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The Karakoram Area Development Organization is a local community
based not-for profit NGO registered with the Registrar Joint Stock
Companies Gilgit in 1998, based in Aliabad, Hunza. This organization
is the outcome of the perennial institutional needs to address the
array of the socio economic problems especially to the concerns of
women and disadvantaged groups and members of the society. Some
enlightened and development oriented people laid the foundation of
this organization in 1995 as Karakoram Handicraft Promotion Society
(KHPS) to protect and promote handicrafts at one hand and to empower
women and people with special need at another. Today this
organization is one of the active, well established, renowned and
responsible civil society organizations in Northern Areas of
Pakistan. There are around 49 annual general members, 11 Board
Directors and one Chairman steering the organization where as there
are 35 employs, headed by Chief Executive Officer, running the
affairs of management.
Projects
and main Achievements
Some of the past and present projects and major achievements are as
follow.
Completed Projects
1. Karakoram Handicrafts Development Programme (KHDP)
www.threadnethunza.com.pk
The project was started in 1996 with the financial support of Swiss
Agency for International Cooperation and Development (SDC) and the
technical support of Aga Khan Cultural Services, Pakistan (AKCS-P).
When the project was started, there were three local handicraft
products and total sale of these crafts in the Karimabad Tourist
market was Rs. 25,000. The project started with five products and
worked with 6 women at Secondary Production Unit (SPU) level and 200
women at the Primary Production Unit (PPU) level. The project
evolved a model of community-based handicraft productions. At 55
PPUs women produced embroidery pieces and at 4 SPUs embroidery
pieces were assembled into finished products. The project has
created income-earning opportunities for over 3,000 home based women
artisans. A
production and marketing support systems (Thread Net Hunza) has been
developed providing fair trade through 62 private retailers. The
project trained 45 women as supervisors, book keepers, quality
controllers, marketing and design specialists
After completion of the funding period from SDC a women
entrepreneurial groups was formed to run the business independently.
SDC will fund the group for another 3 years. The project was running
a carpet center in Gulmit and a fabric center in Ganish. Both are
now successfully working as independent women entrepreneurs.
Different handicraft products are available at different outlets and
you can order online at
www.threadnethunza.com.pk
2. Hunza Arts and Cultural Forum (HACF)
Traditional music, arts and festivals
were on the decline due to lack of patronage and insensitiveness
towards cultural heritage. In order to transform dying traditions
into economic opportunities HACF was established to revive
traditional music, musical instruments, folk dance and festivals.
The project was initially supported by the Aga Khan Cultural
Services, Pakistan
and later it received funding from the German Embassy in Pakistan
for 6 months. The project established a workshop to manufacture
musical instruments and training instrumentalists. The project was
started in Mominabad, a village of musicians who are economically
and socially deprived community in Hunza and remained in the lowest
class during Hunza state time. The music was their hereditary
profession.
The project professionalized the music
and trained people outside the musicians’ family. As a result of the
efforts of the project there is a renewed and increasing interest in
learning of traditional music. The project has trained 68 local
people in traditional music by engaging local master musicians of
the community, 11 people in sword dance and 8 people have been
trained in musical instruments making skill. UNESCO had funded
training of 27 people in traditional music and 11 people in sword
dance.
3. Human and Institutional Development (HID)
The project was funded by SDC. KADO
acted as a resource base for local development organizations in
Hunza. It has fostered a network of 22 grassroots groups in Hunza
working in various fields (social development, economic development,
environment and culture) covering all three regions of Hunza. The
project built the capacity of these CBOs/LDOs’ in different field
including governance, management and accounting and established an
LDO Resource Centre.
4. Rain and Snow Disaster Relief Project
The unexpected rainfall/snowfall during the month of
January/February and April 2005 caused great damages in most part of
the country and the Northern Areas were affected the most. SDC
funded a disaster relief project to mitigate the sufferings of the
affected people. KADO carried out the implementation of the project
in Hunza. Through this programme 28 projects including construction
of 11 houses/rooms, repairing of 9 houses/rooms, repairing and
reconstruction of 3 cattle sheds, 3 community water channels, one
micro-hydel and one school project were successfully completed. The
local community, volunteers, scouts and local leaders provided their
full co-operation in successful completion of these projects.
