Statistics and world demography tell us that by the year 2050, 20% of world’s population will be elderly people, and we have to work today in order to scale up and be prepared to face this challenge and address the issue.

Europeans today are living longer than ever before and are expected to live longer and longer. Today, 1 in every 6 citizens is aged 65 or over. In less than 50 years time, almost 1 in every 3 citizens will be 65 or over.

Pakistan has a population of 180 million, but if we look at Pakistan’s demography pyramid we will find only 4.5% of the population in that pyramid to be elderly. Pakistan has a high fertility and high mortality rate whereas in developed countries there is low fertility and low mortality.

“As the headmistress, I constantly motivate students to keep striving to learn more. When girls graduate, I encourage them to gain a higher education. This will make them well-educated and increase the participation of women in Afghan society,” shares Liluma, a headmistress at Qarghai Girls High School in Laghman Province. A World Bank report published in 2010 revealed that the 2009 labor participation rate for females in Afghanistan was 33.10%. In addition to low female participation, years of war have pushed the country into deep economic hardship with weak infrastructure and governance.

Approximately one hundred guests attended the launch of the Mobile Knowledge Resource Center (MKRC) held on December 12, 2011 in Karachi’s Beach Luxury Hotel. The event is a milestone in disaster risk reduction and helps communities stay prepared through innovative techniques that reduce their vulnerabilities and increase their capacities for the future disasters. Among others these innovative approaches include town-watching exercises, sandbag preparation, life-saving bottle making, and constructing a rescue boat. Additionally, communities will receive emergency bags and first-aid training.

The first World AIDS Day was celebrated on December 1, 1988. The World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice, and improving education. World AIDS Day is important for reminding people that HIV has not gone away and that there are many things still to be done.

“By virtue of being born to humanity, every human being has a right to the development and fulfillment of his potentialities as a human being.” Ashley Montagu

It is fair to say that some development efforts of the past have been made at the expense of our environment. In the name of income generation and economic prosperity, natural resources have been exploited through activities like deforestation, mining operations, and off-shore drilling. While economic gains have been achieved through these efforts, they have almost always benefited only a small portion of the global population, leaving the majority to suffer with a lack of access to dwindling and polluted resources. In many countries, including Pakistan, development has assumed the form of industrialization in a relentless quest to increase exportable goods and open the country up to international investment. This tension between development efforts and environmental sustainability has led to a myth that pits efforts to improve human well-being against environmental stewardship, claiming that the two are in a constant opposition. In essence, the environment must suffer in order to improve human well-being: trees must be cut, minerals must be mined, and water-resources must be exploited. With the global population growing exponentially, and the once vast amount of natural resources being depleted at a rapid rate, we must ask ourselves a very important question; can development efforts be environmentally sustainable?

Today, the world celebrates the International Day of Peace. The UN established an international day dedicated to encouraging individuals, organizations, and nations all over the world to create practical acts of peace together. The day is a both a commemoration of the ideals of peace and a symbol of the ongoing efforts of the UN and the world to attain peace. In 2002, twenty-one years after it was first established, the International Day of Peace was cemented as a permanent institution to mark the world’s progress along the path towards peace. Since its inception, it has grown in scale, coming to include millions of people across the globe who participate in events of varying sizes to celebrate the day. This year, the celebration follows the theme ‘Make Your Voice Heard’, in tribute to individuals everywhere who have rallied together for peace.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, students often lack decision-making abilities as a result of a lack of support from parents who do not have the means to provide for the development of their children. In other cases, where the means do exist they tend to be channeled toward the upbringing of a son. Consequently, it remains no surprise that the dropout rate among girls in Pakistan is very high, and in Afghanistan, the statistic for female education (15-24 years) is at only 18.39%. Educational achievements at all levels for female students have been reported to be higher as compared to male students in Pakistan. However, female students often do not complete their education due to their family’s financial situation, social barriers imposed on girls, and a lack of quality education and resources. For this reason, organizations working in the education sector should emphasize the importance of providing a way for Pakistani and Afghani girls to access quality education and meet their academic potential.

The advent of current monsoon season is accompanied by the first anniversary of most devastating floods in the history of Pakistan:  Floods 2010.  The gushing water was on account of severe rain spells over Pakistan which first hit Baluchistan in the third week of July 2010.  These were followed by a second spell of heavy monsoon rains over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the last week of July 2010.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN: Co-authored by Mansoor Raza and Irfan Khan, Church World Service-Pakistan/Afghanistan’s research on quality and accountability in the humanitarian sector is the first of its kind conducted in Pakistan. With increasing pressure from donors and responsibilities to beneficiaries the issue of quality and accountability remains crucial while CWS-P/A’s research stems from the role which the organization plays in the quality and accountability discourse; locally, regionally, and globally. CWS-P/A is committed to the standards set by the Sphere Project, an initiative that promotes standards by which to respond to the plight of people affected by disasters, and is also certified under Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) and conducts HAP trainings for other humanitarian organizations in the Asia South Pacific region.

