'UNDP empowering rural women'

This project has been designed in order to provide opportunities for self-employment and income generation among the rural women as well as help them in maintaining the health of the livestock.

It was also pointed out that almost every household in rural areas has a couple of buffaloes, 2-4 cattle and a few sheep, goats and poultry birds, which is mostly handled by women.

However, this does not bring them any substantial income generation or empowerment.  All the four provinces in Pakistan have fairly large livestock extension departments. These departments are still essentially veterinary departments providing preventive vaccination against animal epidemics.

The project entails training rural women to treat and keep healthy livestock animals in order to provide numerous opportunities of income for households in rural areas of Pakistan.

Engro Foods has assigned a large number of staff members to overlook the project from scratch. The CEO of the company is directly responsible for the current project which is progressing on a daily basis.

The lady livestock workers (LLW) have been trained to deal with veterinary problems faced in everyday livestock farming.

Inclusive of healthy cattle, the project has also given rural women the confidence and means to ensure a steady income for their families. Implementation phase of the project started with contacting the Sindh Livestock Board and other reputed institutes for the development of training curriculum for lady veterinarians.