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Yearly Archives: 2023

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Every year Pakistan faces a surge of Dengue outbreak in most of its provinces. With the floods of 2022 leaving lakes of stagnant water and with inadequate drainage systems, the spread of the disease was inevitable to say the least.

One of the areas worst affected by dengue each year is Okara, a district in Punjab province. “Many remote villages in Okara were hit by the outbreak. As the local communities were combating the disease using local and traditional remedies, the Health and Welfare Society planned a community-centred strategy to mobilise communities affected by the disease,” shared Shabana Aamir, a staff member leading Health and Welfare Society (HWS), a local NGO based in Okara.

“We explained principles of hygiene and sanitation through sharing local examples and fully engaged the communities by developing mobilisation teams. The teams, including staff of HWS and members from communities, went door to door to hold awareness sessions and sensitising families on how to prevent the spread of dengue and treat those affected,” explained Shabana.

Participants were engaged in group work activities to encourage peer learning and experience sharing.

Shabana was one of twenty-nine participants at a training conducted by Community World Service Asia on ‘Social Mobilisation Skills and Techniques’, held in Lahore in September 2022. Organised in collaboration with the Social Welfare Department Punjab and Social Welfare Training Institute this capacity enhancement session focused on raising knowledge on basic concepts of social mobilisation and jointly analysed the various levels of ongoing and possible community engagement. Shabana attributes her team’s success in combatting dengue to the skills and learning she acquired at the training and how she shared it ahead. “I initiated campaigns on a regular basis with the help of the training tools and methodologies I had learned during the training, and was able to reach out to people for implementation of ideas by the help of The Johari Window Model.”

A wide range of engaging exercises and activities were conducted during the training to not only further improve mobilisation skills of participants but also help them learn new tools and techniques and how to apply them in varying contexts. Ghulam Fatima, General Secretary of Johar Welfare Foundation since 2013, shared how one particular group activity, named ‘Zoom and Re-Zoom’, helped improve her problem-solving skills. “In this activity, we had to create a unified story from a set of sequential pictures that were randomly ordered and handed out. We were not allowed to show our picture to anyone. This activity boosted our level of patience, communication, and perspective in order to recreate the story’s sequence. As a result, we learned that it takes time to uncover and understand problems before acting out on them through effective communication and problem-solving skills.”

Fatima applied a social mobilisation tool called Behaviour Change Communication (BCC)ⁱ that she learnt during the training when she engaged with the communities that her organisation serves.

“Initially upon applying BCC in the community, mobilisation became challenging owing to insufficient time, lack of resources and slow adaptation by the community. To overcome the challenge, key persons from the community including retired teachers, health workers and shopkeepers, were invited to our office to become our focal points and representatives in the community. Through our collective effort, we were able to encourage individuals to adopt positive, healthy behaviours in the community including street sanitation, garbage collection at proper points, typhoid vaccination, and polio campaigns.”

A few months after the training, a follow-up session was conducted in December with all the participants of the said training to provide a platform for experience sharing, challenge identification, mutual learning and a chance to attain technical support from CWSA. “The follow-up initiative has proven to be productive as CWSA encourages organisation to implement and achieve positive outcomes through the efficient use and application of available tools and methodologies shared during the training. We hope to be part of future capacity enhancement events which will help us derive solutions for challenges faced on ground and encourage us to place communities at the centre of every response,” concluded Shabana.

ⁱ Behaviour Change Communication is an interactive process of any intervention with individuals, group or community to develop communication strategies to promote positive health behaviours which are appropriate to the current social conditions and thereby help the society to solve their pressing health problems.

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The Floods of 2022 have left entire districts sunk and 1/3rd of Pakistan submerged in water. Now even after nine months of surviving unprecedented rainfall, water still stands over acres of land, leaving the country economically and developmentally paralysed.

Khairpur district is among the areas left almost completely devastated. The rain that by some accounts did not cease for two months have left villages here under more than a metre of water even today.

Community World Service Asia, with the support of CAFOD and Disasters Emergency Committee, UK, responded to the needs of some of the most vulnerable affected communities through immediate cash assistance and emergency health support.

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Home to 50.4 million people and vast agricultural lands, Sindh is vital to Pakistan’s economyⁱ. About 37 percent of Sindh’s rural population which is almost half of the province’s entire populace, lives below the poverty lineⁱⁱ. The province is particularly vulnerable to natural hazards due to its geographical location, socioeconomic vulnerability, and extreme climatic conditions.

