The Foundation for Rural Development (FRD), a non-governmental organisation with the support of Peshawar Uplift Program (PUP) formally inaugurated "Skill Development for Economic Uplift" project in Peshawar. The core objective of the project is women empowerment and skill enhancement of semi-skilled women with a view to enable them to support male members of their families in bread earning and enhancing their family income for a prosperous and dignified life.
In the opening ceremony Provincial Minister for Social Welfare Dr Meher Taj Rogani was the Chief Guest. Besides, Assistant Commissioner Peshawar Asad Haroon, FRD team and representatives of Peshawar Uplift Program also participated in the event. CEO FRD welcomed the guests and assured the beneficiaries for every possible support and facilitation. He told the beneficiaries that enthusiasm shown by participants in the opening ceremony needs to be maintained throughout the training. The CEO advised the beneficiaries to exploit the opportunity for acquiring the skill training to enrol them in the competition of economic uplift and change their life style in a dignified way.
Assistant Commissioner Asad Haroon appreciated the efforts made by FRD and said that women should be encouraged to participate in such creative and economic uplift programs to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their families.
The Chief Guest Dr Meher Taj Roghani said that preparing woollen stuff is one of the best trades for the region because there is no significant production of woollen stuff in Peshawar for providing the winter kits and traders from Afghanistan and Central Asia go to Gujranwala and other regions of Punjab for supplying the woollen stuff to their countries. This opportunity will provide an easy and accessible supply chain for the traders and will promote the business of these women at a large scale. She assured her support to facilitate the skilled women in linkages development and business promotion in Pakistan and other countries as well to support the noble cause and encourage the women who are keen to support their families.
The minister stressed on assuring the quality. To achieve quality production, the women need to invest more and more of their energies in learning and refining their skills. The social welfare minister assured all possible co-operation to FRD team and stressed that such programs which can contribute to economic empowerment of women and other vulnerable groups should be replicated more and more. Peshawar Uplift Program representative Zille Huma, while addressing the opening ceremony, said that PUP always encourages the Implementing Partners for women empowerment and economic uplift programs. She told the trainees that Peshawar Uplift program will extend its all possible support for successful completion of the project and capacity building of women. She encouraged the women to learn as quickly as possible, so that you can start income generation at your earliest.