by the Rotary organisation’s Matching Funding Scheme. A successful bid into that Scheme, supported by Prestatyn Rotary Club, has resourced the recently-established Umeed woodworking and embroidery Centres in Lahore, Bahawalpur and Yazman. A further similar bid for a grant to improve the Primary School facilities in Yazman is to be submitted by Bangor Rotary Club in the next funding round.
4. Conclusion
The Umeed Partnership really does make a difference to people’s lives, and I get quite a buzz out of being part of it. Time and time again during my visit to the Project came across young women who had received training in the Umeed embroidery Centres over the past four years, and who are now making a living for themselves and their families, bringing home up to Rs 7000 (£60) per month – a very respectable sum in the rural desert communities. Some have become trainers themselves, and so this is an example of the Project becoming self-sustaining. Hopefully the woodwork Centres will develop in a similar way, and the young men in training this year will, in two or three years time, be trainers themselves, and also earning to support their families. Without these training facilities, the young people would face empty lives, and therefore be more likely to be attracted to fundamentalism.
5. Thanks
My thanks are due to all who have supported the Umeed Partnership Project over the past year, and in particular the Committee members. I should like to thank especially Clive Southerton, Riffat Rizvi and Ruth Goggin for their work as Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Secretary respectively. Also, the team in Prestatyn who have worked so hard at fundraising during the year and to Jessica Clapham and Riffat Rizvi for devising the Literacy Programme, producing the Teachers’ Guide and delivering the literacy seminars in Lahore. Individual donors, who must remain anonymous, have exceeded expectations in their generosity this year. Of course, we are always pleased to receive donations – the Umeed Project would fail without them – but we also need support in other forms (fund-raising skills, financial management, presentation skills, legal expertise, graphic design, and so on). So, if you have any spare time or spare money, please consider continuing to support the Project in whatever way you can.
Thanks are also due to Yousuf for the efforts he put into my visit to the Project earlier in the year. As always, Yousuf proved to be the perfect host under trying security conditions. Nothing was too much trouble for him and Shamin, and our safety and well-being were top of their agenda. Any Umeed supporter who may wish for a ‘holiday’ with a difference (and certainly not obtainable through a travel agent) will be assured of a very warm welcome. Just let me know.
(Dr) John Perkins
Chair, Umeed Partnership (UK)
30 April 2009