Ongoing Projects
1. Hunza Environmental Committee (HEC)
Over the last decade Hunza valley has seen rapid commercialization
and increase in tourist inflow. As a result, there has been
increased garbage production and environmental pollution. Due to
lack of any governmental body to address this deteriorating
situation KADO established the first community-based solid waste
management system Hunza Environmental committee (HEC). Aga Khan
Cultural Services, pakistan
(AKCS-P) linked the organization with European Union and NORAD to
provide small grants. The project is being managed by a small
project staff and a civic group. HEC is attempting to sustain itself
by charging service fee from the user groups. Presently, the project
provides service to households, hospitals, hotels, shops and other
commercial groups from Murtazabad to Altit. Annual awareness
campaigns are held on world environment day-5th June, in
which all community-based English Medium Schools, AKES Schools,
Government Schools and notable citizens participate.
KADO is now working with Northern Areas Administration to declare
central Hunza as municipality in order to address the growing needs
of the town areas.
2.
Rehabilitation Centers
There was no any organization at the
community and government level to work for the socio-economic
development of the People with Disabilities; the highly
disadvantaged group of the society.
a. Sharma Rehabilitation
Center
KADO established its first
rehabilitation centre for the disabled men in 1996, with funding
support from SDC, to provide health and hygiene education,
vocational skills and income earning opportunities. Initially the
project started providing rehabilitation services to 30 disabled
people and later 62 disabled persons benefited from this facility.
They have been trained in goat hair rug (a traditional local
handicraft) making and rug is being marketed locally as well as to
tourist market. Since the productivity of the disabled people is
very low and cost of production of the rug is very high and
therefore the project cannot be run profitably. At the
rehabilitation centre KADO offers productive work, as a means of
therapy and developing their self-esteem, to the disabled members of
the community. The centre is being run in a rented building. The
project has also attempted to diversify the skills of the special
people by providing them training in traditional music and forming
their music band. Now the band is able to earn additional income by
providing its services in various cultural shows.
b. Women Rehabilitation
Center (WRC)
KADO has established another
rehabilitation centre for disabled women in a rented building in
December 2001, with one time grant/support for six months, from the
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Islamabad.
Later the Embassy of Finland provided financial support to the
centre for six months and again extended its financial support for
another one year (from July 2004 to June 2005) The centre provides
health and hygiene education, basic health care and training in
vocational and income generating skills such as embroidery, woolen
thread making, carpet weaving. Currently the centre provides
rehabilitation services to 25 women.
The Ministry of Women’s Development,
Social Welfare and Special Education has funded the construction of
a Rehabilitation Centre for people with special needs and for it
equipment worth Rs. 28 million. The community of Hyderabad Hunza has
donated 5 kanals of land (worth 3 million) to KADO for construction
of the building and the construction is under progress and it will
be completed by the end of the year 2006.
3. Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D)
The purpose of this project is to experiment and demonstrate the use
of ICT in promotion of sustainable livelihoods in the remote areas
through action research. The project was started in 2001 with the
financial support of International Development Research Center (IDRC).
The project established ISP (www.kado.net.pk) in Hunza and thus linked Hunza and Nagar
valley with Global village. Presently, the project has provided
internet connections to about 150 individuals, organizations and
other businesses. In order to test the potential of ICT in promoting
quality of education in remote villages the project established two
E-schools in two different schools in Hunza valley. Two E-Village
Resource Center was established in two different villages to test
the potential use of ICT in village planning and development. The
business incubation component incubated local businesses in order to
use ICT for promoting local businesses. The Mountain Institute for
Computer Sciences which was established before this project was
later merged with ICT project. The institute is providing computer
trainings to educated youth.
4.
Women IT Centers Project
During 2006 KADO established partnership with Planning and
Development Department, Northern Areas to establish 34 Women IT
centers through out Northern Areas. In this regard KADO has trained
Master Trainers from all over the focus area who will later train
women in computer in their respective centers.
5.
Gems Cutting and Polishing center
The
Northern Areas of Pakistan are rich in different Gems, precious and
semi precious stones. So far only raw materials are sold in down
markets so the most chunk of profit goes to agents, traders, cutting
and finishing people. To bring more revenue to local Hunza economy
and also to attract investment in longer run it was mandatory to
establish an institute which develops a cadre of technical experts
in Gems sector and also paves the way for further product value
addition. In this regard KADO set up a Gems Cutting and Polishing
Center in Karimabad, Hunza with the financial support of Mr.
Nasruddin Ruppani and technical support of Aga Khan Rural Support (AKRSP).
Initially, the center is imparting trainings to about 10 females and
3 males and will expand it later based on the outcome.
6.
Karakoram Development Resource Center (KDRC)
The
SDC funded project aims to develop KADO as a local Business
Development Service in Northern Areas. The Center will offer
need-based trainings to Government, civil society and private
institutions through out Northern Areas. Beside this the project
will test the applicability of two innovative projects in Hunza
valley. This includes E-Governance and Business incubation. |
