Human Empowerment Leadership Program Aims:
• To educate the deprived and under privilege common folk about the basic human rights and find basis to incorporate their efforts and mobilization to achieve maximum output.
• Promote Gender equality.
• To devise and organize for women youth and children particularly to their rights to acquire educations and improve their health and earnings.
• To incr
ease the agriculture of the target community for the betterment of their own subsistence. However, HELP’s ultimate goal remains the same “Human Empowerment”. Human Empowerment Leadership Program Objectives:
• To establish, operate and supervise literacy & life skill centers for the rural and urban community of the country. Special focus on women literacy for it effective practice in the society.
• To build and operate low cost quality education schools for the deprived community and encourage female education and ensure their access.
• To provide consultancy services for planning and designing of adult literacy, NFE schools and trainings management.
• To undertake nationwide human resource development programs, i.e. training of NGO’s professionals, teachers and community activists.
• To capacitate vulnerable individuals getting employment including in local job industries and to impart training in different vocations in order to make them self-employed.
• To carry out technical and social research on various aspects of environmental sanitation and other community issues.
• To reduce the mortality rate of infants and young children due to diarrhea and other common diseases by awareness and basic health and hygiene facility.
• Undertake health and hygiene promotional activities, including setting up of health -care centers.
• Public developmental efforts through workshops, campaigns, seminars, training programs and other sanitation related diseases, etc.
• Ensuring immediate response to the host community in case of disaster situation.
• Undertake child rights activities through promotional initiatives, establishing child rehabilitation centers.
• Provision of free ambulance (transport facilities), medicines, and health facilities to the poor and needy people of the area (24 hours).
• To enable the community in development of local level institutions and assist them in undertaking community based welfare and development interventions.
• To ensure full participation of local level grassroots organizations in decision making process including problem identification, planning, management, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation aimed at sustainability.
• To facilitate easy access to credit and motivate communities for group saving leading towards small enterprise development and income generating activities aimed at economic empowerment.
• To work for environmental protection, pollution abatement, water supply and hygienic sanitation.
• To fight against drug abuse and launching programs aimed at rehabilitation of drug addicts.
• To establish a resource centre aimed at facilitating target communities and local level institutions through information, education and communication.
• Assisting communities in disaster prediction and mitigation through various relief and rehabilitation programs.
• To develop effective linkages with government line agencies, non-government organizations, and donor agencies working for community development.
• To adopt scientific ways and means for introduction of modern agricultural tools, improved seeds, sustainable land use, live stock and poultry development, and sustainable forestry in order to raise agriculture production leading towards economic prosperity of marginalized agricultural communities.
• Human resource development and training aimed at skill enhancement and knowledge up gradation in order to ensure better implementation of participatory rural development programs by community partners.
• Conservation of natural resources, bio-diversity and environmental protection.
• Implementation of programs aimed at basic health care services (preventive and curative) including maternal health, child health, safe drinking water, hygienic sanitation, management of waste disposal, population welfare, immunization, etc. leading towards reduced mortality and morbidity and population control.
• To establish new community schools and upgrade the existing ones in order to provide education facilities to those most in need with special focus on female child.
• Implementation of women welfare and development programs aimed at socio-economic empowerment of women through their participation in all developmental programs.
• Raising awareness of environmental issues through advocacy, networking, public interest litigation and education.
• Organizing issue-specific and objective-oriented campaigns building social pressure to influence decision-making at national and international levels in favor of deprived, marginalized and vulnerable segments of the community.
• To develop effective linkages with government line agencies, non-government organizations, and donor agencies working for community development. Human Empowerment Leadership Program Core Values:
HELP encourages the following core values to be practiced both at individual and organizational level.
• Empathy with the poor - maintain work that addresses the needs and aspirations of those most in need.
• Commitment to creating sustainable change - ensure that we do not make communities dependent on us and enable them to fend for themselves.
• Pluralism - respect for different points of view, and support the process of democratization through choice.
• Humanity and equity - ensure that we do not discriminate on the grounds of ethnic background, religion, caste, creed or gender and constrain the use of advantage for selfish ends and redress imbalances arising from lack of equity.
