The Tawana Pakistan Programme is successfully working in about 650 schools to improve the educational as well as nutritional status of the girls in poverty-ridden areas.
The project aims at providing about 0.5 million girls' access to education in about 5,300 primary schools of the poverty-ridden districts in rural areas. However, the provision of supplies has been completed in 2,300 primary schools/communities, an official of women ministry said while talking to APP.
The project launched with Rs 3.6 billion is being implemented through the Baitul Maal and non-governmental/community organisations, using public-private participation model.
The project is being implemented in 29 poorest districts throughout the country, including Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir, covering over 500,000 girls of 5-12 years of age in about 5,300 government primary schools.
Moreover, newly recruited 5,000 local community organisers (one for each school) are being trained by the Aga Khan University besides provincial team partners for technical assistance.
The aim of the project is to improve the nutritional/health status of school-age girls but it would also increase enrolment and sustain attendance to reduce the dropout rate.
The programme is creating awareness in the community for better healthy living through health and nutrition education. One meal in a day is provided for 260 days a year, deworming medicines are administered to the children biannually and micronutrient are given to girls twice a week.
The committees set up in the selected 29 districts oversee the implementation of nutrition programme, involving representatives of district governments.
The nutrition committees, consisting of a community organiser, school teacher, representatives of parents, students and local councillors ensures the success of project.
A sum of Rs 500 million has already been transferred to the local governments through the Baitul Mall for onward transfer to the school tawana committees.
Tawana Pakistan carries the school nutrition programme's ethos a step further by seeking to reduce social and gender inequalities in deprived areas.
Its focus on girls from poor rural areas in the spheres of nutrition and education aims to provide them with an opportunity to improve not only their quality of life but also that of future generations.
Malnourishment in girls can lead to stunting, which contributes to obstetric complications during pregnancy and low birth weight babies.
The project endeavours to address this in each target school by providing a meal a day to each student, twice-weekly micronutrient supplements, biannual de-worming and growth monitoring every three months.
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