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Yearly Archives: 2021

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When: 22-24th November  2021
Where: Murree, Punjab
Language: Urdu, English
Interested Applicants: Register here
Last Date to Apply: October 25, 2021

Training Purpose:

The impact of humanitarian work on communities depends greatly upon the quality of services and accountability of actions both during emergency and non-emergency times. With millions of people affected by disasters and conflicts, the importance of Quality & Accountability (Q&A) is undeniable.

Community World Service Asia (CWSA) aims to ensure that all relevant agencies including NGOs, INGOs, UN, donors, universities and government agencies, playing an active role in the disaster response & rehabilitation are given the opportunity to implement Quality and Accountability approaches and tools in their work. As part of CWSA’s response to the demand for increased support on awareness raising and capacity enhancement, CWSA is delighted to announce the upcoming course on Q&A for PCM. This course is a unique opportunity for all agencies, as it is focusing comprehensively on Standards that can support you during the project cycle.

Training Objectives:

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

  • Identify the key Q&A initiatives and their tools to support Project Cycle Management
  • Select and adapt existing Q&A tools and resources to overcome challenges throughout the Project Cycle
  • Outline the opportunities and challenges faced by humanitarian workers in implementing Q&A approaches and tools throughout the project cycle
  • Identify means by which you and your colleagues can collaborate and coordinate with other agencies to improve the quality and accountability of a humanitarian response

Participation:

This training will be directed at project/programme managers/coordinators and technical staff responsible for quality and accountability. It will focus on building knowledge and skills on Q&A and the use of tools and approaches for ensuring quality and accountability in all stages of the project cycle. This will help the participants in strengthening their programmes and enhancing aid effectiveness. Technical assistance will be provided to training participants to ensure quality and accountability in different aspects of project cycle.

Number of Participants

18-20 participants will be selected for the training. Female staff and those with disabilities and from ethnic/religious minorities are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to participants from organizations based in underserved areas. Applicants will be informed by, October 30, 2021 about their confirmation status.

Selection Criteria

We strive to have a diversified group of participants balancing gender, organisational and geographical representation. Some points to consider could be:

  • You have experience in managing projects or programmes
  • You have some basic knowledge about the Q&A initiatives and are implementing Q&A   approaches and tools at a minimum level
  • You are a leader in promoting Q&A
  • You have a ‘good enough’ command of English
  • Willing to pay fee PKR 15,000/- for the training. Exemptions may be applied to CSOs with limited funding and those belonging to marginalized groups. Discount of 10% on early registration by October 15, 2021 and 20% discount will be awarded to women participants

Facilitator/Lead Trainer

Rizwan Iqbal, has over twelve years of professional experience while working with non-government organizations and businesses in Asia & Europe. He specializes in Organizational Development (OD); Coordination and Support in development of Monitoring and Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) mechanisms at agency-wide level. He remained directly involved in capacity building of partners and humanitarian organizations across the globe for assuring the elements of quality programming. He is a certified trainer by the secretariats of humanitarian quality standards like Sphere, Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) & MERS and has been providing technical assistance/services to organizations on monitoring and evaluating operational quality by using the quality frameworks, standards, guidelines and tools. He worked with a variety of cultures in more than 25 countries around the world. In the past he completed his mission to Nepal (Aug-Sep 2015) after earthquake and a six-month deployment (Nov 2013 – May 2014) in the Philippines as Quality & Accountability Advisor – after typhoon Haiyaan (Category-1 emergency responses), where he provided support to design, train, monitor and complete (with an exit plan) a Quality and Accountability (Q&A) mission. He had been leading the Quality and Accountability Program team at Community World Service Asia and performing the role of Q&A promotion within Asia-Pacific region. Currently he’s serving as Global Quality & Accountability officer at ACT Alliance based in Thailand.

