Girls Skills Academy for Pak Flood-Affected Areas

PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT

Submitted to GlobalGiving

Youth Awareness Circle (YAC) — www.yac.org.pk

Project Title

Girls Skills Academy – Village Sehjra, Kasur

Implementing Organization

Youth Awareness Circle (YAC)

Location

Village Sehjra, Tehsil & District Kasur, Punjab, Pakistan

Target Group

Girls and young women from flood-affected rural families

Reporting Period

Current reporting period (project implementation to date)

Report Type

Project Progress Report

1. Project Background

Girls in flood-affected rural areas of Kasur, Punjab, continue to face limited access to education, technical skills training, and income-generating opportunities. Repeated flooding damages homes, crops, and household livelihoods, pushing families into survival mode and forcing many girls to leave education early. The distance to technical institutes, high transport costs, and social/mobility restrictions further prevent girls from accessing vocational training near their villages.

Through this project, Youth Awareness Circle (YAC) is working to establish a Girls Skills Academy in Village Sehjra, Kasur, so that girls from flood-affected families can learn practical, income-generating skills close to home — including tailoring, embroidery, beauty services, handicrafts, and basic business skills — while the academy's own infrastructure is being developed.

2. Summary of Progress to Date

While full funding for the dedicated Girls Skills Academy facility is still being mobilized, YAC has not waited to begin serving girls in the target communities. Using its own outreach capacity and existing partnerships, YAC has already identified and mobilized flood-affected girls and linked them to functioning training centers and hospitals for practical skill development. Key progress includes:

• Approximately 200 girls from flood-affected areas of Kasur have been identified, mobilized, and referred for skills training since project outreach began.
• Formal coordination has been established with Sanat Zar and VTI (Vocational Training Institute) to enrol girls in a range of skill development courses.
• A signed coordination agreement is in place with Alkhair Hospital to provide hands-on, practical clinical skill development for girls who already hold health-related diplomas or certifications.
• Community-level identification, mobilization, and referral of eligible girls has continued on an ongoing basis, despite the project not yet having secured full funding for its own dedicated training premises.

3. Key Partnerships

Sanat Zar and VTI (Vocational Training Institute)

YAC has coordinated with Sanat Zar and VTI to provide girls with access to structured courses in areas such as tailoring, embroidery, beauty services, and other marketable vocational skills. Girls identified through YAC's community outreach are referred to these institutes for enrolment and training, giving them access to established training infrastructure while the Girls Skills Academy in Sehjra is developed.

Alkhair Hospital

Recognizing that classroom-based health certifications alone are not sufficient for employability, YAC has signed a formal agreement with Alkhair Hospital to provide practical, on-the-job skill development for girls who have already completed health-related diplomas or certifications. This partnership allows these girls to gain real clinical and practical experience, strengthening their readiness for employment in the health sector.

4. Results Achieved

Indicator

Progress

Girls from flood-affected areas identified and mobilized for skills training

~200 girls

Training partners formally coordinated with (Sanat Zar, VTI)

2 institutes

Signed agreement for practical health-sector skill development

Alkhair Hospital

Dedicated Girls Skills Academy facility in Sehjra

Pending funding

5. Challenges

The primary challenge facing this project is a lack of dedicated project funding. Without funding to construct or rent and equip a dedicated Girls Skills Academy facility in Sehjra, YAC has not yet been able to deliver training directly under its own roof. In the interim, YAC has relied on identifying eligible girls in the community and referring them to partner institutes (Sanat Zar, VTI) and Alkhair Hospital, which allows training to continue but limits YAC's ability to control curriculum, scheduling, and capacity at the scale the community needs.

Other ongoing challenges include the continued vulnerability of target households to flooding and economic shocks, transport and mobility constraints for girls travelling to partner training centers, and the need for more consistent monitoring of girls once they are referred out to external institutions.

6. Next Steps

• Continue identifying and mobilizing eligible girls from flood-affected communities in and around Sehjra.
• Expand referral coordination with Sanat Zar, VTI, and Alkhair Hospital to accommodate more girls as capacity allows.
• Actively pursue funding partnerships, including through GlobalGiving, to establish the dedicated Girls Skills Academy facility in Sehjra.
• Strengthen follow-up and tracking of girls referred to partner institutes to better document training completion and post-training outcomes.
• Once funding is secured, transition from a referral-based model to direct, in-house training delivery at the Academy.

7. Conclusion

Despite not yet having secured full project funding, YAC has taken concrete steps to keep momentum behind the Girls Skills Academy initiative — identifying and mobilizing close to 200 girls from flood-affected areas of Kasur and coordinating with Sanat Zar, VTI, and Alkhair Hospital to ensure these girls can access practical skills training. Continued and increased support from GlobalGiving and its donors will allow YAC to move from this interim referral model to a fully operational, dedicated Girls Skills Academy in Sehjra, sustainably expanding access to skills training for girls in this flood-prone community.

Prepared by: Youth Awareness Circle (YAC)

Website: www.yac.org.pk