Home  »  Where We Work  »  Pakistan  »  Light & Life

The village of Patkin is made up of 50 households and is located in the middle of the parched, dry landscape that characterizes Baluchistan. Like most villages in the region, Patkin has no electricity and is regularly plagued by drought. Finding water is a daily struggle. Agriculture and farming are the main sources of income in this region and failed crops have left many families living in desperate conditions. Although there are wells in the village, they only contain salty water and women have to walk for many miles in the baking sun to reach the nearest source of drinkable water.

“We Had No Idea We Could Help Ourselves”

Islamic Relief has been working in Baluchistan since 2002 and has already installed windmills in many villages to help draw water for the communities. However, it was decided that this work should be expanded so people could utilize the other natural resource they had in abundance, sunshine. Islamic Relief ’s community development officers helped the villagers of Patkin to form their own Community Organization (CO), identifying the need for clean water and electricity as their priorities.

Munir Ahmed, a teacher from Patkin, explained, “Before the Community Organization, we were scattered, selfish and did not care about helping each other, there was no unity among us. We had no idea that we could help ourselves by working together.” He continued, “With the help of Islamic Relief we formed a Community Organization both for men and women. Now the local villagers are united, we discuss our issues in our monthly meeting and find solutions to those issues.”

Identifying Problems

“Islamic Relief initiated work in the village by making the Community Organization. They told us how we should work for ourselves and to stand on our own feet. They told us that they would co-operate with us in solving the problems,” said Ali Ahmed, a resident of Patkin. “We had a drinking water problem. There was an open well in the village from where we fetched water for our household use. But to drink the water is risky and it has a bad smell and taste,” explained Ahmed. As a result of drinking the contaminated water, diseases such as diarrhea and dysentery were common throughout the village.

It is often the women’s job to fetch the water but this can mean walking for almost a whole day to find uncontaminated, safe water. The women said that this made them really tired and they often fell ill, making it difficult for them to look after their children. In addition, the lack of electricity in the village meant people had to burn kerosene lamps to light their homes and use firewood for cooking, both of which let off smoke that irritates the eyes and throat. After school, children had no choice but to do their homework using the oil lamps to see but this caused infections in their eyes and restrain them from studying.

Water For Life

Islamic Relief worked with the community to install a Solar Lighting and Water pumping system in Patkin, taking advantage of the blistering heat and strong winds in the region. The solar-powered water pumping system uses the sun to run a pump that brings water from deep under the ground, providing a source of safe water in the middle of the village. This saves women vital time and energy, allowing them to spend the rest of the day caring for their children or working on income generating activities such as traditional Balochi embroidery. Villagers helped with the construction of the central water tank and have also laid a pipeline to irrigate land so they can begin to grow crops, something that was unthinkable a few months ago.

“Before the installation of the solar pump, we faced problems in accessing clean drinking water. We would fetch water from far-flung areas and from open wells. But now we don’t have problems in accessing clean drinking water,” said Ali Ahmed.

Power From The Sun

Islamic Relief also installed solar panels on people’s homes, which provide them with light. Villagers have been trained on how to maintain the pumps and the panels which means the project is sustainable. And by using the sun as energy, it is also environmentally friendly. For villagers like Ali Ahmed the system has transformed their lives. “We use fuel wood for heating and cooking purposes but before the installation of the solar lighting system we used kerosene oil for lighting – this posed many problems,” he said. “Thanks to the new solar lighting our monthly expenses have become less.

National Development Director for Islamic Relief, Anwar Khan, takes a break with some children by a central water pump in Kharan, Pakistan. Islamic Relief established the water pumping system as a way to bring water to a central location in the village, making it easier on the community to have access to the much-needed natural resource. Because of the bright lights, my children study every night. When I see my children are studying I pray for Islamic Relief and the team.”

Community Organizations

Islamic Relief began its work in Patkin by forming a CO made up of members of the village who identified their main problems and also the solutions to overcome them.

As part of our support to COs in Pakistan, Islamic Relief provides a package of management and financial training. With this knowledge, the CO in Patkin has set up a savings system, which has allowed them to give small loans to members in order to help with their businesses or farming.

Sustainable Grass Roots Development

Islamic Relief has tried to help to set up COs in all the communities we work, with ensuring community participation and input, thus making our projects sustainable and appropriate to each village. Without the COs it is unlikely that our projects would be accepted by the community and would thus have limited long-term benefits.

The Most Difficult Times

Seventy-two-year-old Bibi Naaz is the manager of the female CO in Killi Abdul Samad Totaazi, a remote village in Kharan, Baluchistan. Bibi Naaz has partially lost her eye-sight and lives with 16 members of her extended family. “I have faced some extremely difficult situations in my life, most recently when we lost our animals and crops in the long drought. By losing these we have been through the most difficult times of our life,” Bibi said. “Not only that but there is very little water for drinking and washing and we used to fetch water from far away areas which was difficult and took a long-time.”

“We were scattered, there was no unity between the residents of Killi. Each of us was thinking in isolation and was not bothered about other people’s problems. With the formation of the Community Organization, we learned we can find solutions to our problems and help each other. We also learned about saving money for worse situations and for our community development.”

Through the formation of the Community Organization, the village identified the need for clean water and also income generating activities as major issues. “The old well was not covered and was polluted with dirt and sometimes deadly animals like snakes. That caused a number of diseases among people.” Islamic Relief has been working with the community, providing them with hand-pumps and also livestock so they can produce milk, butter, yogurt and wool to sell in the market.