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Written and Contributed by Samina Jamshaid, CWSA Staff, Professional Art Therapist, and Visual Artist

What springs to mind when we see a pair of hands?

For me, a hand is that magic that constantly creates miracles, and turns dreams into reality.
During my visit to Umerkot, I came across multiple pairs of such fascinating hands, young and old. Every wrinkle and mark on those hands had a story to tell about the journey it ventured – some of their own and others of the hands used to accomplish someone’s dream. Yes! You read that right. Someone’s dream living far away, whom they have never seen or met but with the artistry of their hands and a smile on their face, made their dreams into reality; a momento for them to cherish for the rest of their life.

These are the women of rural interior Sindh; no matter which small or remote village in the Province they live in, these women work tirelessly to create miracles with threads and needles and their skillful hands.

A beautiful, warm smile greeted me in a remote village on my first ever visit to Umerkot. While I was waiting in the courtyard of a far-away village, with hundreds of eyes fixated on me and astonished smiles of a handful of children, I saw a lady walking towards us, dressed in mustard yellow traditional Sindhi attire. She had the most mesmerising smile, and a sparkle of contentment in her eyes. The pride of being a bread earner for her family and a supporting hand for her husband, was clearly evident in her walk. She is Kalawanti from Kharoro Charan. Her name means “Talent”, making her a walking definition of her name.

Kalawanti’s talent and skill was identified by Community World Service Asia’s (CWSA) livelihoods team that leads the organisation’s skill enhancement and social enterprise programs which are envisioned to empower women and strengthen their roles as key household decision makers and sustainable livelihoods sources. CWSA also launched a social enterprise brand, Taanka1 meaning “Stitch” of which Kalawanti is a part of as an active member of its Women Enterprise Groups (WEG).

My day with the community and the villages that are supported through Taanka showed me the relevance of the name as it was not only about the literal craftsmanship of the community but the idea is to stitch the communities together with acceptance, love, care for each other and promoting each other’s good work. CWSA’s Livelihoods program binds the communities together in a way that they become inseparable.

Many of us in Pakistan wear reputed clothing brands and designer fashion wear but do we stop to think twice about the intricate, delicate embroidery and embellishments on our apparel and fashion accessories and whose craftsmanship this is. Many times, it is the creation of women like Kalawanti living in remote villages.

As it is said behind every successful woman there is a man, but I would say behind every progressive community there is a group of dedicated humans and in this case, it is the group of artisans working together under the umbrella of Taanka. Taanka has faced its challenges and took risks but always tried to make things work so that the livelihoods of the artisans behind it don’t stop. This is true perseverance.

Artisans like Kalawanti are hard working and resilient. They are not only artisans but housewives as well. They take care of their families, leading all household chores, ensuring everyone is fed, in good health, children going to school. Their everyday struggles are endless but the output of their work as artisans makes all their hard work worth it. The support they get from CWSA through linkages with markets, quality control, and product development ensures their hard work is paid off and valued.

This visit to villages in Umerkot made my heart and soul smile with pride! And i couldn’t help but share about it with the world.

  1. Taanka is a social enterprise launched by Community World Service Asia in 2016, to develop sustainable market linkages for rural women artisans in Sindh. The brand promotes the finest handcrafted amalgamation of contemporary designs with traditional stitches, produced by rural women artisans from interior Sindh, Pakistan and facilitate collaboration between the women artisans and urban designers, design students, commercial textile companies and fashion brands, to reflect consumers’ demands in ethnic designs.

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The memory of the drought of 2021 was fresh in her mind even a year later. That year, as she had always hoped and prayed, Sohdi was looking forward to good rains when she sowed her three-acre spread with millets, guar and lentils. But no rain fell and her seedlings withered under the merciless sun.

The next year, she underwent agricultural training by Community World Service Asia and with it received an 8-kilogram bag of millet seeds. She sowed half of that, saving the remainder to be used in 2023. But if 2021 was the year of the drought, 2022 turned out to be the year of the floods. In July when her seedlings seemed to be coming along nicely, the rain began and for the next eight weeks it did not let up. In fact, when it did pause for a couple of hours, the sun did not show because of the thick, dark overcast. Sohdi knew it then that there would be little or nothing to harvest. No surprise then that in November she reaped a mere 40 kilograms from her entire millet patch. That was less than a quarter of the usual yield when rains come on time.