• Quality and Excellence - work towards achieving results through innovation and learning by experience with the intention of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in meeting organizational goals.
• Teamwork - maintain an effective team which works towards achieving the program’s objectives.
• Integrity - be transparent in our work and ensure that we are accountable financially and in terms of carrying our work, and achieving an impact.
• Mutual Respect, requiring us to recognize the innate worth of all people and the value of diversity.
• Equity and Justice, requiring us to work to ensure equal opportunity to everyone, irrespective of race, gender, color, class, ethnicity, disability, and location.
• Care for All, requiring us to care vulnerable groups; orphans, widows and elderly people.
• Honesty and Transparency, being accountable at all levels for the effectiveness of our actions and open in our judgments and communications with others.
• Self Respect, requiring us to help poor without humiliating.
• Solidarity with the Poor, powerless and excluded will be the only bias in our commitment to the fight against poverty.
• Trust - ensuring transparency at all levels of our work
• Proficiency - providing creative expertise and strong commitment
• Solidarity - within our NGO and with the people we aim to support
• Justice - within our NGO as well as in society
• Flexibility - Showing our willingness to change and learn
Human Empowerment Leadership Program Guiding Principles:
• All people are created equal.
• Leadership is based upon integrity, character, ethic, talent, and skill.
• Honesty is the highest character value.
• Deceit must be eliminated from all systems.
• The human spirit is the highest priority.
• All systems must serve people.
• New systems must be created that value the human spirit and promote its development.
• The highest, the only, priority of government, business, churches, and families is to serve people.
• The individual must be empowered to serve; all who are not empowered drain the system of its most valuable resource.
• True empowerment is real equality. Democracy is its product.
• Creating opportunities for empowerment of communities and development of personnel.
• Effective and efficient utilization of financial and non-financial resources for human empowerment.
• Encouraging inventions, innovation, and creativity.
• Enhancing coordination and networking.
• Accepting challenges and meeting deadlines.
• Continuous improvement in quality of our services. Human Empowerment Leadership Program Approach:
(A) The New Development Paradigm:
Human Empowerment Leadership Program influenced by the new development paradigm, which puts people before things, Human Empowerment Leadership Program follows a participatory approach in every sphere of its work. The traditional knowledge of the rural poor is valued and respected, and there is confidence that rural people are capable of self-reliant organization. On a practical level, the fundamental thrust of this approach is decentralization and empowerment. For a community to be able to work for its own development and reduce its dependency there is a need for full involvement at all stages of the development cycle. The participation of communities in identification, planning, management, implementation and evaluation of projects is a key factor in Human Empowerment Leadership Program work. Internally a participatory approach is adopted in managing the affairs of Human Empowerment Leadership Program. Externally, Human Empowerment Leadership Program role as a “change agent” helps to develop community management structures that are capable of managing their own development. This increases the ability of the community to demand accountability in all their affairs, from leaders and officials. It reinforces the community’s belief in the value of their own development choices and efforts. These community management structures are not parallel structures, but are built upon traditional institutions, promoting equitable representation and participation. Human Resource Development is an essential part of our development work. This means ensuring that the community is trained and skilled, as well as organized to maximize the potential of the community to take hold of its own development. Human Empowerment Leadership Program strongly believes in maximizing its impact by transferring field experiences into knowledge to influence the development policies and practices of NGOs, donors and government agencies. This is important for working towards the long-term goal of eradicating poverty. (B) The Present Day Situation:
The lack of a true voice for the people in the decision making process has led to the present socio-economic crisis in Pakistan. While there is representation, in a formal sense, there is little or no participation in the political system. As a result, the country’s natural and human resources are fast being eroded. Many sectors of society are in a state of near paralysis-whether it be education, health, agriculture, communications, urban waste management, law and order, or judiciary. These sectors or institutions are in an advanced stage of decay. HELP is providing reproductive health services and working on youth and gender sensitive issues. The last few years have seen a growing response by the people to the prevailing socio-economic situation and crisis of governance. Loss of faith in government and the continued existence of inequitable and oppressive social institutions have caused some sections of the population to turn to newly emergent local level non-governmental organizations for assistance in solving a variety of socio-economic problems. In some cases communities have taken the initiatives and have created their own “self help” organizations. Human Empowerment Leadership Program Plane of Operation:
• Human Empowerment Leadership Program (HELP) mainly intends of relate with the low-income family, minority communities, women and youth for their welfare and empowerment through education, training and helping to create awareness for each of them.
