INTORDUTION
Sindh Rural Support Organization ( SRSO ) was incorporated on May 29, 2003 as a not-for-profit Organisation and registered under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance, 1984. SRSO is funded by government of Sindh to work in the designated districts of Sindh. This policy has been endorsed by government to achieve the goals of poverty reduction through community empowerment, skills enhancement, capacity building and development of community supported infrastructure projects, and the provision of support for income generation, enterprise development and micro credit. For this purpose SRSO organizes the local communities and develop their managerial and technical capacity. People and the government are supported in forging partnership and inculcating the sense of ownership among the people. SRSO is presently entrusted with the responsibility of fostering a countrywide network of community organizations at the grassroots level in 9 districts of Sindh and works in the following sub-sectors while applying the participatory development approach of sustainable development.

BACKGROUND
The social mobilization movement began in Pakistan in December 1982 originating in the Northern Areas. The pioneer of this movement was the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP). It gradually spread to the rest of the country under the guise of provincial Rural Support Programmes (RSPs) established by the Government of Pakistan and collaborative donor funding. For the purpose, Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) was established to work under the umbrella of Rural Support Programme Network in designated districts of Sindh.
In July 2003, Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) was established, funded by Government of Sindh with the provision of an endowment of Rs. 500 million , that was raised to Rs. 1.0 billion in subsequent years. The Sindh Rural Support Organization has thus a history of 10 years. It started its activities initiated by National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) in District Sukkur. NRSP had planned to cover only three Union Councils of District Sukkur. SRSO has since then expanded its programme to 23 Union Councils in five districts namely Sukkur, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Ghotki. Now SRSO is working in 10 district of upper Sindh, i.e. Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki, Naushehroferoz,Sh.Banazirabad, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Larkana, Kashmore-Kandhkot and Qamber-Shahdadkot, and 425 Union Councils of these districts.

Objectives
The main objective of SRSO is to foster a network of grassroots level organizations in SRSO's program area to enable rural communities to plan, implement and manage developmental activities and programmes for the purpose of ensuring productive employment, alleviation of poverty and improvement in the quality of life.
To reinforce and compliment Government of Pakistan's policy of poverty alleviation.
To support and strengthen Govenment of Sindh's efforts to translate poverty reduction strategies into action.

Approach
The people need social guidance to harness their potential. Such guidance is essentially needed for the following purposes:
To get organized for pooling of their resources , cutting down overheads, achieving economy of scale, etc.
To identify genuine leaders /activists/cadres from amongst themselves or the community. It is only these cadres and not outsiders that can bring out the willingness and harness the people’s potential.
To identify and prioritize what the people are willing to undertake in terms of opportunities and needs and not demands which have to be provided by outside agencies (the assumption in social mobilization is that guided or blue print approach is not effective).
To assess the feasibility of the identified portfolio opportunities and needs in terms of peoples capacity, willingness, requirement of resources and availability of resources from within and outside.
To arrange, secure and facilitate the flow of required resources to the community; and to linkages between them and other development agencies .

Vision
The Vision of SRSO is to foster a framework of grassroots institutions in villages located in 425 Union Councils of 10 Districts in Sindh, to harness the potential lying within the communities to help themselves.
SRSO works to release the potential abilities, skills and knowledge of rural men and women, to enable them to articulate their aspirations and to effectively marshal the resources they need to meet their identified needs. The purpose is poverty alleviation - enabling people to break the cycle of poverty, which begins with lack of opportunity, extends to the well-known miseries of economic and nutritional poverty and leads new generations to endure the same conditions. The process is social mobilization - bringing people together on new terms for a common purpose. The conceptual tools are 'social guidance' (recruiting local men and women who will take on a leadership role), advocacy, capacity building and awareness raising. The programmatic tools are training, support to institutions, micro-credit, infrastructure development, natural resource management and 'productive linkages

PROJECTS OVERVIEW

1 - Village Rehabilitation Project
DONOR - Planning and Development Department, Government of Sindh
DURATION - 1st January- 30th June 2011

MAJOR ACTIVITIES :
Reconstruction & Rehabilitation of 7,000 houses in three districts Shikarpur, Kashmore and Jacobabad under Union Council Based Poverty Reduction Program.
43 villages have been selected where each village has 200-300 houses. These villages have been surveyed by SRSO and approved by Government of Sindh for rehabilitation.
These villages include:
12 Villages in Kashmore-Kandhkot,
18 Villages in Jacobabad,
13 Villages in Shikarpur.

