PBM to expand scope of education for orphan children till graduation

Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) has decided to launch a pilot project to facilitate orphan children accommodated in the Sweet Homes across the country to pursue their education up to graduation level. “Earlier, the PBM Sweet Homes (Orphanages) were catering to the educational needs of these orphan children till Matric level but now the pilot project is being launched to help them acquire education till graduation level”, Managing Director PBM, Amir Fida Paracha said in an interview with APP. Presently, 51 Sweet Homes operating across the country were catering the needs of 4355 orphans in terms of their accommodation, education and well-being through adopting a modern welfare approach. Amir Fida Paracha also revealed that PBM, under his supervision, has planned to set up a technical school along with each Sweet Home so that those children who could not get education or lack the tendency to get formal education can be equipped with vocational and technical skills to become able to earn for themselves and their families. To address the issue of increasing child labour in the country, the MD PBM said that 159 Schools for Rehabilitation of Child Labours (SRCLs) across the country were working to withdraw children from their workplaces to bring them into the mainstream education through non-formal means of education. The children passing out from SRCLs are admitted to the government schools for education up to Grade-VIII through a PBM grant of Rs. 4,100, he said. About the Orphans and Widow Support Program (OWSP), the MD PBM said the program which is a Conditional Cash Transfer intervention was basically designed to provide financial assistance to widows with a focus on orphans, especially girls education. The OWSP provides Rs. 8000 per month and Rs. 16,000 per month to families having one child and more than one child respectively upon meeting compliance of 75 percent school attendance. “A total of 692 families have been paid an amount of Rs. 23.598 million since December 2020″, he said. Amir Fida Paracha conveyed that the first phase of OWSP will be launched in Karachi next week as a pilot project while it will be launched in Lahore afterward to reach out to more families”, he said. About the expansion of Women Empowerment Centers (WECs), the MD PBM said that around 163 WECs were operating across the country to provide free vocational training to widows, orphans and poor girls in modern trades like Dress Designing, Embroidery, Basic and Advance Computer Courses, Fabric Painting etc. with a stipend of Rs. 50/ per day on attendance basis through biometric system. However, he has conceived an idea to expand the scope of WECs, earlier established at the district level, to the Tehsil level. Under his supervision, the MB PBM pointed out that the PBM has also started a process of certification with the help of the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission so that the women who complete the courses and qualify for the test can get a proper certificate for employment purposes. He said that soon after assuming charge as MD PBM, he has created a special wing in the PBM to attract local and international donors. Through such efforts, PBM is establishing a WEC in the suburb of Islamabad for which the land has been provided by one of the private donors while computers by another donor. “Now PBM will deploy its own employees in the center for the sustainability of this initiative”, he said. Through the support of a Turkish NGO, he mentioned that a special course of Stone Cutting and Polishing is being added in the WEC of Gilgit Baltistan which would generate local earning source. Terming the projects of Shelter Homes (Panagahs) and Meals on Wheels as people-friendly projects, Amir Fida Paracha said that the PBM was not provided with the required budget for these projects. “Although the partner NGOs are contributing only to provide meals but PBM has to afford the cost of employee’s salaries, rent of buildings, utility bills. “This is why PBM cannot expand the existing projects or start any new initiative due to the budgetary constraints”. The PBM asked for Rs. 12.5 billion rupees budget for execution of its projects however got only six billion rupees which could only help cater the running projects expenditures. “PBM has requested for additional budget but didn’t receive any response yet so the department had to alter the menu of the Langar points to manage the expenses”, he said. About the Individual Financial Assistance (IFA) initiative, the MD PBM conveyed that the IFA supports the poor, widows, destitute women, orphans and disabled persons through providing general assistance, education, medical treatment and rehabilitation. “An amount of Rs. 9,269,125,641 has been disbursed among needy from July 2019 to December 01, 2022 under IFA”, he revealed. Amir Fida Paracha also highlighted that the PBM under his supervision is moving toward digitalization of all the record of its projects to ensure that there is no favoritism and beneficiaries are served on first come first basis.