THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATIONS IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED CBOs IN DISTRICT SWAT

The study was conducted in Swat district during 2008 to assess the role of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in the rural community development of the district. For the analysis, secondary data was used collected from five CBOs of tehsil Kabal (Swat). The results indicated that Shahbaz Welfare Society (Akhunkalay) provided vaccination to 38 patients free of cost, and 111 patients on concession. Al-Khidmat Welfare Organization (trained 160 tailors; 240 farmers; and 56 in handicrafts manufacturing. Al-Khair Welfre Society (Totano Bandai) provided student scholarships for 10, books purchase for 27, school uniform for 35 students, free tuition to 450 students and free school admission to ten. Rokhana Sema (Aligrama) provided training to 17 female primary school teachers, while 9 and 6 persons were given TBA and LHVs/FMTs training respectively. Seeds at subsidized rates were provided to 75 farmers and another 45 farmers were trained. Youth Organization (Galoch) constructed 4 waiting rooms on bus stops, constructed 2 tube wells and 22 cemented streets. The results show that CBOs are making a difference in lives of the people in the sample area. More resources needs to be made available to enable CBOs further their activities for the development of rural communitiess