Sindh has been disproportionately affected by different climatic hazards in recent years, including flash floods, droughts, cyclones and heatwaves. In 2022 alone, different regions of the province were simultaneously hit by a drought, heatwave and floods. These disasters significantly damaged people’s houses, livelihoods, livestock, agricultural and irrigation systems and the overall infrastructure, leaving millions displaced and in need of immediate humanitarian and long-term assistance.

Umerkot’s food insecurity in driven by underlying poverty, locust invasion, COVID-19, droughts and the recent floods. In the recent floods, a total of 1,860 houses have been damaged, affecting a population of 109,246 and displacing 18,207 men, women and children in Mirpurkhas and Umerkot. In response to the crises, Community World Service Asia (CWSA) with the support of Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH) is supporting disaster affected communities by promoting kitchen gardening as an integral part of the farming system among women in Umerkot. Though, most families in the target villages were primarily small-scale agrarian households, many of them did not keep or maintain vegetable gardens before.

Rural women in this part of the province are solely engaged in domestic chores such as cooking and ensuring that the family is well-fed and taken care of. To increase their household decision-making role and ensure a sustainable livelihood and food security source, our project focused on the women of the affected communities as key participants of the kitchen gardening activities planned under the projectⁱⁱⁱ. Since July (2022), 500 men and women, out of which 56% are women, have been trained on sustainable farming and kitchen gardening.

Jamna, a mother of three children, lives in Revo Kolhi village of Umerkot district. Jamna’s husband, Jagsi, worked in the agricultural lands near their home in return for a small share of crops or daily wages. “He was unable to work in the fields due to continuous rains and floods this year. That meant no source of livelihood for our family. When I learned about the kitchen gardening training from the village leader, I was eager to be part of it as this initiative would allow us access to fresh vegetables and fruits at our doorstep and would give us a chance to improve the food security of our family and our growing children.”

After participating in the kitchen gardening training in July, Jamna prepared her patch of land from the kitchen gardening seedsⁱᵛ she received along with a gardening tool kitᵛ.

“At the training, I learnt household techniques for effective plantation of seasonal vegetables and fruits using minimum land and water. Today, I am a skilled and confident woman, proudly supporting my family financially and putting healthy food on the table. My two children under four years help me in the garden as well. They enjoy taking care of the vegetables and sharing with their friends their contribution towards growing healthy food.”

Jamna began to sell the surplus of her garden’s produce in the village, which helped her earn an estimate of PKR 500 every week (Approx. USD 2). “Okra, ridged gourd seed, indian squash, wild melon, bottle gourd, bitter gourd and brinjal are among the vegetables I am growing in the garden. I cook these vegetables at home, allowing me to serve diverse dishes every day. I began to save the money I used to spend to buy vegetables from the market and have saved additionally by selling the surplus. Eventually, I bought a goat from the savings. I plan to buy more livestock in the near future from saving more money. This way I will sustain my livelihoods. In times of future emergencies, my husband will not have to stress over looking for work. Our garden and livestock will help us provide for food and keep us healthy.”

This project is helping increase food security and resilience of local agrarian communities affected by extreme climate conditions. Jamna’s husband, Jagsi, received cash assistance, in July and August 2022, under the same project of PKR 24,000 for three consecutive months. “From the cash support, Jagsi bought groceries including flour, sugar, tea and other staple goods to compliment the dishes I am making from the home grown fresh vegetables,” says Jamna. The kitchen gardening and cash support is helping affected families like Jamna’s to overcome food insecurity and rebuild their lives.

ⁱ https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/factsheet/2022/12/19/factsheet-sindh-flood-emergency-rehabilitation-project
ⁱⁱ Worldbank fact sheet 2022
ⁱⁱⁱ Strengthening the livelihoods and resilience of vulnerable agricultural communities in rural Sindh, Pakistan
ⁱᵛ All the participants in the trainings received 50 grams of diverse vegetable seeds including okra, Indian squash, bottle ground, bitter ground, wild melon, eggplant seed and ridged guard.
ᵛ Including Hand sprinkler, Hoe, Rake, Sickle, Hay rake and Green Net

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Community World Service Asia (CWSA)and the Humanitarian Action Initiative (HAI) of the Elliott School of International affairs, George Washington University organised a half-day conference at the start of 2022 Regional Humanitarian Partnership week, hosted by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the International Council for Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) and CWSA. Marcus Werne (Regional director of UNOCHA), Takeshi Komino (Secretary General, ADRRN) and Keya Choudhary (Regional Representative, ICVA) opened the conference by outlining the state of humanitarian sector in the region and the challenges ahead, and provided a summary of the schedule of events.

