KK- Rights for All; Empowered communities, especially women and children; A just and

equitable society.

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KK- Rights for All; Empowered communities, especially women and children; A just and
equitable society.

Organizational Background and Rationale

Khwendo Kor (KK) is a Pashto language word means “Sisters’ Home”. It is a non-profit, non-
partisan organization registered in 1993 under the societies Act 1860. It was set up in response to
an urgent need expressed by women for a forum to address their issues; it has developed into a
sisterhood, guiding women to take practical steps for the betterment of themselves and their
families. It is a participatory development initiative, focusing on the active involvement of the
communities especially women and Children. KK works in villages of Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa
(KPK) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) where health, education and income
generation facilities are either non-existent or dysfunctional and the poor are marginalized.

Purpose
Rights for All; Empowered communities, especially women and children; a just and equitable
society.

Our Vision
We aspire to sustain and strengthen Khwendo Kor to empower vulnerable Communities,
especially women and children, to effectively demand their rights and contribute to a just and
equitable society.

Values
• Participation
• Mutual respect
• Gender Sensitivity
• Honesty & Integrity
• Impartiality
• Transparency
• Accountability

Geographical Coverage

Till 2005, apart from Peshawar Head Office, KK worked from KK Office Network
only two regional offices, Dir and Karak. In 2006-07, as a
result of KK’s emergency response to the October, 2005 • Head Office
earthquake, a new regional office was opened in Abbottabad. Peshawar
Now KK is managing eight regional and project offices
• Liaison Office
(Peshawar, Mansehra, Karak, D.I. Khan, Upper Dir, Lower
Islamabad
Dir, Bannu, Tannk) besides a Head office in Peshawar and a
Liaison Office in Islamabad. • Regional Offices
KK has an international partner organization, UK Friends of Peshawar, Karak, Mansehra,
Khwendo Kor (FROK) which was established in 2001 and is D.I. Khan, Lower Dir
registered in UK as a charity. FROK volunteers assist KK in • Project Offices
various activities including consultancy, fundraising and help Upper Dir, Tank, Bannu
• UK Friends of KK
York-UK
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KK- Rights for All; Empowered communities, especially women and children; A just and
equitable society.

in establishing strategic contacts. Recently KK has also initiated the concept of Friends of
Pakistan.
Following is the KK geographic coverage:

S # Administrative Unit Activities in the area are managed from following

KK offices
Settled Districts
1 Peshawar Regional Office Peshawar
2 Mardan Regional Office Peshawar
3 Karak Regional Office Karak
4 DIR-Lower Regional OfficeDir Lower
5 DIR-Upper Project Office Dir Upper
6 Bannu Project Office Bannu
7 DI Khan Regional Office DI Khan
8 Tank Project Office Tank
9 Manshera Regional Office Mansehra
Tribal areas
10 FR Peshawar Regional Office Peshawar
11 FR Bannu Regional Office Bannu
12 Bajour Agency Regional Office Dir Lower
13 Khyber Agency Regional Office Peshawar

Thematic Coverage

Khwendo Kor is working on the following thematic areas to achieve its aims:

• Community led Social Services (Education, Health)

Aim: Vulnerable communities especially women and children are empowered to successfully
claim their Health and education rights.

• Good Governance
Aim: Vulnerable communities especially women and children are empowered to play an
effective role in improving local, provincial and national governance.

• Sustainable Livelihoods (Micro Enterprise, Natural Resource Management, Adult

Literacy Program)
Aim: Vulnerable communities especially women and children are capacitated to contribute
in family sustainable livelihoods

• Relief & Rehabilitation

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KK- Rights for All; Empowered communities, especially women and children; A just and
equitable society.

Aims: Provide effective and efficient response to man-made and natural disaster is ensured at
all levels.

• Organizational Strengthening
Aims: To strengthen and improve KK’s governance, managerial and organizational capacity
to effectively pursue its purpose and vision on a sustainable basis.

Cross-cutting theme
Human Rights, social organization, advocacy, partnership development, gender, peace, poverty
reduction and environment are cross cutting themes.