The said Project package support comprises of following interventions:
Two room houses,
Each House to have Hand Pump,Latrine and solar light,
Each village to have sanitation drains and Brick paved streets,
Every five houses to share one bio gas plant.

2- State Land to Landless Harries
DONOR - Land Utilization Department (BOR) Government of Sindh

MAJOR ACTIVITIES
Organize Land Allottees;
Form Farmers Cooperatives;
Support package;
Micro Health Insurance cover to each family;
Assistance in registering as Cooperatives with relevant government department;
Assist the Cooperatives/individual farmer families in preparing agricultural improvement plans, identifying self-help activities, and developing linkages with concern line agencies in improved agriculture, livestock and forestry practices.

3 - Emergency Relief and Early Recovery For Flood Affectees Across Pakistan (BAHAAL)
Donor : RSPN, USAID
Duration : 28 October2010- 30th April 2011

Major Activities BAHAL is a country wide relief and early recovery project with support from RSPN and OFDA (USAID) for the flood victims.
Implemented by SRSO in Kashmore, Shikarpur, Shahdadkot and Jacobabad.
Support of Emergency Shelters (Transitional One room Shelter i.e: Canvas tarpaulin sheet (12ft. x 18ft.), Bamboo poles and 30 meters Rope );
WASH (Hygiene Kits, Health and Hygiene Awareness Sessions);
Water (Hand-Pumps installation and Water Kit);
Agriculture and Food Security (Agri Inputs: Seeds, Fertilizers and Cash grant for land preparation);
Animal Feed Supplements.

4 -School in Box
Donor: UNICEF
Duration : 12th October 2010 - 12 December 2011

Major Activities SRSO established 100 Temporary Learning Centers for Children in IDPs Camp & Shelter at Sukkur, Ghotki & Jacobabad Districts.
The objective of the project was to help and re-established learning as the first step towards the restoration of normal schooling following an emergency.

OTHER PROJECTS

5 - SRSO and PPHI provided a mobile medical facility for the flood affectees in order to provide the medical services to the sick, injured and snake bitten and preventive vaccination for different viral, bacterial and other diseases.

after the flood it has provided 1,750 mosquito nets to the flood affected people and priority was given to families with children younger than 10 years and pregnant women.

7 - SRSO, with the support of the Pakistan Software Industry, distributed 1,007 Utensil, 1,733 stitched dresses shoes 1, 152, and two pedestal fans in relief camps at Khairpur district.

8 - “The WATAN” Organization supported flood affectees by donating Rs. 8.00 million which were used to distribute the following NFI items: Buckets & mugs Detergent soaps Toilet soap Towels & C. Roll,Cooking pots, Tea pots, Flour Mixing pot, wooden spoon, Plates ,Steel glasses, Clothes (1000 male 500 female).

9 - OMV Pakistan joined the hands with SRSO to help out the flood affected people in Khairpur and Sukkur. Through this partnership SRSO provided food to 2,000 families which covers around 14,000 people. OMV also provided 60 tents (shelter) for 500 people. Furthermore, the organization has established an employee contributed fund for flood affectees and an amount of Rs. 700,000 was spent on special feeding requirements of the children of the affected families.

10 - SRSO distributed wheel chairs and white sticks to the 11 disabled flood affectees of District Khairpur with the support of Sindh Disability Forum.

11 - Provided health support to 754 patients through the UCBPRP Sehat Salamat Package, Government of Sindh and through SRSO’s pool account.

12 - Distributed Food and Non food items to more than 400 flood affected families in Sukkur donated by Al Huda Welfare Centre, Germany.

13 - SRSO through its senior female staff had run a “the clean camp campaign” in camps of Sukkur city accommodating 546 IDPs where cleaning material including Finis, spray pumps, nail cutters and combs were provided and hygiene sessions were conducted to make the camp environment conducive and free of diseases.

14 - SRSO distributed 10,000 stitched clothes in the flood affected families in Khairpur, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Kashmore, Jacobabad and Larkana district. These clothes were stitched by the community members trained in the vocational centers established under GoS Union Council Based Poverty Reduction Program.