ISLAMABAD: The government of Japan, as a part of efforts to promote human security, has decided to provide financial assistance of US$ 236,230 for four social development projects in education and rural electrification in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces.
The grants will be provided to four national NGOs including Learning Awareness and Motivation Programme (LAMP) in Khyber district, Friends Welfare Association (FWA) in Torghar district, Hana Development Council (HDC) in Mandi Bahauddin district and Actions for Human Advancement (AHAT) in Kasur district, a press release issued by the Embassy of Japan here on Thursday said.
The grant of US$ 73,514 provided to LAMP will be utilised for the expansion of a primary section of the school for boys and girls in a village of Khyber district to overcome the problem of overcrowded classrooms. Currently, the school has classes from playgroup till grade 10 with over 950 enrollment while over 300 students sit outside their classrooms in open space because of the limited sitting capacity in the classrooms.
Earlier, the school was expanded up to grade 10 with the financial assistance provided by the government of Japan in the financial year 2011 and 2015. The grant of US$ 64,868 provided to FWA will be spent for the construction of a building for primary and middle school in Torghar district of KPK. At present, over 130 girls and boys use the premises of a local mosque for their classes because of the lack of availability of school building.
The new school building will also be used in the second shift for middle school classes for girls specifically. The project is expected to provide a conducive environment to the students for study. The grant of US$ 42,818 provided to HDC will assist in installation of electricity scheme for seven communities of Mandi Bahauddin district in Punjab where there is no facility of electricity at present.
Together with a local power generation company and participation of local communities, the project will install electricity equipment – transformers, polls, electricity lines and meters and connect it with the national grid. The scheme is expected to benefit over 1,650 local community members. The AHAT will spend the grant of US$ 55,030 for the expansion of a public elementary school in Kasur district. Currently, the NGO runs the school in a rented building, which has poor infrastructure and limited capacity in the classrooms. With the construction of a new school building, children will be able to continue their education in a conducive environment. Over 700 boys and girls will benefit from this project.
Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, MATSUDA Kuninori, congratulated the recipient organisations for winning the Japanese grant for their respective development projects. He expressed his hope that these projects will help girls and boys to have an easy access to their basic right of education and help local communities get maximum benefit from the rural electrification project.
He especially added his strong desire that education will promote understanding and respect to others and different cultures and then will promote peace and stability. The government of Japan will continue to support the people of Pakistan to improve their living standard and these projects will contribute to strengthen decade’s long friendly relationship between the people of Japan and Pakistan, said Ambassador MATSUDA.
