HYDERABAD, Nov 11 The Health and Nutrition Development Society (HANDS) plans to rehabilitate 50,000 flood-affected families in seven districts of the province and one district of Balochistan (16 UCs).

Speaking at a seminar on “Reconstruction of Pakistan” here on Wednesday, the chief executive officer of the organisation, Dr Shaikh Tanveer, said that the work on the rehabilitation plan, which would cost Rs9.735 billion, had already been started.

Under the rehabilitation programme, he said, the affected families would not only be provided cheap houses with washrooms but the flooded villages would also be provided education and health facilities and food for six months.

He said that with the cooperation of philanthropists and donors, an amount of Rs194,700 would be spent on rehabilitation of each family, bringing the total amount to Rs9.735 billion.

Efforts would be made to take local people on board to make the programme a success, he said, adding that growers would also be provided seeds and fertilisers free of cost.

HANDS Regional Manager for Hyderabad Abdur Razzaq Umrani said that the districts in which the programme would be launched were; Jacobabad, Kashmore, Shikarpur, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Thatta, Dadu and Jamshoro in Sindh and Jaffarabad in Balochistan

The NGO put on a display a model house on a wide screen for all participants to see which will cost Rs90,000. It comprises a big room, a veranda, kitchen and washroom.

Dr Irfan Ahmed of Nari Project, Dr Shahnaz Shahlwani of UNFPA, Dr Kamal of UNICEF and Sajjad Hussain of OXFAM also attended the seminar.

EDUCATION The Research and Development for Human Resources (RDHR) and Sindh Rural Development Society (SRDS), with the assistance of Actionaid, have launched a programme “Education is Right not Privilege” in two union councils of Matiari district.

SRDS representative Rahmatullah Bilal, RDHR representative Kazim Ali Jatoi and community leader Basheer Rind said at a press conference here on Thursday that the programme had already been launched in UCs Karam Khan Nizamani and Bhanote in primary schools.

Similar programmes would be launched in other schools after conducting baseline survey which would include reopening of closed schools and ensuring presence of absent teachers, they said.

They said that at present, out of 94 schools in the two UCs, 21 schools were not functioning and out of 257 teachers, 73 teachers were absent. Of 21 closed schools, five schools had already been reopened and 10 absent teachers had started attending schools, they said.

If the education department did not reopen closed schools and ensure attendance of all teachers, students and civil society members would launch a protest movement, they warned.

SOLAR ENERGY Tando Mohammad Khan DCO Ali Ahmed Loond distributed rechargeable solar lanterns in Ilyas Gharano and Mohammad Shaikh villages in Bulri Shah Karim taluka on Wednesday.

The lanterns were provided by the Women Development Foundation in collaboration with another organisation.

The DCO praised the organisation and said its efforts would not only bring relief to villagers in electricity bills but would also light up their dark dwellings during loadshedding hours.

Wherever electricity was not available, rechargeable solar lanterns would be provided, he said and directed EDO (education) to immediately appoint teachers in the newly constructed school in Ilyas Gharano village.

SINDHI DICTIONARY Oxford University Press managing director Ms Ameena Saiyid has said that the Oxford English-Sindhi Dictionary covers 140,000 meanings of 65,000 head words and 75,000 derivatives and a text word count of 2.2 million words.

In a pre-launch briefing on publication of the dictionary, she told journalist here on Thursday that the dictionary was spread over 2,112 pages and had been in the making for 10 years.

The editors of the dictionary included Badar Abro, Sirajul Haq Memon (chief editor), Dr G.A. Allana, Prof Qalandar Shah Lakyari and senior journalist Naseer Aijaz, she said.

A galaxy of advisers and translators who helped in this monumental work included Dr N.A. Baloch, Ibrahim Joyo, Dr Fehmida Hussain, Dr Gul Buledi, Syed Hakim Ali Shah Bukhari, Nazeer Channa and Asif Ali Khoso, she added.