Additional Details: The final deadline for applications is October 25, 2021. Please be assured those with incomplete application will not be entertained. All participants needs to arrive to the venue by 21st of November 2021 before 5:00 PMScholarship/Discount Details: Special Scholarships are available for those organization that sends two or more females to attend the training. Early Registration discount of 10% will be given to applications received by 15th October. Women participants will be awarded 20% discount.   Exemptions may be applied for by CSOs with limited funding and those from marginalized groups.

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Community World Service Asia is committed to facilitating NGOs with quality and accountability mechanisms as well as overcoming mistrust between the government and NGOs. The Economic Affairs Division (EAD) has launched an e-portal this year to simplify the NGO registration This step is very cost and time effective. CWSA organized a webinar for local and national NGOs in Pakistan to enhance their understanding about the e-portal of the EAD on 30th September, 2021. The webinar lasted for about 90 minutes and was attended by 16 individuals of different organizations working in the development and humanitarian sectors.

The speakers explained the entire process of populating an NGO’s data on the portal diligently. There are a total of 13 steps each of which was extensively discussed. Special emphasis was given to common errors made by NGOs and how to avoid them as well as some technical aspects such as ensuring that file size remains less than 7 MBs and the option of auto-filling draft MoUs. Speakers accentuated the fact that NGOs ought to exercise great caution and attention to detail while filling all the components because a single error could result in the MoU not being issued.

Participants actively asked questions, some of which were general while others were specific to their organization. Participants thanked CWSA for organizing the webinar. It is hoped that the webinar has enhanced the understanding of participants about the portal and will go a long way in helping NGOs in their registrations on the portal. CWSA will organize such informative sessions in the form of webinars and seminars in the future as well. Moreover, we are also committed to helping NGOs throughout the process and these services (some of which are pro bono) are available through the NGO help facility.

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Under NGO Help Facility, CWSA is working closely with Social Welfare Departments in KPK, Punjab, and Sindh as well as the Economic Affairs Division. Through regular meetings and conversations, the need for a joint consultative forum was identified to explore the opportunities and discuss challenges faced by these government officials of these departments and other stakeholders. For this purpose, we held the first Round Table Discussion with Social Welfare Department representatives from Punjab and KPK in Murree from 10th to 12th September 2021.

The officials were given a platform to express their apprehensions about NGOs and share progress in their respective provinces as well as the current scenario, challenges, and changes being made internally to improve the application process for NGOs. SWD laws and their compliances were discussed in detail and the work being done in this context.

In its presentation, EAD discussed the geographical and sectoral spread of NGOs as well as their spread on the basis of registration by law and donor funding. Representatives of SWDs Punjab and KPK shed light on the work they are doing to streamline the process of NGO governance and registration. Digitizing the process of NGO registration at all levels was given due priority by all participants. EAD also shared a roadmap for a revised policy with SWD officials.

It is hoped that the outcomes of this round table discussion will materialize in the form of provincial policy formulation and implementation.

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Twenty-three year old Diya lives in Ramchand Khatri village of Umerkot which is located at a five kilometres distance from Community World Service Asia’s Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) centre in the same district. Diya first visited the MNCH centre with complains of nausea, vomiting, and weakness in October last year.

After thoroughly examining Diya, the lady health visitor at the centre advised her to take a pregnancy test, which came out to be positive. Diya was expecting her first child. “My haemoglobin was low at 9.0 when I first visited the MNCH. The medical officer advised for antenatal care (ANC) and prescribed multivitamins to me to address the weakness and normalise my haemoglobin levels. My ANC card was created, and I was scheduled for a follow-up appointment in one week.”

The following week Diya went for her follow-up examination at the MNCH where the doctor further prescribed Monofer Injections for her increasing weakness and low haemoglobin levels. “My mother-in-law was concerned about my well-being. But her anxiety was reduced when she accompanied me to the MNCH to observe how effectively the medical personnel attended to my needs and treated me.”

