November 21, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 15, 1423

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PESHAWAR, Nov 20: The Pakistan Village Development Programme (PVDP), a local NGO, came under severe criticism in its meeting with journalists on Tuesday.

The meeting was held at the Peshawar Press Club to access the feedback of a seminar, which the PVDP had conducted on August 22 in order to educate the general public on HIV/Aids.

The journalists criticized the working of the NGOs and alleged that they sought funds from the national and the international donor agencies for the uplift of the people, but in reality a major chunk of it was spent on their own salaries and upkeep of cars and maintenance of their offices.

Abdur Rehman said that the PVDP and other NGOs arranged seminars and other activities in the provincial metropolis which hardly benefited the people living in the rural areas of the province and suggested that there was a dire need to initiate public awareness campaigns at village level in collaboration with the local elders and clergy.

Javid Marwat, was of the view that the NGOs only arranged seminars on specific occasions and then disappear from the scene. Such activities could benefit the general public if they were held on consistently, he added.

According to him, even most of the journalists do not know about the Aids, its causes and repercussions on the people, mainly because the NGOs presented wrong and tampered statistics which terrified the people instead of helping them to get some knowledge about the fatal ailment.

Qasim Yusufzai remarked that the NGOs held seminars, workshops, walks and workshops to get press coverage and seek funds. The advantage of the NGOs to the downtrodden people was next to zero.

He suggested that the NGOs should concentrate on rural areas where the health facilities were scant and the people had no or very little knowledge about healthcare matters.

Another reporter said the NGOs obtained funds from the donors for educating and helping the people.