Fundamental Human Rights & Rural Development Association (FHRRDA)

FHRRDA works for the social and economic development of the community by organising different activities in the area, while sharing and disseminating information. These activities are part of an effort to facilitate, support, capacitate, and coordinate with rural community-based organisations (CBOs) operating in Pakistan. FHRRDA works with marginal and poor fishermen, farmers, laborers, and members of minority groups in rural areas of Pakistan.

Some of FHRRDA's objectives and activities include:

• Enhancing skills and improving individuals' standards of living, to the end of engaging the community in the process of social, environmental, and economic development.
• Undertaking awareness-building campaigns with a view to making the rural population aware of economic issues and urging them to undertake participatory initiatives on their own initiative to address community problems.
• Educating rural women about their civil rights, sensitising various civil society actors about respect for women's rights, protecting women against social injustice, and organising of women into advocacy campaigns. Establishing a close working relationship with administrative tiers for safeguard of women's rights.

FHRRDA works to provide information and services through one-on-one, face-to-face encounters. For instance, to promote the concept of reproductive health (RH) and family planning, FHRRDA established a health centre. This centre provides medicine free of charge while offering awareness information to rural communities. The centre staff make regular visits to various communities and provide motivational programmes such as Sukhi Ghar Mahafils, in which women groups are informed about and discuss RH/ family planning issues. (Rural women are urged to plan their families carefully). FHRRDA has also arranged free medical, eye disease, and skin disease camps in different villages. It provides medicines and spectacles (glasses) to patients during emergencies such as cyclones, earthquakes, and heavy rains in coastal areas of District Badin (located in Sindh, Pakistan).

FHRRDA often hosts workshops and events. FHRRDA's youth group includes 30 people between the ages of 13 to 18, of which half are female. These young people work on a volunteer basis and arrange youth activities in various schools. In addition, FHRRDA has arranged capacity-building workshops to train district-level master trainers to conduct facility-based trainings and conduct training needs assessment. FHRRDA arranges RH orientation sensitisation workshops at the district level; government authorities, religious leaders, local representatives (counselors, nazims), and members of public and private organisations and CBOs participate in these sessions. FHRRDA hosted a walk on the occasion of the International Day for Population with the support of the National Trust for Population Welfare (NATPOW) in July 2003. In conjunction with that event, FHRRDA arranged a seminar on population for representatives of NGOs and CBO's, labourers, and community members. FHRRDA affixed slogans - printed on cloth banners and pamphlets on the main streets and walls of the city - to celebrate this day. These banners were in Sindh and Urdu language and addressed population issues.

Rights, Economic Development, Population, Reproductive Health, Youth, Women, HIV/AIDS, Sex Education, Gender, Children,