Ramchand Khatri is a remote village in Umerkot, with limited livelihoods opportunities and no immediate access to education, electricity, safe drinking water, health facilities or fully constructed roads. “My husband works as a farmer. During the harvest season, my husband receives his share of the crop after cultivation,” shared Diya. “Other days, we survive on the loan we take from the landowner my husband works for. Sometimes when he is able to find other labour work, he is able to earn a small income. Our total monthly income barely adds up to PKR 8000 (Approx. USD 51). Therefore, we have not been able to set aside any funds for healthcare.”

Diya has been going to the health centre for her antenatal care on a regular basis. She is in her last month of pregnancy now. “We are unable to afford good healthcare services offered at the city hospital so this is a blessing for us,” Diya’s husband said, expressing his satisfaction with her treatment at the MNCH. “We were concerned about how we would be able to afford and provide good healthcare to Diya as we found out about our pregnancy. Our concerns, however, dissolved soon after we visited the MNCH. Diya’s haemoglobin level improved and normalised as a result of her regular antenatal care appointments. The medical team at the centre have treated Diya proactively and the baby and her appear to be in good health.”

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At Community World Service Asia, we strongly believe in forming partnerships and collaborating with key stakeholders, including national governments to reach a common humanitarian and development goal. To further strengthen this mandate, Community World Service Asia and the Social Welfare Department (SWD) of Khyber Pakhtunkwa province have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on building mechanisms for institutional strengthening and work jointly in areas of capacity enhancement of their staff and the NGOs registered under SWD. The partnership aims to raise awareness on compliances and challenges that are faced under SWD’s ambit, to jointly organise relevant activities and to mobilise sufficient resources to conduct and implement shared assignments and campaigns.

Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Secretary Social Welfare Department – KPK and Farrukh Marvin Parvez, Regional Director – CWSA, signed the MoU that marks the beginning of many collaborations on organising thematic training workshop, sessions and short courses for young professionals that the SWD and associated NGOs have been agreed upon.

The Social Welfare Department of KPK plays a pivotal role in the field of development, particularly in favour of the most marginalised communities in Pakistan. CWSA’s technical expertise in project management and capacity building will effectively contribute towards SWD’s goals of eradicating poverty, rehabilitating people with disabilities, and developing schemes and programmes to meet the most urgent social needs.

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COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the functioning of all businesses, entrepreneurs and industries the world over. Leaders and managers, whether from the business sector, the education system, or the development sector, had to modify their leadership styles to meet the demands and sustain their businesses in these unprecedented times.

Under its Capacity Enhancement Programme, Community World Service Asia (CWSA) developed a strategy to equip Pakistan’s current and future humanitarian leaders with the leadership skills necessary to run their organisations in turbulent times such as COVID-19. CWSA has conducted virtual trainings in the first quarter of the year on quality and accountability, but with decline in COVID-19 in April and introduction of vaccines, the organization resumed in-person trainings, following strict SOPs with COVID 19 guidelines in place. The guidelines wereshared along with the invitation, and reiterated every day of the training in addition to placing santizers and masks in all common areas.  

As part of implementing the strategy, CWSA organised an open-call training on Leading in Complexity and Uncertainty in which 17 participants representing 14 NGOs and INGOs participated and exchanged new experiences and learnings. 

  • Strict SOPs were followed during the training

Arif Jabbar[1], a renowned leadership coach with two decades of experience in the local and global humanitarian and development sector lead the training and applied the ‘Authentic Leader’ approach in most of the sessions, providing equal opportunities to participants to reflect on their leadership style and its relevance and effectiveness in the context of Covid-19. This enabled the participants to learn about new and existing leadership competencies based on research with contemporary leaders. During the training participants also practiced and sharpened their personal leadership skills and competencies through practical exercises.

Adopting a participatory approach through most of the training, Arif engaged participants in group exercises to promote peer learning. In one exercise, participants were divided in four groups, namely Norms Committee, Feedback Committee, Games Committee, and the Complaints Committee. Tasks were assigned to each group with the purpose of completing the tasks with giving the least instructions in twenty minutes. After performing the tasks successfully, the participants shared that they panicked for a while due to the time constraint and absence of detailed instructions but they were ultimately able to reach the goal. In response, Arif Jabbar shared that “the real-world does not give us parameters or instructions and that the real leaders and successful organisations are the ones who can survive in situations like these.”

