KARACHI, Aug 22: The Sindh government will hold a one-day festival to highlight the syndrome of poverty and provide a forum to policy-makers and research scholars of different private and public sector universities in the province to interact while addressing the poverty issues.

The festival, named “Islands of prosperity”, would be held on Aug 27 at the Hindu Gymkhana from 3 pm to 9 pm, while the attendance would be by invitation.

At a press briefing, chairman of the Governor’s Inspection, Enquiries and Implementation Team, Brig A. S. Nasir, who is also the convener of the festival unfolded the details of the event on Thursday.

About 22 universities will set up their stalls demonstrating different projects or enterprises to win over the support of banks and other institutions dealing with the micro-financing regarding further promotion and adoption of their projects helping reduce poverty in the country and particularly in the province.

Brig Nasir said that the ongoing campaign of poverty alleviation by the government could meet a success only when the basic needs, like water, food, education and health of masses, are taken up seriously. The festival is aimed to sensitize the scholars, policy-makers and planners with the menace of poverty and motivate them for putting across the vast knowledge, experience and quality of research on wider areas, he maintained.

He said that there was a spirit behind the festival and an opportunity to understand whether people were sensitive to poverty or not. “We want to reach maximum number of people through the festival, he added, mentioning that an equal participation by females, who are the major sufferers of poverty both in urban and rural areas, has also been ensured in the festival.

He said that the “Island of prosperity” festival would also go a long way in the preparation of plan for improved utilization of federal funds, which are available through Baitul Mal, Zakat Fund, Khushhali bank and other agencies for poverty alleviation programmes.

He referred to the energy crisis in the country and mentioned that different projects pertaining to cheaper power supply in rural areas of the province would also be brought forward by universities during the festival.

With the provision of a cost-effective source of energy in rural areas, small industries, house-hold skills and cottage production would further there and hence we could see generation of income and creation of job prospects for the rural population as well, he added.

Talking about future projects, he stated that government could take up a fish market projects at Ibrahim Haidery in order to provide maximum benefits to the local fishermen directly. The fishermen, who have no access to the market, have to sell their catches at throw-away prices to middlemen, who most of the time market fish at much higher prices and get their purse swallowed, he added.

The visitors and the exhibitors at the festival would mainly be university teachers, researchers and students. A chief judge would select first three stalls, for their decoration and quality of product or projects, while a couple of consolation prizes would also be awarded at a prize distribution ceremony in the night.

Arrangements for musical rendition or songs and entertainment have also been made as part of the festival. The heads of universities can meet the Micro-Banks from 3 pm to 5 pm, while each university would be asked to explain their concepts from the stage in not more than 10 minutes.