Many people with disabilities experience problems in getting to and from the training centre, due to lack of transport, more frequently by respondents with a physical disability than by those with other disability types.

KVTC counters this issue by providing transportation (pick & drop facilities) for all 142 trainees under our care and 60 staff members from all corners of the city. We have 9 transport vehicles including a 32-seat bus but we are still falling short of capacity. Special care is taken during the transport route where, in each vehicle, teachers or a relevant person makes sure that all trainees have been dropped off home safely.
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This service is provided at a minimal cost to the trainees & staff and has been discounted or entirely waived for those who can’t afford to pay the charges.
Transportation
Insufficient or negligible vocational training and skills development is often cited as one of the barriers experienced by handicapped persons when looking for a job. Lack of appropriate transport facilities is one of the foremost barriers for disabled people to benefit from vocational training services.
The Problem
Most of the vehicles have past their useful life and have reached the point where it simply isn’t safe to use them anymore, particularly because of the special needs of our children.
Each vehicle is filled to its maximum capacity with staff & trainees being forced to endure severely unpleasant & uncomfortable journeys throughout the city on a daily basis; those being picked first on the transport route suffering the most.
Each day is filled with challenges including mechanical faults during the transport route & this severely affects the trainees’ rehabilitation. Most children & staff arrive at school having gone through hell & with an already tired & exhausted state of mind. The situation gets worse when a vehicle breaks down as unlike mainstream school children, some of our trainees can have more profound reactions to a tense or irregular situation. Even though the accompanying staff members are well-trained to deal with certain emergency situations, the increasing frequency of such occurrences only increases the chances of things going seriously wrong.
Trainees availing transport facilities pay a monthly charge PKR 2500-3000, depending on their location, while most staff members, since they are underpaid already, are provided transport free of charge. Moreover, there are about 25 trainees (whose parents/guardians can’t afford to) that make reduced, negligible or no contribution at all towards the transport costs.
This obviously means that no matter how hard we try, we struggle to meet even the most basic maintenance expenses, let alone the major annual repair & maintenance requirements that are a necessary characteristic of any transport service e.g. engine overhauling, Tyres, suspension etc.
And then there’s the fuel cost.
Pakistan has faced record fuel price hikes over the years. It is no secret that the ever-increasing fuel prices have had an overwhelming & profound affect on Pakistanis from all walks of life. The worst-hit have been the poor who continually face increasing food prices, transport costs, and struggle for even the most basic amenities of life, as organizations are forced to pass on the increasing costs of producing goods & services to the consumer.
Despite taking all fuel-saving measures at our disposal such as switching our Petrol Vehicles to CNG, KVTC’s fuel costs range from between PKR 200,000 to PKR 250,000 each month and thus features as one of our most prominent & hard to meet expenses.
Electrical Power failures that are a regular part of life in Karachi & one of the major reasons for crippling our entire industry, further worsens the situation as we are forced to run up huge fuel bills for our generator, a necessity to run the vocational skill departments at the centre & for the children residing at the Al-Rahman Training Hostel.