SIALKOT - The social, educational, business circles and stakeholders of Child and Adolescent Protection Project (CAPP) have urged the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) to come forward and do something to secure the educational future of the most marginalised children of the district.
They said that after Sialkot business community and Unicef, now its PEF’s turn to play its vital role to help out adolescents educationally and economically under the CAPP project.
Reportedly, as many as 1,247 marginalised children are at mercy of the PEF and the Punjab government in Sialkot. The CAP project funded by Unicef will end in March 2012 and after this the continuity of the project is in doubts, as joint efforts are underway by the business community of the city to continue it by adopting these children.
At present, these children are getting formal/non-formal education free of cost from class 1 to 8 in eighteen Talim-ul-Amal Centres (TACs) established by Child and Social Development Organisation (CSDO) Sialkot under Uncief-funded project, which will continue till March31.
The children of poor families need attention, financial support to get education and become respectable citizen. The PEF and the government should pay special attention to these children to save their future.
CSDO established these centres to provide working or dropout children fast-track phonetic education to provide them basic literacy and training to earn livelihood as these centres are situated in the backward areas of the district.
A number of students of these centres have recently passed 5th and 8th grade Board exams, while a lot of scavenging children of the gypsy families are also availing education from these centres. Now, the project was being confronted due to funds paucity. The PEF has huge funds to adopt all these children.
CSDO Sialkot President Muhammad Younas Ratra told the newsmen that the Punjab government should make arrangement or provide funds to sustain this project. He urged the government and the PEF to instantly look into the matter and provide education to these children.
CSDO Project Manager Ijaz Ahmed said that the Sialkot-based philanthropists had adopted few Centres and children for a certain period, during a donors’ conference held at SCCI building on December 21, 2011. He said that as many as 4,436 total adolescents have yet been benefited under CAPP project, since the launch of this project in May 2009. Now the future of 1,247 children was at risk and was linked with continuity of this CAPP Project, he added.
SCCI President Naeem Anwar Qureshi said that there could be a partnership between CSDO and PEF in this regard. He urged the PEF to extend its cooperation by providing funds to ensure the continuity of provision of free of cost education to the above mentioned children.
He said in these centres, the CSDO, a social arm of SCCI, is providing education to working, dropout, never enrolled in school, and the most marginalised children there. Naeem Anwar invited PEF Managing Director Ambreen Raza and other officials to visit these Centres to encourage the adolescents there.