CWSA and HAI intended to flip the script of many gatherings: rather than bemoan the obstacles, which are well known at this point, they wanted to hear about how they manage to act boldly and creatively to stand and deliver despite the innumerable barriers. The conference had three parts: an overview of the barriers; the strategies developed to overcome these barriers; and how these strategies can help chart a more productive path in the future.

Palwashay Arbab, CWSA’s head of communications, opened the proceedings, followed by Dr. Maryam Zarnegar Deloffre, Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director of HAI. Maryam summarised the intent of the conference in the following way: “Success is not downplaying the challenges, but despite the challenges being able to provide assistance. We need to reform the system, but we also need to focus on what’s working.”

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One of the worst affected district was Khairpur. Houses were swept away, livestock was lost and many farming lands have lost their crops. The situation is still evolving, with flood waters stagnant in many areas, causing water-borne and vector-borne diseases to spread, and more than 8 million displaced people now facing a health and livelihoods crisis.

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Pakistan’s 2022 monsoon season produced significant rainfall, devastating floods and landslides, affecting millions of people. At the beginning of 2023 and several months after one of the worst flooding experienced in the country, an estimated 4.5 million people remain exposed to or are living close to flooded areas. Displaced people have started to return to their places of origin, but they are returning to challenging situations and almost zero infrastructure.

During these floods, Hafiza Bibi, a single mother of four children, not only saw her home crumbling down in front of her eyes but also experienced the grief of two dear family members passing away. “My husband was suffering from cancer. We could barely afford his medicines. He passed away in August during the middle of all the heavy rains. While I was struggling to get over the loss of my husband, my daughter also suffered from a nervous breakdown in October due to the trauma and stress of the floods. It took us a whole day just to reach to the nearest hospital when she fell to the ground. She stayed in the hospital for ten days but did not survive. She was only 21years old.”

Hafiza’s husband worked as a farmer and a labourer. Hafiza stayed at home, taking care of her four children, dedicated to household and care-taking chores. She watched water daily and ensured the family consumed their meals. “Our relatives would sometimes help us by giving wheat or money as charity. However, after the floods everyone suffered badly and no one we know was in a position to help.”

Many homes were washed away in Muhammad Fazal Khokar village where Hafiza lived. And her house was one of the many totally destroyed. She now lives with her brother-in-law in the same village but she knows that this living situation cannot not be continued for a long time. “I live in a makeshift tent just outside the house. It scares me that one day my brother-in-law will ask me to leave his place. This thought terrifies me as I have no money to build a place of my own”. Hafiza and her children have struggled to survive and slept for days on an empty stomach since everything she once owned had vanished within a blink of an eye.

“We went door to door assessing flood affected people who were in dire need during our visits to the most remote villages of Khairpur district. That is when we came across Hafiza Bibi. Members of the village committee were kind enough to inform us that a widow with four young children was in urgent need of money and assistance,” shared Hassan, Community Mobiliser in Community World Service Asia.

Community World Service Asia (CWSA) with the support of Canadian Foodgrains Bank(CFGB) and Presbyterian World Service & Development (PWS&D) is supporting flood affected families with Cash for Food (CFF) in some of the most remote and climatically vulnerable villages of Khairpur district in Sindh, Pakistan. Under the initiative, flood survivors are provided cash to meet their immediate food and other essential needs.

Hafiza Bibi received PKR 12,000 in three tranches under the project so far(a total of PKR 36,000). “I bought essential food items such as wheat flour, rice, sugar, tea, milk and vegetables. This assistance has provided me some relief and allowed me to put food on the table for my children. At least for now. The rising prices are a huge concern and we do not know how we are going to make ends meets with no source of livelihood. I wanted to save some amount in case of emergency but I could not. A small packet of rice costs in hundreds these days. We need opportunities to revive our livelihoods.”

