Over 50 CSOs join hands on new web portal

Over 50 Karachi-based civil society organisations (CSOs) announced on Saturday that they were joining an online platform to combine their efforts, skills and resources to resolve major civic and social issues of the metropolis.

The launch of HumAawaz.com was organised at a local hotel, and it was attended by more than 200 civil society activists, bloggers and representatives of different philanthropic and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Different representatives of Karachi-based NGOs shared their success stories about their projects to tackle different social and civic problems of the city.

“This is the first time such an online platform was launched in the country to bring together CSOs and their activists working in different social sectors for developing strong networking among them,” said Imran Azhar, one of the steering committee members managing the affairs of the web portal.

Azhar said that there was no membership fee for the CSOs willing to get registered with the portal, adding that all the members of the steering committee overseeing the working of the portal and related initiatives were working on a voluntary basis.

He said that initially the portal would focus on issues relating to education, sanitation and water supply as the most glaring civic problems of the metropolis, adding that more areas would also be explored to find feasible and effective solutions to other civic and social problems.

“Workshops and seminars will be organised in the next stage for capacity building of activists of CSOs to motivate them to render their services in the best of manner for the general good of society.”

A key feature of the web portal will be the prospect of arranging funds for the projects conceived by CSOs for overcoming social and civic menaces in the city. The portal will be used to launch appeals for donations by philanthropists, influential persons and organisations for such projects.

One per cent of the funds so arranged by the platform will be used for a common fund meant to run the web portal and similar initiatives for the benefit of CSOs.

The portal will also work as a bridge between the government and CSOs to launch social sector initiatives under the public-private partnership regime of the federal and Sindh governments.

 

Underutilised

As the founding members of the web portal initiative, speakers at the launch admitted that even though a large number of CSOs were already established, they were underutilised due to fragmentation.

Hum Aawaz is a network of CSOs that has been launched to unite civil society and enable it to raise a collective voice for the eradication of the city’s problems. The network will connect CSOs through the online portal where organisations can register and begin collective efforts.

The portal allows CSOs to devise collaborative projects, share knowledge resources; allows volunteers to register; helps CSOs offer and/or seek capacity development, expand their communication and marketing reach to a wide selection of CSOs and increase credibility and prestige through association to other CSOs.

Each member CSO has to register with a unique login ID that provides them access to a discussion board and job opportunities. With the mission of making civil society sufficiently organised, Hum Aawaz is rooting for the rights to the narrative of Karachi, concluded the members of the steering committee.