Program Details: 
Rebuilding, Village By Village

Mercy Corps has been working in Pakistan since 1986, when we began providing humanitarian assistance to Afghan refugees in Balochistan province. Since then, our activities have expanded throughout the country. Today we’re working to improve access to health care, expand public facilities like roads and irrigation systems, and increase opportunities for people to earn a living. All these initiatives are revitalizing Pakistani communities and helping people live healthier, more productive lives.

From Response to Recovery
Whenever Mercy Corps responds to disasters such as earthquakes or floods, our immediate aim is to meet humanitarian needs; then, as quickly as possible, we transition to efforts focused on achieving long-term self-sufficiency. Our work in Pakistan is a case in point.

In 2005, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 78,000 people and left over three million homeless in the country's northwestern districts. With assistance from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID, we distributed food, supported mobile medical teams, rebuilt five primary healthcare facilities, and provided cash- for-work jobs that aided in clean-up efforts and emergency winter shelter. We then helped communities build back better by showing people how to make their houses earthquake resistant.

Boosting Livelihoods
Building back better also means helping survivors get a firmer hold on their financial future, strengthen their livelihoods and generate much-needed cash income for themselves and their families.

To these ends, Mercy Corps:

• Initiated a business grant project in 29 villages of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), providing small cash outlays to entrepreneurs in accordance with community plans. Our grants have helped revitalize the local economy and increase access to goods and services in remote areas.
• Has opened training centers in two districts that teach women sewing and embroidery techniques to make saleable clothing and handicrafts.
• Is training young women in animal health services, so they can better tend their own livestock and help farmers in nearby villages.
• Is training villagers to collect medicinal and aromatic plants they can sell at local markets.

Both our medicinal plants project and our garment project are already helping the women who participate earn significantly higher incomes for their families.

In addition, Mercy Corps:

• Is providing primary health care and maternal and child health care to refugees and host communities in Quetta, through awareness raising in the communities and capacity building of local health care facilities and their staff.
• Is implementing TB and Malaria control interventions and birth spacing projects in Balochistan and Sindh provinces.
• Is working with agricultural communities to innovatively connect them with regional markets. Currently we are looking at new opportunities to produce and sell dairy products and high-value nuts and fruits to boost farmers’ incomes.

Helping to End Tuberculosis
According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan has the eighth-highest burden of tuberculosis infections in the world. Every year in Pakistan, approximately 280,000 people develop TB and 55,000 people die of the disease.

Mercy Corps is working to stop the spread of this disease by conducting advocacy, communications and social mobilization interventions in 57 districts of Pakistan across all four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and the FATA agencies. Mercy Corps works both directly and indirectly through our partners in the target districts.

Better Maternal-Child Health
Pakistan suffers from some of the highest maternal and newborn mortality rates in the world. The Pakistan Initiative for Mothers and Newborns, funded by USAID and other partners, provides community-based health education, including training for health workers and birth attendants. Awareness raising community events and workshops help pregnant mothers prepare to give birth, recognize possible danger signs during pregnancy and know when to seek medical care.

In Quetta, Mercy Corps conducts positive deviance nutrition sessions, 12-week courses that help mothers with dangerously malnourished children. The classes provide a meal for the kids, while helping the mothers learn better cooking techniques that emphasize the nutritional value of grains, fruits and vegetables.

As a result of Mercy Corps’ many projects in Pakistan, people there are healthier, with more opportunities to earn a living and support their families, while communities are becoming more resilient, productive and self-sufficient.