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When: 13th-15th March 2023

Where: Peshawar, KPK

Language: Urdu and English

Interested Applicants: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Training Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

  • Re-conceptualize core notion of sustainable development
  • Adopt innovative approaches to sustainable development leadership.
  • Use your leadership skills to advance sustainable development.
  • Tackle the complexities and synergies of sustainable development across environmental, social, and economic spheres.
  • Work more with partners from a variety of sectors and beyond institutional boundaries.

Background

At the UN Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015, more than 150 world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 Sustainable Development Goals aim to end poverty, hunger and inequality, take action on climate change and the environment, improve access to health and education, build strong institutions and partnerships, and more. The performance of any country, in seeking to achieve the SDGs, to a large extent depends on its leadership. Achieving the SDGs will require the concerted efforts of governments, the business sector, civil society, and individual citizens.

The world needs effective leadership for sustainable development and this leadership requires an inner process, in which a leader must first be grounded in an understanding of self and a relational view of the world, in order to effectively work with others to make change. This training will be focused on the leadership aspect of sustainable development.

Number of Participants

  • A maximum of 20 participants will be selected for the training. Women and staff belonging to ethnic/religious minorities are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to participants representing organizations working in remote and under-served areas.

Selection Criteria

  • Participant’s organization should be registered with its respective provincial Social Welfare Department
  • Participant is in a mid/senior position for leadership role working in a local/national NGO
  • Participants from women led organizations, different abled persons, minority groups will be given preference
  • Commitment to apply learning in their work, including dissemination of learning within their organization

Fee Details

  • Training fee for each participant is PKR 10,000. Fee concessions and scholarships are available for participants belonging marginalised groups and NGOs with limited funding.
  • No TA/DA will be given to participants and travel expenses will be incurred by participants themselves.

Facilitator/Lead Trainer:

Mr. Sohail Muhammad Ali is a high-performing research and capacity-building specialist and trainer with

expertise in research, training and development to maximize human resource outputs in social development and education sectors. He is a respected & proven advisor to non-government organizations and has played an active role in providing guidance on research and development functions to promote and innovative solutions to social developmental challenges. He is an influential and inspirational leader with excellent human capital development skills.

Mr. Sohail has the experience of working in South Asia, Africa and Europe. He has conducted professional development workshops and capacity building sessions. He has served as a national and international consultant for organizations including Leonard Cheshire (LC) UK, World Bank, USAID, Care International, UNICEF, Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), Academy for Educational Development (AED), Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), Transparency International, Lead Pakistan, British Council Pakistan, Human Resource Development Network (HRDN), and others.

REGISTER NOW!

Community World Service Asia (CWSA) is a humanitarian and development organization, registered in Pakistan, head-quartered in Karachi and implementing initiatives throughout Asia. CWSA is member of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance, a member of Sphere and their regional partner in Asia and also manages the ADRRN Quality & Accountability Hub in Asia.

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When: 13th-15th March 2023 (arrival at venue on 12th March 2023)
Where: Murree, Punjab
Language: Urdu and English
Interested Applicants: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Last Date to Apply: 15th February 2023 (incomplete applications will not be entertained)

Training Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

  • Understand the audience of the report
  • Organize your thinking into a clear, logical structure before beginning to write
  • Learn the Do’s and Don’ts of effective report writing
  • Review for logical style and flow, plain English usage and correct style
  • Develop understanding of technical tools and approaches for effective report writing
  • Write reports based on the requirements of organization / or donors.

Background

Report writing is a powerful communication skill and is a key requirement for NGOs and CSOs to capture their activities as well as ensure effective monitoring and accountability. It may be written for a wide range of audiences from donor and government departments to internal management and partners. In this three-day report writing workshop, you’ll learn how to apply timeless report-writing principles to any scenario. You’ll learn to craft each report around a concise high-level message, followed by logical ordered and support points. You’ll learn how to decide on the scale and scope of technical detail to include, what to do about business jargon, and what to do when new facts. How to change the report angle as well as use of infographics and PPT to make your it clearer and more effective.

Number of Participants

  • A maximum of 20 participants will be selected for the training. Women and staff belonging to ethnic/religious minorities are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to participants representing organizations working in remote and under-served areas.

