Established in 2003, the Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) is the major Rural Support Programme in
Northern Sindh.
It is a not-for-profit organization registered under Section 42 of the Companies Ordinance 1984. SRSO is present in 9 districts, namely Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki, Naushero Feroz, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Larkana, Kashmore-Kandhkot, and Qambar-Shadadkot .
The mandate of SRSO is to alleviate poverty by harnessing the people’s potential and to undertake development activities in Sindh.
Sindh Rural Support Organization ( SRSO ) was incorporated on May 29, 2003 as a not-for-profit Organisation and registered under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance, 1984. SRSO is funded by government of
Sindh to work in the designated districts of Sindh. This
policy has been endorsed by government to achieve the goals
of poverty reduction through community empowerment, skills
enhancement, capacity building and development of community
supported infrastructure projects, and the provision of
support for income generation, enterprise development and
micro credit. For this purpose SRSO organizes the local
communities and develop their managerial and technical
capacity. People and the government are supported in forging
partnership and inculcating the sense of ownership among the
people. SRSO is presently entrusted with the responsibility
of fostering a countrywide network of community
organizations at the grassroots level in 9 districts of
Sindh and works in the following sub-sectors while applying
the participatory development approach of sustainable
development.
SRSO’s mandate is to alleviate poverty by harnessing
people’s potential lying within the communities to help
themselves and undertake development activities.
The
social mobilization movement began in Pakistan in December
1982 originating in the Northern Areas. The pioneer of this
movement was the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP).
It gradually spread to the rest of the country under the
guise of provincial Rural Support Programmes (RSPs)
established by the Government of Pakistan and collaborative
donor funding. For the purpose, Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) was established to work under the umbrella of Rural Support Programme Network in designated districts of Sindh.
In July 2003 by the Government of Sindh, Sindh Rural
Support Organization (SRSO) was established by the provision
of an endowment of Rs. 500 million , that was raised to Rs.
1.0 billion in subsequent years. The Sindh Rural Support
Organization has thus a history of 10 years. It started its
activities initiated by National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) in District Sukkur. NRSP had
planned to cover only three Union Councils of District
Sukkur. SRSO has since then expanded its programme to 23
Union Councils in five districts namely Sukkur, Khairpur,
Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Ghotki. Now SRSO is working in 9
district of upper Sindh, i.e. Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki,
Naushehroferoz, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Larkana,
Kashmore-Kandhkot and Qamber-Shahdadkot, and 425 Union
Councils of these districts.
The main objective of SRSO is to foster a network of
grassroots level organizations in SRSO's program area to
enable rural communities to plan, implement and manage
developmental activities and programmes for the purpose
of ensuring productive employment, alleviation of
poverty and improvement in the quality of life.
To reinforce and compliment Government of Pakistan's
policy of poverty alleviation.
To support and strengthen Govenment of Sindh's
efforts to translate poverty reduction strategies into
action.
The people need social guidance to harness their potential. Such guidance is
essentially needed for the following purposes:
To get organized for pooling of their resources , cutting down overheads,
achieving economy of scale, etc.
To identify genuine leaders /activists/cadres from amongst themselves or the
community. It is only these cadres and not outsiders that can bring out the
willingness and harness the people’s potential.
To identify and prioritize what the people are willing to undertake in terms of
opportunities and needs and not demands which have to be provided by outside
agencies (the assumption in social mobilization is that guided or blue print
approach is not effective).
To assess the feasibility of the identified portfolio opportunities and needs
in terms of peoples capacity, willingness, requirement of resources and
availability of resources from within and outside.
To arrange, secure and facilitate the flow of required resources to the
community; and to linkages between them and other development agencies .
The Vision of
SRSO is to foster a framework of grassroots institutions
in villages located in 425 Union Councils of 9 Districts in Sindh, to
harness the potential lying within the communities to help
themselves.
SRSO works to release the potential abilities,
skills and knowledge of rural men and women, to enable them
to articulate their aspirations and to effectively marshal
the resources they need to meet their identified needs. The
purpose is poverty alleviation - enabling people to break
the cycle of poverty, which begins with lack of opportunity,
extends to the well-known miseries of economic and
nutritional poverty and leads new generations to endure the
same conditions. The process is social mobilization -
bringing people together on new terms for a common purpose.
The conceptual tools are 'social guidance' (recruiting local
men and women who will take on a leadership role), advocacy,
capacity building and awareness raising. The programmatic
tools are training, support to institutions, micro-credit,
infrastructure development, natural resource management and
'productive linkages'.