KK Achievements

• Good Governance
KK being awared of the fact that good governance is pivotal to the development process, and the
area where KK is working in the backward areas which suffer from bad governance. Hence
capacity building, awareness and empowerment of communities and government office holders
in these backward areas are inevitable for any sort of development.
Community Organizations: KK has always looked for agreement and enthusiasm in the
communities which has been the key to ensuring positive outcomes. KK has set up over 300
village women’s, men’s and mixed gender organizations and encouraged them in their own
development initiatives; for example, Village Education Committees supervise school
management and ensure standards in remote target districts. KK has worked with many partners
including stakeholders, government line departments and local activists and hence strengthened
and educated communities which in turn provide strong support to KK.
Advocacy: KK has chosen a path of negotiation and advocacy. This requires a long-term view
and has led KK to form consortiums, networks and forums with local, national and international
development partners to raise a voice for change at policy level. At present, KK is a member of
the Pakistan National Committee (PNC), the Provincial Education Network (PEN), Beijing +10,
Violence Against Women (VAW), the Joint Action Committee (JAC), Gender Voices, the
Advocacy & Development Network (ADN), the Micro Summit International Network for
Alternative Financial Institutions (INAFI), the Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education
(ASPBAE), the Pakistan National Forum (PNF), the Pakistan Coalition for Quality Education,
and Aman Tehreek (a peace movement).
Improving local, provincial and national governance: As a right based organization, KK has
worked for the protection and promotion of women and children’s rights. It has used its basic
education, health, and livelihood activities in order to engage communities and increase their
awareness in this area. It has also encouraged them to take ownership of their rights and act
together and with government to achieve favorable structural changes. Public dialogues,
reflection action circles and interactive theatres have been held. More than 25,000 people have
been benefited from KK’s education, awareness and capacity building programs in the human
rights sector. KK has been a staunch advocate against the use of corporal punishment in schools.
Besides its own education program, it has provided education in children’s rights to more than
2,000 children in government schools and centers
Peace and Conflict resolution: KK has established Khwendo Kor area Coordination Committee
(KACC) in all its working districts consisting of professionals, educationists, government and
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KK- Rights for All; Empowered communities, especially women and children; A just and
equitable society.

civil society to effectively contribute to KK cause and support, resolve conflicts and help in
implementation of Projects/Programs at KK working districts. Now networking is also one of the
important role committee is performing.
KK has organized and strengthen youth of FR Bannu to effectively contribute in peace and
establish good governance in the area. These groups have squashed into local organizations
which are supposed to take lead in continuation of development work after project period.
KK is also sensitizing community and government stakeholders about the impact of conflicts on
women, GBV, UN Security Council’s Resolution, capacitate civil society and government
institutions to protect, support and promote women’s participation in peace and non-violence
initiatives at the local, district and provincial level and is also providing protection and relief to
victims of GBV and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Women Empowerment: Since its establishment in 1993, KK has substantially contributed
towards women empowerment at the grass root level. To empower them in the socio-political
and economic fields, KK has supported more than four thousand women in obtaining their
National Identity Cards and registering as voters. KK set a precedent in achieving women’s
active participation in the political process during the Local Body Elections in Districts Karak
and Dir, when women contestants came forward and seven women won. In collaboration with
another partner organization, KK strengthened local bodies and Jirga functionaries to form
Masalihati Anjuman, which aims to resolve family disputes at the Union Council level.

• Community led Social Services

Khwendo Kor while working at grass root level has always tried to build the human resources at
community level. For this purpose KK invest in people through directly providing health and
educational facilities to the communities.

Health: KK has been actively involved in providing basic health services to marginalized
communities. It has trained and employed more than thousand local women as Traditional Birth
Attendants (TBAs), who have delivered thousands of babies safely and referred thousands of
other, more difficult, cases in time for lives to be saved. The TBAs also conducted basic hygiene
and health practices session to their communities, while KK’s wider health awareness sessions
have been attended by over 16,000 individuals. Working with the government, KK has been in
the forefront in helping to deliver 48 vaccinations and has run 113 medical camps in remote
areas of the NWFP and FATA. These are communities where cultural and social taboos limit
access for Government and other NGOs, but deep-rooted trust in KK has made it possible for
them to work.
Education: Besides providing educational opportunities to children and women in all of its
working areas through schools (for children), adult literacy centres and vocational centres, KK is
also supporting the government to improve the literacy rate in the country via rehabilitating the
damaged and demolished government schools in the terrorist hit areas of Dir and Swat.

• Sustainable Livelihoods
(Micro Enterprise, Natural Resource Management, Adult Literacy Program)
In 1994, KK started an enterprise development scheme to enable women to gain some measure
of financial independence. Micro-credit, training and technical support in animal husbandry,
street vending, village shops and vegetable production were provided. The average income of
KK’s women entrepreneurs rose from Rs.1500-2000 per month in 2006-07 to Rs. 2500-3000 in

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KK- Rights for All; Empowered communities, especially women and children; A just and
equitable society.

