The Lok Virsa (National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage) is holding a series of master artisans’ training workshops here from today (Wednesday) to provide capacity building for 768 marginalised craft persons/artisans, mainly from rural areas with poor lower income groups.
The workshops have been arranged in collaboration with the SUNGI Development Foundation, GIZ and DAACHI. Lok Virsa Executive Director Khalid Javaid and Executive Director SUNGI Sheikh Asad Rehman briefed the media persons about details, objectives and schedule of the workshops here on Tuesday. They announced that five batches will be trained in workshops of 14-day each.
The first workshop will be held from July 4 to 17, 2nd from August 30 to September 12 and the 3rd from September 14 to 27. During workshops, daily training and exhibition will be arranged, including display and sale of products of the master artisans. According to the organisers, the craft persons/artisans, are home-based workers living in far flung deprived areas, with no or limited linkage with big markets to sell their products.
The training package includes GALS (Gender Action Learning System), group management, skill development/enhancement, colour scheming, product design and development, quality control, pricing, raw material purchasing, marketing as well as economic rights of home based/ informal workers, health, for sustainable improvement in their earnings.
There would be 768 beneficiaries of the training workshops, including 128 master artisans and 768 artisan apprentices. The training methodology includes 14 days training module for master trainers (men and women) skilled artisans from various areas of Pakistan. The master trainers will be trained on Lok Virsa premises.
The important aspect of these trainings is to provide exposure to the skilled artisans in value chain development and marketing practices through hands-on experience in the exhibition/marketing facility at Lok Virsa. Artisans will be bringing their hand-made products along with them and they will also be making it on the spot at training sessions and shops that will be sold to customers directly.
Each master trainer after successful completion of training will be responsible to train 5 other local artisans from his/her own locality for two months. Master artisan will get Rs. 5,000 as honorarium for training 5 fellow crafts persons and this will be given to them on successful completion of the training during the marketing exposure/exhibition at provincial level such as craft exhibitions, industrial exhibitions, exhibitions by chambers of commerce etc.
Innovation summit to improve
education sector: Sheikh Abdulla: World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Chairman Dr Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani has said that this initiative will play a pivotal role in supporting a change in Pakistan’s education system by bringing the students of far-flung areas at par with urbanites and inculcating in them modern teaching techniques and skills.
He said the 2012 WISE summit being held in Doha, Qatar, in November this year, will be attended by a galaxy of educationists, students and experts who will contribute a lot to the improvement of the education sector. Dr Abdulla said the WISE would provide young students with an opportunity to take part in amazing global experiences throughout the year 2013.
He said that every year participants from Pakistan attend the Summit. “I am very proud to tell you that we will have Dr Shams Kassim Lakha, the founding chairman of the Board of the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy and the founding president of the Aga Khan University, as a member of the 2012 WISE Awards Jury.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to ask Pakistani students to send us their applications for ‘Learners’ Voice’ project,” he said.
The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) is a year-round global platform dedicated to nurturing innovation in education by harnessing the expertise of multiple sectors. It was created in 2009 on the initiative of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of Qatar Foundation.
Sheikh Abdulla said the WISE believes education is a passport to inclusion. Furthermore, innovation in all its forms, is not just technological, it is a key to enabling education to play a pivotal role in tackling the 21st century global challenges.
The WISE has developed a unique approach which gives a voice to innovators from all countries and all sectors during a summit that takes place every year in Doha.
The WISE Awards, for instance, is a program that identifies, shares and helps scale up best practicesby bringing new approaches to education.
He said that the WISE gathers more than 1,000 participants from 120 countries every year. They form part of the WISE community, which today represents thousands of people around the world.