CWS-P/A in collaboration with SEEDS Asia will soon launch the first Mobile Knowledge Resource Center in Pakistan. MKRC is an innovative way to bring disaster risk reduction and capacity building to rural communities; it aims to reach the unreachable with a culture specific approach to DRR and education. MKRC was first piloted in Myanmar as a collaborative effort by Church World Service, SEEDS Asia, and Myanmar Engineering Society.

This year’s Global Peace Index positions Pakistan at 146 out of 153 countries around the world. While neighboring Afghanistan ranks worse at 150. In 2010, Pakistan was positioned at 145 out of 149 countries and Afghanistan at 147. The scores are based on indicators including crime, terrorism, government, democracy, and respect for human rights.

In Pakistan, around 50% of children and adults are given antibiotics without prescription for common ailments like respiratory tract infections. Almost ten years after the WHO global strategy for containment of antimicrobial resistance was published, the World Health Organization has announced this topic as the theme for World Health Day in 2011.

Watching TV after a long and tiring day of juggling responsibilities at work and family is a relaxing experience for me. One night when I was comfortably tucked in bed watching TV, I happened to watch a new TV commercial marketing a special ladies package of a local mobile network. The advertisement highlighted how the role of a housewife is so tiresome yet easily overlooked by her family. Though this concept may be true to a certain extent, it somehow gave me an impression that the role of a women is limited to the basic household chores, and by just fulfilling these basic responsibilities, women crave appreciation from their family members. Though this may be true for past generations, the women of today also experience job enrichment in many ways.

Floodwater receded approximately six months ago in most areas of Pakistan, but the debris, homelessness, and jobless conditions persist. For many survivors from the northern areas, the winter has nearly passed without proper shelter, warm clothes, or heating facilities. Millions of people received some form of assistance since the onset of floods, but there are still areas where no assistance reached. Despite compassion and support from the international community, there were not sufficient resources mobilized quickly enough to reach all affected communities. As families struggle to find the means to rebuild their lives, life continues one day at a time. For some, it is a struggle to clear agricultural land. For others, access to food and proper shelter remains an unknown possibility. Illness, without access or resources to access health facilities, plagues thousands of individuals.

Understanding the complexity of human rights issues, violations, and achievements in Pakistan and Afghanistan is far from easy. With a combined population of approximately two hundred million people, the two governments have a great and challenging responsibility to ensure human rights for all, not just a few. In less developed countries, common factors affect progress toward protecting human rights; extreme poverty, weak justice systems, inadequate education systems, corruption, and abuse of power are a few examples.

For World AIDS Day 2010, CWS-P/A's health team in Mansehra has organized a walk on December 1 to raise awareness on HIV and AIDS. As many as five hundred participants including school students, elders, religious leaders, and other community members will take part in the walk which will commence from CWS-P/A's basic health unit in Ichrian. Students will also participate in a speech competition and display posters that demonstrate the causes and realities of HIV and AIDS.

Universal Access and Human Rights

Since 1988, December 1st each year marks the global World AIDS Day, with different themes for each year. For each World AIDS Day from 2005 through 2010, the theme is "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise." with a yearly sub-theme. This overarching theme is designed to encourage political leaders to keep their commitment to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care, and support by the year 2010. The sub theme for 2010 is Universal Access and Human Rights.

Too often when the topic of child rights is discussed in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the focus is on violations and how each country fails to provide safe environment and equal rights to its millions of children.  The unfortunate side to this discussion is facts of child labor, early marriages, violence, and trafficking. However, there is another side to this story; thousands of organizations and individuals work every day to help protect Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s children and improve their quality of life.

This year’s theme for the World Food Day is ‘United against Hunger’ which no doubt is a powerful theme. There needs to be a coordinated approach at international, regional, and national levels as well as between various support institutions if we are to reduce the population suffering from hunger by half by 2015. We must be united in addressing food insecurity at all levels so that policies and strategies at the macro level prove meaningful for people at the grass roots level. The fact that the world has never seen so much hunger before does raise the question whether we are doing enough together to fight hunger? The world has now reached a critical level of over a billion people suffering from hunger!

DERA MURAD JAMALI, NASEERABAD DISTRICT, PAKISTAN: The flooding in Balochistan as elsewhere in Pakistan is likely to change the demography in a big way since a large chunk of internally displaced persons (IDPs) won’t return to their homes in rural areas.