Sukhi banks on community participation for achieving targets of poverty alleviation, social transformation and women’s empowerment.

Since 2001, it has established over 600 village organisation, mother groups, volunteer groups and school management committees across Azad Jammu and Kashmir with their members totaling around 11,300. The community network is Sukhi’s fundamental asset, which help it identify problems, execute projects and acquire their ownership to sustain.

Village Organisations: Multipurpose and broad-based village organisations are Sukhi’s grassroots level social units tasked with problem identification, troubleshooting and supervisory role before, during and after project execution. Their involvement in project implementation makes the work effective and transparent, cut expenses and not the least, give beneficiaries the feeling of ownership.

School Management Committees: Members of School Management Committees are selected from village organisations. The committees are responsible for monitoring education standards, distribution of free textbooks and bags among poor schoolchildren, and organise extracurricular activities like Sports Week, Tree Plantation Week and Parents’ Day at Sukhi’s community-based schools.

Mother Groups: Sukhi has formed mother groups in target communities. The mother groups, which are undergo regular trainings by Sukhi’s resources team, are responsible for educating women on mother and child health, hygiene etc. They also identify women-headed families in need of help so that Sukhi’s interest-free micro finance facility could be offered to them.

Volunteer Groups: Initially, Sukhi formed groups of volunteers for the relief of the victims of October 8, 2005, earthquake in Azad Kashmir and eastern NWFP. They collected charity and relief goods before their distribution among calamity-hit communities. These volunteer groups have again been reactivated to arrange charity and relief goods for the hundreds of thousands of families displaced by unrest in Swat, Mingora, Buner, Waziristan and Bajaur. Sukhi conceptualises village organisations as more than a project implementation body. They have the potential to address a wide range of social, economic, and environmental issues.

Sukhi Development Foundation

385, Sector F-3/3, Hall Road,

Mirpur, Azad Kashmir-Pakistan

P.O. Box 49, Mirpur 10250

Tel: +92 (05827) 481580,474468

Fax: +92 (05827) 438808
E-mail: info@sukhi.org
                    

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