Selection Criteria

  • Participant’s organization should be registered with its respective provincial Social Welfare Department
  • Participant is working in a local/national NGO with responsibility of report writing in some capacity
  • Participants from women led organisations, different abled persons, minority groups will be given preference
  • Commitment to apply learning in their work, including dissemination of learning within their organisation

Fee Details

  • Training fee for each participant is PKR 10,000. Fee concessions and scholarships are available for participants belonging marginalised groups and NGOs with limited funding.
  • No TA/DA will be given to participants and travel expenses will be incurred by participants themselves.

Trainers:

Ms. Danish Batool Zaidi

Ms. Batool is associated with Social Development Sector since 2011, She has been working with number of National and International Organizations in Pakistan. Her core expertise is mainly related to Organizational Capacity Development, Public Health, Local Governance, Sexual Reproductive Health Rights, Sustainable Development Goals framework agenda, Gender Justice, Children/Adolescents, and Youth Leadership/empowerment for social change.

In collaboration with Indus Health Network and provincial Governments, she developed the manual/curriculum for adolescents and teachers of government secondary schools titled, Adolescent Health and Leadership Course for Kiran Sitara Students and Teachers. The manual was approved by the Education Departments of Sindh and KPK and consisted of topics such as Leadership, Communication Skills, Health and Nutrition, Child Protection, and Social Action Project Planning. She also organized various stakeholder’s groups to implement the Effective Community Development approach for engaging communities for sustainable change. She also served as Global Call for Action against Poverty Youth Coordinator while coordinating with 53 PARC (People’s Awareness and Rights Committees) Networks in 15 districts of Southern Punjab.

She developed Behaviour Change Models and especially focused on the use of media as a change medium. She appeared in several TV programmes, raising voices on citizens’ rights, active citizenship, women’s rights etc. She also ran radio campaigns on Early and Child Marriages, Family Planning, Water and Sanitation, Violence Against Women and Youth Friendly Health Services.

She recently developed the training manual on “Prevention of Violent Extremism in South Asian Countries” in collaboration with University of Peshawar. She represented Pakistan as a youth/women’s right activist on many national and international platform, in 2020, Seven of position papers along-with digital posters have been selected for World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health by Canadian Government.

Syeda Yumna Hasany

Yumna has over nine years of experience in the development sector, in the areas of program development, project management, and communications. She completed her master’s degree in public policy and governance in 2019, from Australian National University, Canberra, under the Australia Award Scholarship Program. She is a fellow of the Legislative Fellowship Program for India and Pakistan, organized by the U.S. Department of State, for policymakers and development practitioners. Currently, she is leading the Program Development Unit at Community World Service Asia.

She is a development consultant and the former manager of the health program, at a local non-profit organization-Akhtar Hameed Khan Resource (AHKRC). AHKRC is working in areas of reproductive health, education, and entrepreneurship in the urban slums of Pakistan. Previously she has worked in different NGOs such as Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE) and LEAD Pakistan working in areas of women’s leadership, health, and rule of law.

She has also been affiliated with Radio Pakistan since 2010, working for Planet 94 and FM101 radio station as a radio host, voice-over artist, and content writer, hosting shows on literature, art, and social issues.

She is also a trainer in communications and leadership. Currently, she is the lead trainer and mentor for the Girls4Girls program an initiative of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government with a mission to “Empower Girls”.

REGISTER NOW!

Community World Service Asia (CWSA) is a humanitarian and development organization, registered in Pakistan, head-quartered in Karachi, and implementing initiatives throughout Asia. CWSA is a member of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance, a member of Sphere and their regional partner in Asia, and also manages the ADRRN Quality & Accountability Hub in Asia.

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Shaista, a widow and mother of two sons. Shaista suffers from paralysis but stands strong in the face of all and any calamity and earns for her children despite all odds.

As many other disasters and crises, the Pakistan floods have had a disproportionate impact on women and young girls. Deep-rooted gender inequality, exacerbated by poverty and illiteracy has widened the gap in impact between men and women affected by this climate change-led disaster.

Heightened tensions, fear and uncertainty coupled with loss of income are driving increased violence against women and girls. Cases of harassment and sexual violence have also been reported, fueled by disputes over food and other essential items. As food insecurity rises, young girls in particular are at higher risk of violence, including sexual exploitation and forced marriage in exchange for money to buy food for the rest of the family[1].

Even before the floods, many of these women from affected communities were often recognised as “Lone Survivors”, being the sole breadwinners for their families or households headed by single mothers or grandmothers.

