CWS-P/A recently expanded its eight-year political education project to Afghanistan. The project originated in Sindh Province, Pakistan and over the years has worked to increase the knowledge of communities on human and child rights, state and democracy, elections, and gender. In early April, fifty students and ten teachers representing five schools attended the first camp in Afghanistan, which included various activities including role-plays, group work, and presentations among others.

The project’s expansion into Afghanistan demonstrates continuous efforts to raise more awareness after its successful implementation in Pakistan. Facilitator, Ali Moazzam, shared that he had been eager about conducting the training camps in Afghanistan and admired the responsiveness of the students. By including teachers in the camp, CWS-P/A establishes a foundation for continued learning and greater awareness for the broader student population within the schools.

During April 2012, CWS-P/A’s mobile laboratory unit (MLU) brought services to residents of Kohistan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. The facility helps poor communities to access required health-related tests. Prior to the MLU services, community members often would travel as much as nine hours to reach facilities where medical examinations were conducted.

Nearly 2,000 tests were conducted during the month. These included chemical and hematological tests of which the frequently performed were hepatitis A, B, and C, typhoid fever, anemia, blood urea and glucose, and serum bilirubin among others. In addition to reducing the burden on the community with respect to affordability and accessibility to the health services, the diagnostic support system helps medical staff to treat patients with the right choice of medication.

“I’m deeply impressed by the resilience and self-help spirit of the community. I am delighted to be here and to see the joy returning to the people’s faces by getting their houses. I can foresee that these houses will sooner become home,” expressed Neill Garvie, Program Manager for Christian Aid, at a ceremony on April 20, 2012 in Ahmed Dars Village, Sindh. The event marked the completion and handing over of the first forty houses under CWS-P/A’s housing reconstruction project in seventeen villages of Sujawal, Thatta District.

Ahmed Dars was destroyed during the 2010 floods. After months in a camp, the families returned to a place that no longer resembled their former home. The village was further devastated during the 2011 monsoon season. For more than a year, they lived in tents and makeshift shelters. The community’s livelihood was lost because the main source of income was labor on agricultural land. Since the floods, the community survives on reduced daily labor and selling milk. Women in the village additionally contribute to family income through selling handmade embroidery. The village lacks basic facilities such as electricity. There is a school, but the teacher comes irregularly so the children do not receive the education to which they are entitled. Fortunately, the village is located approximately four kilometers from a larger town in which health facilities can be accessed for those who can afford them.