• To design and develop training materials for various community awareness programs aimed at skill enhancement, knowledge up gradation, leading towards effective human resource development.
• To facilitate and help local communities in organizing themselves for their full participation in socio-economic transformation and education.
• To motivate local communities for group saving and granting them credit facilities aimed at development of small-scale enterprises leading towards economic uplift of the vulnerable segments of the community.
• To provide primary health care services (both curative and preventive) in order to create improved health and hygienic practices in the communities aimed at raising standard of life and health of poor population.
• To establish new community schools and upgrading existing ones in order to provide basic educational facilities to the school going children who have no access to basic education.
• Contributing towards the development of effective WID approaches and strategies aimed at women’s empowerment.
• Assisting communities in disaster prediction and mitigation through various relief and rehabilitation programs.
• Raising awareness of environmental issues through advocacy, networking, public interest litigation and education.
• Organizing issue-specific and objective-oriented campaigns building social pressure to influence decision-making at national and international levels in favor of deprived, marginalized and vulnerable segments of the community.
• To assist communities in adopting modern agricultural techniques in order to increase their agricultural production leading towards economic prosperity.
• To facilitate rural development through effective participation of community partners and other at all levels.
• Conservation of natural resources, bio-diversity and environmental protection. Human Empowerment Leadership Program Strategy & Philosophy:
Human Empowerment Leadership Program development strategy is the guiding force behind its operations. We focus our development activities at the most vulnerable communities with special focus on women’s development. The program assists poor communities to take control of their lives as part of a sustainable process and has adopted a multifaceted approach towards attaining this goal. Where poverty is apparent, it tends to be more severe for women. A commitment to gender equity is demonstrated in all our policies, program initiatives and activities. Empowering women by ensuring their participation in the development process is a priority area for Human Empowerment Leadership Program. For Human Empowerment Leadership Program development at the level of the community means an appropriate interweaving of three dimensions:
• Improvement in the physical conditions of the people
• Strengthening local organizations
• Socio-economic empowerment of the community
Human Empowerment Leadership Program treats development as a human, social, and political right, not simply as an activity run by agencies or allowed by government. Human Empowerment Leadership Program adopts development interventions that directly foster civic awareness, because citizenship is the organic link between state and society that is missing in Pakistan. Such a process leads to increasing people’s understanding of their rights, fosters clearer standards for judging the performance of politicians, government and donor agencies. This would create a greater ability of people to demand accountability of leaders and officials, and reinforces people’s belief in the values of their own development choices and efforts. While there are a number of NGO programs aimed at the socio-economic uplift of the under privileged in Pakistan, not many aim at combing work at the micro level with reforming the socio-economic structures that maintain the status quo at the national level. Human Empowerment Leadership Program is of the view that macro structures set important parameters for success at the micro level. It is for this reason that Human Empowerment Leadership Program is planning to work towards forging strategic alliances with other NGOs aimed at changing international system of politico-economic governance and at the national level by advocating changes in public policy. HELP worked on livelihood and agriculture development with the collaboration of Dedicated Organization for special talent (DOST). HELP worked on the hygiene promotion and medical camps for IDPs/flood effected areas of Baluchistan. Human Empowerment Leadership Program Programmatic Focus:
• Institutional development of men’s and women’s organizations
• Health and Wash
• Reproductive health/FP awareness
• Hepatitis and HIV/AIDS awareness
• Medical camps and distribution of free medicines
• Small enterprise development aimed at socio-economic empowerment of the poor with special attention to women
• Livelihood and agriculture development
• Primary education
• Human resource development
• Natural resource management and conservation of bio-diversity
• Small enterprise development
• Crafts development
• Advocacy, networking and communications
• Research, monitoring and evaluation
