Catholic charity launches “An acre for women” campaign in the more isolated villages of Gharo and Gadap Town to improve local living conditions, promote modern farming practices, and provide new tools to grow vegetables.
Karachi (AsiaNews) – Caritas Pakistan Karachi has launched “An Acre for Women” campaign for the more isolated villages in the Gharo and Gadap Town areas, Sindh province.
The initiative is as part of a project to protect smallholdings and open a community resource centre for women smallholders.
In the villages, women grow vegetables in their own gardens to support themselves and counter hunger and malnutrition.
Caritas is helping them by distributing gardening kits – including seeds, organic manure and tools – and educating farmers on how to adapt to climate change.
“We work under the owner and get very little to meet our needs, but now, thanks to the help of Caritas, we have a better life,” said Puja Shamoo, 52, a farmer in Gharo.
Puja explains that Caritas Pakistan trained and encouraged women to grow fresh vegetables and healthy food in the gardens not only for themselves, but also to sell it and generate income to support their family and children.
On Wednesday, a community resource centre was officially opened, whose aim is to help local people meet their needs, with the assistance of trained people.
This is a major initiative since these villages are located in the interior of Sindh, very far from Karachi, and therefore with few other opportunities at their disposal.
For this reason, residents are very satisfied and are now confident that the innovation will help them achieve greater economic security.
The centre is also meant to provide local farmers with a meeting place to discuss their problems.
Inaugurating the project, Mansha Noor, executive secretary of Caritas Pakistan Karachi, said the facility’s goal is to offer services tailored to the needs of the community.
In his view, the centre will be “a place to access knowledge, engage in interactive learning and encourage networking among farmers and between farmers and other actors.”
For his part, Raza Burfat, president of the Ahsan Raza Goth Farmer Group, thanked Caritas for this initiative in favour of smallholders, which is providing guidance and services to improve their agricultural practices.