The land she had under guar, mong and sesame did only marginally better. The entire crop which with less but timely rain should have fetched upward of PKR 60,000 (Approx. USD 208) accrued her a mere PKR 20,000 (Approx. USD 69). The last instalment of food aid was behind her, but she still had rations to see her and her five sons through another month. Ever judicious, Sohdi invested PKR 6000 (Approx. USD 21) to purchase a goat. A little paid for dry rations and clothing for her boys. The remaining amount was given away as a wedding gift to a relative. Why couldn’t this unnecessary expense be avoided in these difficult times?

“This had to be done because when my sons wed, they will receive similar presents. This is our age-old way. It has to be followed,” she explained.

Meanwhile, over the past six months when she did not have to purchase rations, Sohdi had saved up nearly PKR 14,000 (Approx. USD 49) from her eldest son Chanesar’s earning. The boy, an unskilled construction labourer, is an expert in building thorn hedges that surround the compound of most houses in Umerkot. But one of the goats died of illness following the non-stop rain. Nevertheless, things looked reasonable for Sohdi and her boys because she was not under debt when the new year dawned.

“I and so many others like me who faced the same situation in 2021, were lucky that we had food assistance. Had that not been in place, we would all have owed the local storekeeper nothing less than PKR 60,000 each,” she said with hands held together in a gesture of thankfulness.

In early February 2023, Sohdi knew there was no more food assistance, and so she had plans. In four weeks she and Chanesar will leave for the canal-irrigated region to the west of Umerkot district. For four weeks thereafter they will help in the wheat harvest and return home with about 360 kilograms of wheat as their wages. Earlier, since the death of her husband and the boys being too young to work, Sohdi had always gone alone to the harvest. The wages for a single person had never added up to more than 120 kilograms.

What she and her boy will earn in wheat grain will last them just two months. Then, said Sohdi, it will be time to sow the summer crops and hope that neither deluge nor drought hits them again. Meanwhile, Chanesar will be hard at work building his thorn hedges not just for his own village but he will even go to neighbouring ones wherever his expertise is needed.

“He’ll have to work hard because he is engaged to be married next winter,” Sohdi disclosed. Cutting every nonessential expense, Sohdi planned to save for the big day when Chanesar dresses as the groom.

But despite all one’s good wishes for the people of Umerkot, one could not say how nature would treat them next summer. What if, God forbid, the rains do not help?

“I am fortunate to be totally free of loan right now. If the crop is a success in November, we will have plenty of food and cash for the wedding. If not, I can always borrow as I have done in the past.”

For Sohdi and so many others like her, the loan is a cyclical burden: she goes under debt, harvests a good crop and repays. A year goes by without it and then if need be, she borrows again. For her, a widow, the other fall back is the kindness of relatives who always come forward to help her in dire situations. And so life goes on for Sohdi, her five boys and innumerable other people of Umerkot who depend on summer rains for survival.

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Photo credit: cnn.com

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake with an epicentre 40km southeast of the Afghan town of Jurm, near the borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan1 has left at least 13 people dead and hundreds injured in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with tremors felt as far as New Delhi, India.

In Afghanistan, at least four people were killed and 70 others injured in affected areas across the country, according to Sharafat Zaman Amar, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health. A reported 120 houses in total have been damaged in Laghman, Nangarhar and Kunar provinces based on initial assessments2.

In Pakistan, at least nine people died – including two children – as houses and other buildings collapsed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). At least 44 others were injured in the province and 28 houses were reported damaged.

The earthquake comes less than a year after Pakistan’s ravaging floods in 2022 and a deadly earthquake that hit Afghanistan’s east provinces in June 2022, killing more than 1,000 people in Khost and Paktika provinces of Afghanistan and wounding many more.

Community World Service Asia (CWSA) is in close coordination with the local government and other stakeholders active in the region. Our emergency response teams are closely monitoring the situation on the ground and will immediately start relief operations when and if required.

Contacts:

Shama Mall
Deputy Regional Director
Programs & Organisational Development
Email: shama.mall@communityworldservice.asia
Tele: 92-21-34390541-4

Palwashay Arbab
Head of Communication
Email: palwashay.arbab@communityworldservice.asia
Tele: 92-21-34390541-4

Sources:
www.aljazeera.com
www.cnn.com

  1. United States Geological Survey (USGS)
  2. IOM Afghanistan

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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.”

Download complete report

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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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