LSOs empowering local communities in Chitral

CHITRAL: The flash floods of 2015 flood had washed away the water supply scheme and 1.5 km link road of the remote Kiyar village of Karimabad valley in Lower Chitral but the services were restored the very next week by the local community.

The community had a pretty sum of money in savings and it just passed a resolution authorising the office-bearers to withdraw the required amount from the bank account of the organisation to restore the facilities.

The government released special funds for the restoration of the flood-affected infrastructure after two years. This was the result of social organisations, which took roots in Chitral in 1980s after Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) launched projects in the district.

The people were brought around to the fact that no external agency can rid them of their problems if they remained inert making themselves dependent on the government. The village organisations worked on the pattern of community participation, which engaged the community to carry out the development work in the village for which a village organisation was a prerequisite.

Women organisations were also formed where the development activity belonged exclusively to the womenfolk and it worked as a catalyst to emancipate women politically and economically.

The poor people are now able to generate surplus food, skilled labour and income, which the household invest in educating their children, getting access to basic healthcare and nutrition and improving their housing and living conditions.

All this was supplemented through a programme model based on integrated concepts and investments in micro-infrastructure, natural resource management, micro credit and savings, enterprise promotion and women development.

The turning point came in their realm of social organization in 2005 when local support organizations (LSOs) were established in each union council level.

The former chairman of Chitral Community Development Network, the umbrella organisation of 21 LSOs, Muhammad Wazir Khan said that LSOs were organizations of the people, for the people and by the people. He said that these organizations were the federation of the village and women organizations and other civil society organisations existing in a hamlet or union council. Today, there are 2360 LSOs established in 149 different districts of the country including Gilgit-Baltistan.