PESHAWAR, Oct 15: The National Institute of Cultural Studies (NICS) and Small Industries Development Board (SIDB) government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa signed a contract 'Umeed-e-Nau' here the other day with the aim of bringing new hope to the people affected by the wave of extremism and floods in the province.

NICS Chairman Rauf Khalid said on the occasion that the project would be launched from Swat, a region badly hit by violence.

The project will focus on the rehabilitation of young people who will be trained in different crafts. A six-month training course on weaving will be conducted in Swat and the participants will be awarded a diploma in the art of 'Shawl Bafi'.

Each trainee will then train ten more young people in the same area. Approximately 1,000 people would benefit from this project per year, a press release issued here said.

Mr Khalid said that 'Umeed-e-Nau' would promote young and unemployed people, train and help them explore markets and thus making them useful and constructive members of the society.

He said that NICS was an educational-cum-research institute established in Islamabad under private-public partnership between Lok Virsa and Cosmos Productions.

SIDB Managing Director Syed Akhtar Hussain Shah appreciated the progress made by Lok Virsa over three decades.

He expected that this project would provide a diversified training, production and marketing network where the products of youth would be used as a tool for poverty alleviation.

In his speech, Executive Director Lok Virsa, Khalid Javaid said: “Lok Virsa is a unique specialised cultural organisation dealing with documentation, preservation and dissemination of Pakistan's tangible and intangible culture, folklore, oral traditions and traditional culture.”

Since its inception in 1974, he said, Lok Virsa was working for the uplift of artisans and had launched various projects to identify and preserve rich cultural heritage of the country.