PESHAWAR, Feb 14 (APP): A praiseworthy initiative by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter of Small and Medium Entrepreneur Development Authority (SMEDA) helped transgender community in Peshawar in switching from routine practices of begging and dancing towards honorable livelihood of garments stitching.
A financial grant of Rupees 1.5 million by SMEDA for establishment of a stitching unit at Peshawar was transformed into a vocational training center offering skill learning techniques in fields of stitching, embroidery, fashion design to the highly neglected and vulnerable community of transgenders.
“The training center is a success story of our project of establishing 1000 Industrial Stitching Units all across Pakistan including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, AJK, Gilgit Baltistan and merged districts” informed Rashid Aman, Provincial Chief SMEDA KP while talking to APP on Tuesday.
Rashid apprised that the project was launched with a financial budget of Rs. 350.545 million and so far, around 93 Industrial Stitching Units have been established in the country, benefiting hundreds of thousands of people by imparting training and creation of jobs in textile related filed.
The objective of the project is to promote the public private partnership to boost value addition in the field of textile garments by establishing industrial stitching units by strengthening small and medium entrepreneurs, he said and added that an amount of Rs. 1.5 million was provided to an institute REST (Rehabilitation, Education, Skill Development, Training Awareness) led by a trans person.
There is a number of hitches in awarding of the contract to a transgender, but the management decided for going ahead with the objective of providing opportunity to the neglected community of our society, Rashid remarked.
He told that around eight Juki Sewing machines were purchased and installed at REST and the arrangements were made for training of the staff by National Textile University Faisalabad. “The center is performing well and successfully imparting training to transgenders who are now starting up their own business or getting jobs at different tailoring shops,” Rashid said with feeling of complacency clearly visible on his face.
“SMEDA’s help is a first ever initiative by a public sector institute of posing confidence in our abilities by offering us the opportunity of making earning through honorable sources of livelihood,” remarked jovial Katrina, Incharge of REST institute. Around 20 transgenders have benefited by learning the skill of tailoring, embroidery, baby garments stitching etc.
Out of 20 beneficiaries, several have stood up on their feet by starting business or joining jobs, shunning the old practice of dancing and begging, she said.
She also requested other departments to follow the footsteps of SMEDA and provide opportunities to transgenders in transforming their lives by opting for honorable sources of earning.
She said around 5000 trans persons are registered with REST who wanted to earn some skill and opt for suitable source of eking out living.
Katrina said that she was also providing training to trans persons on fashion design and was ready for other programmes of vocational training from the platform of REST if financial and technical support was extended to her.
