WPF held two meetings (1st and 9th Feb, 2008) with the Vice Chancellor of Karachi University and the heads of the various departments in order to involve Master’s level students in carrying out research on the issues of SRHR with specific focus on young people. The departments of Sociology, Social work, Psychology, Mass Communications and Economics has approved this idea and suggested to hold discussions/seminar with these departments. Accordingly, WPF will be organizing a seminar with faculty and students of Sociology Department on ‘Harnessing Youth Potential in Pakistan’ on March 6, 2008.

The Chairman of Psychology department requested The Country Representative WPF to join “Professional Advisory Board” of the Psychology department of the University. The advisory board consists of representative of government, NGOs, media and academia. CR WPF attended the first meeting of PAB held on February 9, 2008 and offered WPF assistance in developing strategic vision of the department and research agenda. The next meeting of the Advisory Board will be held on Saturday April 5th 2008 in Karachi. As a next step, WPF will arrange a half day workshop for the faculty and student to discuss reproductive health and themes/topics for student research.
WPF held a meeting with White Ribbon Campaign on 26th Feb, 2008 to identify common areas for future collaboration in order to start joint efforts for the promotion of SRHR focusing on youth. The core interest of the organizations is to collaborate for conduct awareness raising campaign on issues of SRHR, Breast Cancer (Pink Ribbon Campaign) and Male Involvement to end violence against women. WRC has indicated to take part in “Mother’s Night”, being celebrated by WPF on May 10th 2008 and also for a joint effort for celebrating Father’s Day in June 2008.

A meeting was held with the “The Four Corners Group (4CG)” to explore areas of mutual collaboration for resource mobilization for promotion of SRHR in Pakistan. The Four Conner Group has been established with the specific vision of providing practical solutions to development sector organizations in the area of business advisory, training and development, audit, executive research and human resource development.

After the successful completion of five years of LSBE programme, WPF has been receiving requests from schools and civil society organizations for the expansion of the programme in additional schools and districts. Such one request was put forward by AIDS Awareness Society (AAS) to upscale LSBE programme in Central Punjab. Based on that, WPF held two exploratory visits to new districts of Gujranwala and Lahore on 25th and 26th Feb, 2008 respectively. In total four schools were visited and orientation meetings were held with the principals, teachers, media and office bearers of National Association of Private Schools. The orientation sessions included brainstorming sessions to know the challenges that are to be faced while working with young people and briefing on LSBE programme. WPF will further the programme after the provision of the list and MoU with selected schools by AAS.

Country Representative WPF met with Mr. Javed Hanif, District Coordination Officer (DCO) City District Government Karachi (CDGK) on February 1, 2008 to discuss WPF programmes and explore expansion of WPF in CDGK. Accordingly, a follow up meeting was held with the Ms. Fakhurnisa Karim Siddiqui, Executive Development Officer (Education) on February 9, 2008 to explain in detail the LSBE programme. She indicated City District Government Karachi interest in including the progarmme in CDGK High Schools in an incremental manner. It was agreed that WPF will organize an orientation meeting with EDO and Heads of selected schools in March 2008.

Mr. Qadeer Baig made a two day visit to Awaz CDs, its partner organization for LSBE. The purpose of the visit was to discuss the next three years plan to upscale LSBE in new districts as well as continuation of it in Multan. A consultative meeting was held in Multan at the office of Awaz CD where a detailed programme for LSBE was chalked out. Second day Mr. Qadeer Baig visited Vehari to explore the opportunities of expansion of the programme in new schools.

Lead Pakistan has recently started a project in collaboration with International Labor Organization – ILO named as “Women’s Employment Concerns and Working Conditions” with the objective to reach out to 1000 young women by building their skills in order to avail employment opportunities in Rural and Urban areas of District Sukkur and Khairpur. Ms. Cyma Ashraf, Project Manager SRHR of WPF held two days training of nine master trainers of Lead Pakistan in Khairpur. The purpose of the training was to sensitize the trainers on issues of adolescents’ reproductive health and help them strategize the future trainings within the community.

Human Resource Development - International
Ms. Mariam Jamal, Programme Officer Communication and Nida Mushtaq, Consultant WPF participated in a residential regional training on “Sexuality and SRHR” held in India by TARSHI (10th-16th Feb). The training was based on the basics of SRHR and general practices in the region. The major areas of the training included, Ethics of SRHR, Human Rights, Child Sexual Abuse, Prostitution and SRHR of Disabled Persons. About 29 participants from South Asia and South East Asia took part in the training.

Motherhood is a time of joy and celebration not only for woman but also for her family and community. It is one of the miraculous periods that take place in a woman’s life. God has given woman this honor of bearing a soul and thus continue the chain of mankind.
The story of the woman who carries paradise under her feet is tragic on earth where each minute a woman dies while bringing a life to this world. Today approximately 529,000 women die yearly from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Some 99 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries, where a woman's lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related complications is 45 times higher than that of her counterparts in developed countries.

How do I provide information to my 13 years old son regarding bodily changes?

A Concerned Father
Thank you for writing and sharing your concern with us. We want to share with you that most parents find it hard to cope with the emotional and bodily changes their children go through during adolescence. While it is not common in our society for father’s to talk to their sons about growing up issues, it is important that this is done, since an adult can provide adolescents with authentic information. We would like to know the reasons underlying the difficulty, as this will help us guide you better. If it is due to lack of information about a certain area, we can provide you with the required information. However, if it is due to feelings of discomfort about communicating, this issue can be addressed.

Here are a few suggestions that may be of help:

• Remember, that your son may also feel uncomfortable when you initiate conversation, thus it is important to address these feelings with him. Information about changes can scare children so it is also important to explain that puberty is an exciting part of ones life too.
  
  
• Communication about bodily changes may not happen only in one conversation, so you can discuss these with him over a period of time. This will also allow him time to come back to you with queries, confusions etc. that may have arisen over time as his comfort level increases. It is important that the communication is open, friendly and allows your son to ask questions.
  
  
• You can ask him about the changes that he has experienced within himself and the questions that he may have. This will help you identify his level of knowledge, misconceptions that he may have etc.
  
• Once you understand the level he is at you can normalize his questions and concerns. You can also share that men of all ages have experienced some of the very things he is experiencing now.
  
  
• Start from discussing topics, which you are comfortable with. Some of the issues we would encourage you to discuss with him include bodily changes (e.g. hormonal changes, changing voice, weight, height, acne, growth of hair on different parts of body etc), emotional changes along with the hormonal changes (e.g. feelings of attraction, mood swings; rebellion, and low frustration tolerance etc.), wet dreams and masturbation, relationships, reproduction, drug abuse, sexual violence and sexually transmitted diseases. Again it is important that you do it step by step, which will also provide you with the time to get information about topics that you feel you need more information about.
  

This may not be easy but once you start the process and get good response your son, your comfort level will increase. We hope we have been able to address your concerns, if you have any specific question about a specific area, feel free to write to us on awaz@mail.comsats.net.pk again.

Good luck & all the best
Counselor
Youth Help Line.

Project Manager-LSBE
Ms. Aisha Khawaja joined WPF as a Project Manager for Life Skills Based Education Programme. Two Masters Degrees holder (Early Childhood Education as well as Arts in International Training and Education), Aisha brings with her five years experience of working in an elementary school in USA. She has also been involved in curriculum writing, design of training programmes, conducting research, report writing, facilitating workshops and seminars.

Internee
Ms. Sanober Nazir has joined WPF as an intern for Communication Department. Masters Degree holder in History, she has a background of teaching physically and mentally disabled children in Special Education School for four years in UK and one year in Pakistan.