KARACHI, Sept 30: A five-day training workshop on “Better Lifestyles” organized by the Pakistan Voluntary Health and Nutrition Association (PAVHNA) opened here on Monday.

Speakers on the occasion said through the training the participants would acquire basic skills of better life, and after the training they would provide that information to their peer groups.

Some 48 persons — aged between 16 and 24 years — from low-income localities of North Karachi and Korangi are participating in the training workshop, sponsored by the Unicef.

Most of the participants — comprising 22 females and 26 males — are students. Few of them are drop-outs and they are making a living by working in dispensaries, tuition centres, shops, etc.

The speakers also highlighted the work being done by the organization for the health of the young. They said the participants would find the training informative and helpful and it would also have a multiplier effect as they would transfer the acquired information and skills to their peer groups, or youngsters in their influence groups.

Giving a brief resume and activities of PAVHNA, set up by social worker Begum Zeba Zubair in 1979, they said it was working in the field of reproductive health through its 17 partner NGOs in three provinces — Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP.

They said it had 34 community-based centres (four in Balochistan, eight in the NWFP and 22 in Sindh), and with its more than 500 field staff was providing services to more than 2.1 million under-served and poor people living in different pars of the country.

They said PAVHNA was also running four youth centres — two each in Karachi and Larkana — which were serving as a one-stop service station for young people aged between 13 and 25 years. There were separate centres for boys and girls.

Yasmeen S. Qazi, Rehana Rashdi, Jabeen Abbas, Abdul Qayyum and others also spoke.