Shaista lost her husband to cancer last year. He was the only male member in their family, leaving Shaista to care for their children as well as his mother and sister. During the floods, Shaista and her family found their way to a relief camp to seek help as their house had been completely damaged and they were left without a home. Despite her illness and now without a home, Shaista still runs a small stall (tuck shop) which is right outside the one room house given to her family by the other villagers, where she sells goods for an income. Now 8 members reside in a one bedroom house and she sometimes sleeps in the tuck shop with her children because the space in her house is cram-full.

Hawa Khatun – Lost her eyesight, but not her will to survive.

Hawa lost her husband and son in a span of the last three years. She was left widowed and without any heir to support her.  With time, as she grew older,  she also lost her eyesight. As the horrifying rains hit their village (Golo Uner), Hawa, without any immediate family, sat on her Charpai (bed) and waited for help because she could not move. The villagers who loved her like their own, being one of the elders members in her village, came to help and took good care of her. Once families returned back to their village, the conditions were worse since almost everyone had lost their livelihoods, their homes and their livestock.  Hawa, even in her condition, tried to help fellow villagers by offering to sell her only left household items.

Shehnaz, the brave mother of 3 young children.

Shehnaz is a mother to three young children.  Her husband worked as a daily-wage labourer. They are from Nawab Machi Village but her husband used to go to Old Hala and worked in a small shop where they used to sell wheat, but the local market and economy has been badly hit by the floods as well and he is left at home without any source of livelihood. Shehnaz and her husband’s house was washed away in the floods and they now live in a make-shift shelter made of bricks in their little piece of land outside what was once their home. The agrarian lands and open-grounds surrounding their house are still in ruins and under water. The floods have in fact formed a little pond around their new house now. Everyday, one or the other of Shehnaz’s children fall in the little pond and injure themselves or catch an infection or disease from the dirty water surrounding them. It is Shehnaz who has to run to the clinic situated an hour and a half away from their village ever so often to ensure the safety and health of her children. Besides her usual motherly duties, Shehnaz is also selling small household items which she brings from the city every now and then to ensure some income is earned for the family to survive this difficult time.

Banu, the talented Ralli-crafter

Banu’s husband abandoned her, as a new bride, just two months after their wedding. It is eight years since that fateful day but loyal as she is, Banu still waits for him. While she waits for her husband, she does not sit idle – she earns as the only income-bearer for her own family. Without a father to care for her other sisters and mother, Banu cares and provides for her family. As a talented craftswomen, Banu is an expert in applique and patchwork. She sews different coloured cloth patches and makes an exquisite ethnic blanket out of it, called a Ralli in Sindhi. Painstakingly exhausting and intricate, Banu makes two rallis a month on an average and sells each for up to PKR 3000.  This costs Banu her health as her fingers end up swollen and she endures weeks of backaches as her slip disc has been displaced with hours of working in one position. The amount she receives is in no way a fair compensation for her hard work but she has to settle for it as this is their only source of livelihood. As being a Ralli crafter Banu would easily get the goods to stitch a Ralli from Old Hala (she used to walk 2 kms to get on the road and would take a bus from there to reach the market in Old Hala) but due to the floods , the prices in the market have increased and the necessary items are hard to find which makes it difficult for her to buy these items. Banu also lost her threads and patches which she had collected over the period of time, as the flood ruined their quality and the threads were lost.

Pahno – An empath leader

 A mother of four children, the youngest only one year old, Pahno fractured her foot when their house wall collapsed in Nawab Machi Village, on her leg during the heavy rain showers in August. Pahno’s husband is not home most of the time as he works in Hala and is hardly available for her wife and kids. Their family is struggling to survive since the floods hit their home and village but Pahno has not lost hope. Even in the most difficult of times, she not only takes good care of her children but also worries for her entire community, especially the women. Realising that the health of the women in their community has suffered the most since the floods, she encourages all of them to visit the mobile health clinic established by CWSA and partners. She takes it upon herself to ensure each one of the women she knows go to the OPD for health care.  Despite her limping leg, she leads them to the clinic every time. That is true leadership.

Women in Pakistan are silently suffering since the floods hit their homes and their communities. Their houses have washed away, their family and neighbours have died in front of their eyes and they have witnessed unbearable loss but they stand strong. In many ways they were alone before and they are alone now but that does not make them lose their will to survive.

[1]  UN Women stories – Nov 22

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