2008-09. The recovery rate on KK’s loans has been 96%. Training is now provided in how to run
a business, and markets for craft products have been opened up both locally and abroad. KK has
recently converted its micro-credit activities to a pioneering Islamic model.

• Relief & Rehabilitation

KK worked for earthquake victims after the 2005 emergency providing health, shelter and
education on a large scale. In 2008 till date, people affected by the conflict in Bajaur, Swat and
Waziristan have been the focus of immediate relief and rehabilitation. KK has never lagged
behind in providing immediate relief to the affected. War affected and flood affected people
remain the focus and were provided with timely relief.

KK Current Projects and Donors

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 Project name Donor Themes Covered District
1 Integrated Oxfam Novib • Community led Social Services • Peshawar
Development
KK- Rights for All; Empowered communities, (Education & Health)
especially women and children; A • just
Karak
and
programme • Good governance
equitable society. • DIR-Lower
• Sustainable Livelihood
2 Girls education Development in • Community led Social Services • DIR-Lower
project Literacy – DIL (Education)
3 Relief and UNICEF • Relief & Rehabilitation • DI Khan
Rehabilitation of (NFI, Disaster Preparedness and Child • Tank
IDPs Protection Centers)
4 Free and fair The Asia • Good governance • Peshawar
election network – Foundation (Constituencies relations and • DI Khan
FAFEN formations, Civic and political
awareness)
5 Voice for Right National • Good Governance (Civic and • Karak
(Awaz I Haq) Endowment for political awareness, community • DI Khan
Democracy – organizations)
NED
6 Girls back to UNOPS • Community led Social Services (Roll • DIR-Lower
school back girls to their schools)
7 Striving for Norwegian • Good governance • Manshera
Gender Justice Church Aid – (Community mobilization reg. forced
through Collective NCA marriages and inheritance laws, referral
Community Action and establishing community centres)
in Khyber
Pukhtoonkhwa
8 Sustainable J A Clark • Community led Social Services • Peshawar
Livelihood • Sustainable Livelihood • Karak
(Provision of literacy and Skills through
centres)
9 Health PPA • Community led Social Services • DIR-Upper
development (Health) (medical camps, reconstruction
and community organization)
10 Education • Community led Social Services • DIR-Upper
development (Education) (literacy centres,
reconstruction and community
organization)
11 Development of Action Aid • Community led Social Services • FR Bannu
Wizeristan (Education and Health)
12 Flood Relief and Foundation • Relief and Rehabilitation • DIK
rehabilitation Open Society • Tank
Services Institute • Peshawar
Pakistan • Upper Dir
(FOSI) • Lower Dir
• FR Bannu
13 Literacy a Tool for UNISCO • Community led Social Services • FR
social (Education through 10 Literacy Peshawar
Empowerment Centres) • Khyber
Agency
• Karak
14 Relief activities Canadian • Relief and rehabilitation • FR Bannu
7
international
Development
Agency
KK- Rights for All; Empowered communities, especially women and children; A just and
equitable society.

KK Distinctions

KK works on building respect for oneself into individual and community so that respect for
others becomes a natural phenomenon. Involving men in most of the women-led programmes
has given KK invaluable insights. For example the benefits of girls’ education, women’s health
activities and micro-credit became recognized as positive in the lives of families and in the
community as a whole. This greater understanding of the nature of development in turn
empowers women, men, children and communities to take on responsibility for negotiating
further village development with government and other agencies.
KK has built up a reputation for delivering good quality development programs for women and
their families. It also has a good reputation with its donors for honesty and transparency. In
recognition of its endeavors, KK and its Chief Executive has received various prestigious awards
such as
• UN Services Recognition Award
• Sitara-e-Imtiaz (highest civil award) by President of Pakistan.
• The Human Rights Award from the International Labor Organization (ILO)2001
• Fatima Jinnah Award 2003
• IUCN outstanding women award 2007
• Synergies Fellowship 2008
• PPAF prize for best in entrepreneurship development at village level.
• Fatima Jinnah President Medal, 2010
• Human Rights Award 2010

House # 130, Street # 4 K-3, Phase 3 Hayatabad Peshawar,

Tel:+92-91-5822255,5818589 , Fax:+92-91-5829026
Email: kkwcpd@khwendokor.org.pk
Web: www.khwendokor.org.pk