Rabel Sadozai, National Marketing Manager at Fatima Fertilizers, was invited as a guest speaker through a virtual online session. As the National Marketing Manager, Rabel leads the brands, channel and exports businesses at Fatima Fertilizers and has a rich corporate sector experience. In her discussion with participants, Rabel shared the need of exceedingly focused individuals in the development sector with the ability to consistently accomplish humanitarian objectives through attention to detail and being able to thrive in high-pressure, deadline-driven environments. “The challenges faced amid COVID-19, especially during remote management, built a gap between the managers and their teams. It was essential for regular communication in these times as physical contact was minimal. We prompt up our online communication and encouraged teams to provide updates as frequently as possible. This allowed us to overcome the communication gap that arose due to remote working. it was also important to keep teams motivated and let them know that we as managers are here for them even in times of difficulties. We also held casual meetings to maintain staff well-being and be supporting models, as everyone was going through tough times.”

A video of Martin Luther king was screened during the trianing to show participants his vision and communication style. The session on Vision and Communication shared various visions of companies including Tesla and Google to give participants a clear understanding on the conceot of vision. Participants learned the essential steps that need to be taken in developing a clear vision for themselves and their organisation. “It is key to know the right communication medium to inspire people thorugh your vision. Storytelling is one of the most effective tools used to impact audiences,” said Arif. Participants then worked on developing a personal and organisational vision in an exercise.

Participant Takeaways:

  • “Effective and continuous communication in key in creating a sustainable working environment during unprecedented times.”Javaid Ahmad, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat
  • “Conveying the organisational vision is key to build trust with communities we work with. It is important that the organisation’s vision is understood and enforced in its true meaning.” Saima Noreen, Sojhla Welfare Foundation
  • “Staff at any position can implement interactive activities to promote efficient communication while working remotely. These interactive exercises help staff to overcome challenges and work towards solutions as a team.” Nabia Farrah, Secours Islamique France

[1] He was the Chief of Party of USAID Ambassador’s Fund Grant Programme and has served in Oxfam International as the Global Head of Humanitarian Campaigns, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Southern Africa and East Asia and Country Director in Pakistan and South Africa.

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Covid-19 has changed and challenged many facets of human life, including the non-profit and development ecosystem. Restricted movements have led to limited access to communities and stakeholders, thereby adversely impacting most humanitarian programming. Shrinking economies and a shift of funding countries’ financial focus on internal health sectors has drastically reduced global aid and development funding. For operating aid organisations, these funding challenges are only an addition to the existing issues of staff care, health and limited mobilisation.

Forty-four aid organisations in Pakistan gathered to discuss these challenges and share their experiences in a virtual event organised by Community World Service Asia on Organisational Sustainability and COVID-19 in April this year. Arif Jabbar Khan, a well-known leadership coach with twenty years of humanitarian and development, moderated the session, joined by panellists, Anne Masterson, Country Director- Norwegian Church Aid Pakistan (NCA- Pakistan), and Hashim Bilal, Country Director- Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

