Kalito village in Malakand benefiting from COLD project road

PESHAWAR: The people of Kalito village in Malakand district said they are benefitting from a road paved under the Community Driven Local Development (CDLD) Programme.

A press release said the village of 80 households had to endure hardships in daily life due to the poor condition of the unpaved track that was the only available route to other villages, agricultural fields, local markets and basic services centres like primary schools and health units.

Gulshan Zari, President of the community based organization, Khawateen Falahi Tanzeem, recalled that when the applications round was announced in 2016 under the CDLD Programme, the women of Kalito capitalised on the opportunity and got themselves organised and began thinking of their priority needs.

According to the press release, the organization submitted the first application for a link road project to the district administration for technical evaluation. The project worth Rs 666,595 was approved in part due to the activism of both women and men of Kalito. It was completed in May last year.

Now all the households of Kalito have better access to healthcare facilities and even ambulances can reach the village. Transport is easily available to the parents and children and has increased the ratio of school enrolments, particularly girls, from 30 to 70 percent.

The road has contributed to the economic wellbeing of the Kalito villagers as they can move locally produced goods like wooden products, stitched clothes and herbs conveniently and quickly to the markets.

The people of Kalito are enterprising. Besides agricultural crops, many are also associated with wood cutting and cloth stitching trades.