Mobilizing Citizens
Participation
SHEHRI - CBE
continues its commitment to bring Pakistani youth into the fold of
civic responsibility through a carefully crafted project that involves
students from the International School located in Clifton. Through the
project, these talented youth will be able to actively engage in
neighborhood management.
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The Model Neighborhood Management Plan is a well-rounded program
that allows students to figure out first hand how to create a
clean, safe, and beautiful neighborhood with the cooperation of
residents in a designated area of P.E.C.H.S. The final product is
a neighborhood plan, which can hopefully be replicated by other
neighborhoods in the same housing society in partnership with
additional schools. Residents, newly equipped with the plan will
have the knowledge and the mechanism to actively participate in
the proper management of their neighborhood.
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Our
collaboration with the International School serves three purposes.
Students fulfill their service requirement, SHEHRI engages youth in
civic
service, and the community benefits from the neighborhood plan that
is developed.Students will get
in-depth exposure to the field by visiting NGOs who are currently
involved in successful community plans, conducting a community needs
survey in their designated neighborhood analyzing the survey
results,
and making a presentation to residents. |
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Cooperatively, students and residents will identify priorities and
devise strategies to address them. Students will also become
familiar with government agencies so that agency responsibilities
in delivering municipal services are also included in the plan.
SHEHRI will be facilitating all of these interactions. The
students will also design and maintain a website for this project
so that all team members stay informed of their progress and so
that residents and general public can also access their findings.
The students will also help to
brief the neighborhood on the new local government plan recently
announced by General Pervez Musharraf, thereby contributing to
SHEHRI's voter education project as well. This will also help
cultivate civic education and responsibility in the youth.
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The first project meeting was held on Friday, November 24, 2000.
The meeting was followed by a visit of the project team to the
office of " Neighborhood Care ", a community based NGO, based in
P.E.C.H.S. Block 2. The purpose of this visit was to provide the
students with some orientation on a functioning model of citizens
mobilization for solving neighborhood concerns.
Mr. Hashmi of the Neighborhood
Care, briefed the team on the functioning of their neighborhood
management program. The main services provided by the program
include security, garbage collection, street lightening and
recreational development.
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The students also visited some of
the development projects being undertaken by Neighborhood Care and
took notes on those projects.
Following this visit, the students
hope to complete the neighborhood survey by the end of December
and finalize the neighborhood management plan by February of the
next year. If the students' dedication and enthusiasm is any
indicator, we can expect great results from their work.
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Model Neighborhood
Management
Projects: An Update
The
Neighborhood Management project involving students of the
International School, Karachi and SHEHRI team is ongoing.
The
project team, as part of their orientation program, visited the
Karachi Administrative Employees Cooperative Housing Society (
KAECHS ), where they are briefed on the working of the Karachi
Administrative Women Welfare Society ( KAWWS ) by Ms. Sarah
Siddiqui of KAWWS. |
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They were shown around the women and
children parks developed in KAECHS through the efforts of KAWWS.
The project team also saw the green belts which were developed as
part of the tree plantation drive of KAWWS. Sarah Siddiqui told
the project team members how their organization had worked to
improve the water supply, sewerage and drainage system in their
locality and took them to a water pumping station constructed by
the local officials due to pressure exerted by KAWWS members. The
project team was also told about the organizational and management
systems employed by KAWWS, to keep this citizen initiative
running.
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The project team also visited the office of the Health
Officer, District Municipal Corporation ( DMC ) East and
inquired about the solid waste management system employed by
them. They were apprised by Mr. Akhtar Masood, Sanitary
Inspector, about the difficulties faced by his staff due to
financial constraints and lack of equipment. He later took the
project team on a machinery used by the DMC East staff in
managing the solid waste of the District. The project team
also met with the staff members.
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A meeting of the project team with
the residents of the project area was arranged at the
residence of Mr. Saud Ahmad Khan, Project Resource Person.
Sabah Gailani of the project team made a presentation of the
project objectives and methodology with the help of charts and
other visual aids to the residents. The residents appreciated
the efforts of the project team and expressed their keen
willingness to actively involve themselves in the project
activities, they also agreed to the idea of forming a "
Residents Committee ", to solve the problems of their
locality on a sustained basis.
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