Inequalities during the Pandemic

Participants in the session discussed the ‘Triangular Crisis’ which refers to the complex relationships among policymakers, humanitarian agencies, and the international news media and related it to the current pandemic. Their interaction is of increasing salience to the outcomes of effective humanitarian action. The panellists and participants touched upon the adverse effects of COVID-19 including a rise in unemployment, child hunger, domestic violence, child labour, and poverty. “Asia-Pacific’s least developed countries (LDCs) have suffered multiple supply and demand shocks as global economic growth collapsed under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the relatively small number of COVID-19 cases reported in these countries, the pandemic quickly developed into a multidimensional crisis, owing in part to their high levels of external dependency and exposure, but also to their low levels of resilience, such as their underdeveloped healthcare systems, large informal sectors in which workers do not have adequate social protection, and limited policy space or institutional capacity to respond to shocks. These factors have magnified the impact of lockdown measures introduced to contain the spread of the coronavirus.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a harsh light on inequality. “People living paycheck to paycheck in service sector jobs are in a very different position to those working in salaried jobs they can do from home. Stark gaps in wealth, health and work have gone from being chronic problems to acute ones. Additionally, the failure to control the COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts on the global economy, with global GDP falling by 3.3 percent in 2020[1]. Even with the global economy projected to grow by 6 percent in 2021, recovery will depend on equitable distribution of the vaccine globally. Failure to do so could cost the world economy up to $9 trillion, according to the International Chamber of Commerce, with the costs born equally by wealthy and poor countries, causing more economic devastation than the 2008 financial crisis,” narrated Arif.

Moreover, the pandemic along with the economic downturn combined have hit everyone hard. But the impact has not been spread equally. While sharing the drastic effects of the pandemic on men and women, Arif said, “A report in November by UN Women found clear evidence that, although both genders have seen their unpaid workloads increase, women are bearing more of the burden than men. During the pandemic, widespread restrictions on daily life, school closures, disruption to businesses and a big rise in working from home have made many tasks more time-consuming and arduous. According to the UN Women report, more women than men have reported an increase in their workload in almost every aspect of domestic life.”

Revolutionising Humanitarian Action

Internal and external restriction on movement has gravely affected the delivery and implementation of aid. “We have not seen substantial funding for COVID, yet the situation is going to get worse. Many donors pulled back their funding from less-developed countries. The decrease in funding has a direct impact on people’s lives and our ability to sustainably provide life-saving aid to them and to reinforce fragile essential infrastructure in the way we need to,” says Arif.

According to Hashim, the virtual event has provided an effective platform to learn and adopt new strategies from various organisations in unprecedented times. While sharing VSO’s change in strategies, Hashim said, “VSO executed adoptive and integrated approaches for its strategies. We engaged our volunteer groups with communities and stakeholders to conduct awareness raising on COVID-19 and its SOPs. Additionally, we build awareness in schools on COVID-19 through poetry to gain maximum attention of students and enforce implementation of preventive measures. We also developed songs on how to avoid transmission of the virus and published them widely on social media.”

To cope with the rapidly changing situation, NCA reinforced its online communication systems to effectively use online platforms for meetings, trainings, discussions and follow-ups among staff and partner organisations. “We tried to improve our online communication systems due to the restrictions in movement and holding physical meetings. We encouraged the usage of mobile phones, WhatsApp and other internet facilities to up the online communication for updates and progress. Our main donors, particularly the Government of Norway, right from the beginning of the outbreak by March 2020, were already offering to be more flexible in the way our agreements and programmes could be utilised and implemented. This allowed NCA to immediately bring in a dimension of COVID and quickly adapt programmes to effectively operate within the restrictions of the dimensions of COVID pandemic,” narrated Anne. She further shared the change in information sharing and awareness raising programme, saying, “We expanded our existing programmes, particularly under WASH, GBV[2] and Peace Building, adding COVID-19 messages and communication for awareness raising on SOPs and preventive measures with focus on women, minority groups and affected-communities.”

Organisations will need to practice adoptive approach and civil society organisations need to invest more in education, livelihoods and health programming. “Civil society organisations and developmental institutions can work jointly and influence donors by giving them joint statements for the betterment of humanitarian actions. We need to work together to cope in this pandemic situation and reach the affected-communities effectively. Additionally, humanitarian organisations have to boost government ownership in reaching out to affected-communities and working with them in partnership in target areas. To make this possible we have to promote our humanitarian work and increase visibility,” remarked Hashim.

