“HIV & AIDS is a serious issue and people need to understand the importance of getting adequate treatment. Keeping an entire family secure is essential and this requires spreading right messages,” shares Faria Akhter, winner of the first prize at the HIV & AIDS poster exhibition held recently by CWS-P/A.

The Johi Kachho area of Taluka, located in district Dadu has been experiencing severe water scarcity due to low levels of rainfall and a gradual decline in the water table. With drying wells and contaminated underground water the residents of the district continue to face many hardships including lower agricultural production and water-related health diseases.

“It has been more than a decade since my husband passed away and I have been running a shop since then,” said Jeeva, an eighty year old widow who goes only by her first name. “All my five children are married and after my husband’s death through self-encouragement I learned to improve my life.”

Pakistan is a country rich with natural resources. From mountain tops to deserts, hundreds of species of plants and animals can be found. Some are endemic to Pakistan or the sub-continent while others are common in many world regions. Of all the species, none seems to be as amazing as the neem tree.

“The knowledge gained from this workshop is important for us because topics like gender and sex are not openly discussed in both schools and home,” shares Madiha Irfan, a student in Karachi.

For close to thirty years, CWS-P/A has implemented projects with Society for Safe Environment and Welfare of Agrarians.  This year, SSEWA-Pak reached a commendable milestone, thirty-five years of service, and CWS-P/A helped mark this achievement. On April 23, 2010, CWS-P/A supported the organization in its endeavor to plant 35,000 trees in one day.

KABUL, Afghanistan/NEW YORK, NY--International humanitarian agency Church World Service announced today that its long-time work in Afghanistan has been temporarily suspended by the Afghan Ministry of Economy, pending investigation of allegations related to an Afghan television news story claiming that CWS and another humanitarian agency, Norwegian Church Aid, had engaged in religious proselytizing.

CWS further announced in a statement that it has formally denied the allegations and expects the suspension will last only a few days, while the issue is investigated.

Abdul Raif, Headmaster of Qarghai Girls’ School, shares his views on education and the girls’ education project. Recalling the situation when he joined the school, he accounts, “initially the numbers of girl students were few, and it was difficult to get girls into schools; however, three years down the line it is heartening to see a substantial increase in enrollment figures. This is largely due to the awareness generated by the project intervention and complemented by the improved security situation.” Today his school boasts of 854 girls and 25 teachers, of whom 13 are female, an impressive figure by Afghan standards.

For the past several years, CWS-P/A reported success stories from its food security project in Sindh Province, Pakistan. Farmers started cultivating more land than prior to the construction of irrigation ponds and distribution of high quality seeds. Women joined self-help groups, started saving, and became small business entrepreneurs. But, what does it mean? How much better off are these families from rural Pakistan?

CWS-P/A continues its efforts to share information and encourage partners within Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as within other parts of Asia to pursue enhanced quality and accountability practices. From April 19-21, 2010, training, “HAP 2007 Standard on Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management,” was held with a partner in Nepal. Three of its implementing partners also attended the training.

As hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis remain displaced throughout the winter, ongoing smaller-scale military operations against militant groups continue to uproot new families forcing them to seek refuge in relatively more secure areas.

Despite the increasingly challenging security context in many areas of Pakistan, CWS-P/A’s humanitarian efforts to support displaced communities continue in the North West Frontier Province.

Kamila Barakzat spends her days engaged in one of the most challenging and sometimes taboo aspects of medical work in rural Afghanistan: women’s health and family planning.

Working within the deeply conservative and patriarchal social structures that characterize Afghan society, Kamila, a mother and child health coordinator with Church World Service, sees her work as central to the rebuilding of Afghanistan, particularly since many of the families served are former refugees who fled to Pakistan and Iran.

Over the past several months, CWS-P/A has continued its health awareness efforts on tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS with vulnerable communities Pakistan.

Beenish Hashwani, a health worker with CWS-P/A, has some unique opinions about funding for health efforts in developing countries. Basically: aid groups shouldn’t be competing against each other.

Over the past several months, the CWS-P/A Capacity Building Program has conducted several trainings to build the capacity of local community groups, teachers and others for improved education, social mobilization and advocacy.

In earthquake-affected areas of northern Pakistan, conflicts over water resources can sometimes become quite contentious – and simple projects to improve water and sanitation can turn into more complex peace building initiatives.

In the village of Rawah-na-Gala, situated in the union council of Jandali near Rawalakot, the initial provision of local government water supply systems did not prove to be entirely beneficial to the community. And eventually, the frustration between villagers increased and resulted in the dismantling of water distribution lines throughout the entire village.

AZIZ-ULLAH-KALOHE, PAKISTAN—Sufia, a mother of five, lost her husband ten years ago.

“I single-handedly had to start managing the house and five children. He was the sole bread-earner of our family and worked as a farmer,” said Sufia, who goes only by her first name. “I had assisted him occasionally with the field work but was primarily engaged in household chores.”

With a lack of education and an early marriage, Sufia, who lives in the Aziz-ullah-Kalohe village in the province of Sindh, felt helpless after her husband’s death. However, for some period of time she was able to make ends meet with some previous savings and financial assistance from her eldest son until his marriage.

More than 50 Afghan government ministries, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations and donor governments gathered in Kabul on Sunday to launch the first Afghan national platform to reduce the risks of disasters in the country.

The October 8, 2005 earthquake that devastated more than 30,000 square kilometers of northern parts of Pakistan left more than 73,000 people dead, displaced 3 million people, and injured or disabled more than 200,000  individuals.