Funded by GIZ RMSP
Summary: With over 1 million population, Quetta is the biggest city of Balochistan province and 10th biggest city in the country. Located near Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the balance of population was asymmetric in the city and no significant measures were taken for management of burdened resources. Special children are mostly vulnerable sections of the society and they are exposed to protection and acceptance issues. To facilitate and meet the urgent needs of special children, different development actors are supporting the social welfare sector in the province. In this regard intervention of the project through the support of GIZ was implemented in the compound of the Social Welfare Department of Quetta, to strengthen the existing facilities which currently has an enrollment of 181, having special children from both host and refugee populations.
The target facility is situated in UC Shadenzai of Quetta District. The support was provided by renovating the target facilities of physically & visually impaired venues of schools of special children. Project interventions were mainly focused on renovation of existing facilities, provision of raw materials furniture and fixtures and rehabilitation of existing WASH facilities for physically handicapped children and school for visually handicapped children. The facilities of special children were identified and selected in consultation with the Director General (DG) Social Welfare Department. Technical feasibility made possible through a number of visits to the sites and consultative meetings with officials of the social welfare department. The project implementation was challenged by the COVID-19 lockdown, which resulted in modification of some of the activities. The project has been completed within time and has benefited directly 181 children of these facilities through different interventions, whereas awareness and hygiene related interventions focused on 1,200 beneficiaries of the surrounding of the target area.
This institutional building project intervened in refurbishment of existing infrastructure, back to school campaigns (after COVID-19 lockdown), awareness raising, WASH interventions and IPC related interventions. The special children host and refugee are being facilitated from across the districts.
Objective
- To contribute to enhanced social cohesion and peaceful co-existence between and among afghan refugees and hosting communities through advocacy and capacity building
- To ensure smooth access of special children to quality services in social welfare compounds
Impact
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Project has not only contributed to the access of refugee children in these facilities, but also contributed to promotion of social cohesion between the two communities. MOU clauses also shade focus on the smooth enrollment and access of regular benefits of government for the refugee children. This step significantly contributed towards smooth access of children and improved social cohesion. The project also contributed to the capacity of staff by conducting training on child harassment, child protection and good teaching pedagogies.
- MOU with the social welfare contributed to the easy access of refugees disable children to quality services in safe and protected/peaceful environments from other parts of the Quetta. Back to school campaign after COVID-19 (lockdown) significantly contributed to mobilization of host and refugee to send their children to school. In this regard 40% of the school children resumed their classes right after the lock down, as a result of a back to school campaign. The back to school events also contributed to gaining the attention of parents towards their children's regularity in schools. These awareness activities also promoted aspects like awareness of government officials on social cohesion between the afghan refugees and local communities. Training sessions on child protection and harassment significantly contributed to improved knowledge, attitude and good practices of government officials towards PWD children. Advocacy and synergy building of projects with other WESS projects (like urban cohesion hub-UCH) also developed with the social welfare department, this mainly included linkage and smooth enrollment of refugee populations in target facilities.