A participant brought forward issues of staff care while ensuring effective delivery of project activities to which Hashim shared the VSO’s health care policy during COVID 19 which included strict adherence to SOP’s, restricted staff movement, allowed flexible office timings and partial staff attendance in the office. “In addition to the healthcare policy, VSO designed and conducted mandatory trainings on duty care, safeguarding and risk communication. These trainings were delivered to national and international staff members of VSO, volunteers and community members. VSO further provided the provision of personal PPE[3] kits to avoid direct exposure to risk.”

In response to a participant’s question on ensuring continued funding, given the economic downturn globally, Anne shared NCA’s experience saying, “NCA addressed this concern while keeping face-to-face and online communication with the donors. We tend to keep them updated about how NCA is managing work and implementing the projects during a pandemic. Moreover, we identified the need of funds and prepared applications for and with national partners to raise funds further for emergency responses. We worked within and as part of different networks to advocate for continued funding in existing programmes and additional funding for COVID-19 response, particularly for vulnerable and most affected-communities.  We increased advocacy efforts and NCA has been successful in getting additional funds in Pakistan and other Asian countries.”

Key Take-aways shared by Participants:

  • “Humanitarian organisations have to work towards awareness raising through radio in order to reach rural and remote areas to encourage the communities there for vaccination.” Ifthekhar Farooq

  • “COVID -19 has affected women and minorities in the context of mental stress. For this reason, humanitarian groups should focus on organising trainings, Focus Group Discussions and sessions on psycho-socio economic condition.” Alyas Rahmat

  • “Local community leaders adopt the techniques and skills provided by the NGOs under COVID-19 response. It is difficult to adapt to quick changes; therefore, we need to support existing programs instead of introducing new ones in short time-span.” Liaquat Ali

  • “Fair distribution of vaccine needs to be ensured. Additionally, travel restrictions should also be checked as more restrictions between Pakistan, North America and Europe are affecting real stories to be conveyed to the international space.” Anne Masterson

  • “The topic of webinar, ‘Organisational Sustainability and COVID 19’, is a vast field. This discussion is just the initiation and we as humanitarian practitioners, have to work towards making efficient strategies, both at organisational and national level.” Arif Jabbar

[1] https://www.usglc.org/coronavirus/economies-of-developing-countries/

[2] Gender-Based Violence

[3] Personal protective equipment

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“The smiles we bring to the faces of the individuals we work for inspires me to keep going and serve as many people as possible.”

Muhammad Waseem has been actively working as a humanitarian practitioner in Pakistan’s development sector since the past seven years. “As Manager Quality Assurance in Association for Gender Awareness & Human Empowerment (AGAHE), I am responsible to develop, review and implement a robust Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning framework and tools. The objective is to facilitate measurement of progress and enhance compliance of programmes and projects with AGAHE standards, policy framework and best practices. AGAHE is working on various thematic areas, including Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Food Security & Livelihoods, Health & Nutrition, Disaster Risk Reduction & Resilience, and Governance.”

“Managing teams was the most challenging responsibility after being promoted to Manager Quality Assurance. Since the promotion took place during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the projects became extremely time-sensitive, and workload was at an all-time high. I always believed that working in a group was more efficient than working alone. But it did not take me long to realise that it’s only easier when done right. Team chemistry, capabilities, and challenges faced are the most essential factors to consider while dealing with teams in times of crisis. After hearing about the training workshop on ‘Leading in Complexity and Uncertainty’ in April from a friend, I immediately applied,” shared Waseem.

Seventeen participants representing 14 national and international non-governmental organisations took part in the training. Waseem, along with other humanitarian workers, explored various leadership styles and skills during the training and analysed their own leadership styles based on self-assessments. Participants learned new methodologies and tool to improve their leadership skills and devised strategies for peer assistance exercises and technical mentorship. “The training material was prepared with the participants’ consent. This was a motivating aspect since it allowed us, as participants, to suggest essential subjects for inclusion in the training agenda, making the training more relevant and effective in terms of learning. Arif Jabbar, the lead facilitator, adopted a participatory approach throughout the five-day workshop which enabled an effective sharing and learning process among all us participants.”

Waseem was new to the MBTI and Emotional Intelligence models of self-awareness that were introduced in the training. “It’s hardly news that people leave organisations because of poor management. Tools like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) can be extremely helpful here. The MBTI and Emotional Intelligence workshop was an excellent method for us to develop our own self-awareness, and it also served as a strong foundation for learning what would potentially frustrates or upsets others. This session’s group activity targeted at self-assessment in times of complexity and uncertainty, allowing us to discover important qualities to work more successfully with others and manage our team in a more emotionally intelligent manner.”

Waseem initiated regular meetings with his team members after taking the training. “The ‘Leader as a Coach’ session improved my communication skills and helped me understand my team’s dynamics more. I started scheduling twice-monthly meetings with my team members to give them an opportunity to share their challenges and work together to find solutions. Keeping the mechanism of accountability in place without compromising teams’ trust and confidence was a big challenge. Meetings with teams that worked remotely helped to bridge the communication gap and accelerate project delivery. This initiative has increased our team’s productivity and motivation to work in unprecedented times.”

Constant communication with his teams has been a game changer for Waseem. “My staff has more faith in me and the work we are doing now. Overcoming my negative leadership qualities and improving team communication has increased my team’s trust in me, and we are now working more collectively than ever before.”

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Lalo is from a small village in Umerkot’s Pithoro tehsil[1] called Achhlo Kolhi which mainly homes a Kolhi[2] community settlement, consisting primarily of farmers from a religious minority population in Sindh. The village is located at a 10 kilometres distance from Community World Service Asia’s Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) center in Pithoro, which was set up under its health project[3] in collaboration with Act for Peace. The Kolhi community have limited livelihood prospects due to their heavy reliance on agriculture and many of them are living below the poverty line. Currently, eighty of the Kolhi households in the village even lack basic amenities such as safe drinking water, education, and health care.

Lalo supported his wife and seven children working as an agrarian farmer for long hours on agricultural fields in the area. His elder sons also worked on the fields with him and the family survived and sustained on the income from the farming on a day to day basis. Something tragic that happened last year (2020) deprived Lalo of this livelihood, changing his life forever and left the family in a crumbling state.

“Working in the agricultural fields provided me with a monthly income of PKR 10,000 (Approx. USD 63). In April of 2020, I paid a visit to a relative of mine, Geno, who lived in a nearby village, Bacha Band, during monsoon season and it was raining heavily. We were in a room when the roof fell over us, burying us beneath the rubble. Both of us were seriously injured and were transported to the hospital straight away. Geno succumbed to his injuries after a month in the hospital. While I was left with a crushed femur (thighbone) and have been unable to walk since.”

Lalo was well known for his social skills and actively socialised within the community. He was a hardworking father and husband who worked for hours in the agricultural fields, collected fodder for the animals daily, visited the nearest town to buy household groceries and happily took part in all religious rituals and family events. However, the accident changed this lifestyle of Lalo. It became very difficult for him to manage anything on his own. Most of his days were spent lying down in bed, as he struggled to move about with only his hands. Lalo could not work on the fields anymore, an activity he had grown accustomed to and was a sole source of income for his family and him.

With the help of the wheelchair, Lalo has been more mobile and is able to attend to some household chores as well as socialise as he used to. “At times when I felt more pain, I have not been able to visit the MNCH. However, now I am able to visit the health centre when needed. I am also participating in our religious rituals again. This initiative has given me hope to come back to the normal life I had and step towards a good and healthy life.”

[1] In Pakistan, a tehsil (or taluka) is an administrative sub-division of a District. Those are sub-divided into union councils.
[2] Kolhi is a subgroup of Koli community native to Sindh, Pakistan. Kolhi’s mostly are Hindu but some of them are Christian and Muslim.
[3] Umerkot Health Project, implemented by Community World Service Asia and funded by Act for Peace

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