A field diary from Umerkot, Pakistan

Zunaira Shams, Communications Manager, Sphere

Day 1 – Arriving in the desert heartland

The journey to Umerkot started early in the morning. Four and a half hours on the road, deep into Sindh’s interior, to a place that still feels untouched by development. The roads grew quieter as we moved further in, and by the time we arrived, I could already sense how different life here is.

We didn’t stop for long at the office of Community World Service Asia (CWSA). Soon after reaching, we left again for the field. The project I had come to see is a disaster risk reduction (DRR) and livelihoods programme, launched in June 2024, covering 15 villages in Umerkot. It took us another hour to get to the villages – a journey that the DRR team of CWSA makes every single day.

Our first stop was a remote village, Veroro Bheel, followed by Dharra Sar. Here, 18 women are directly involved in the project and a Village Management Committee has also been set up, with both men and women taking part in the decision making on every phase of the project (⇒CHS Commitment 4, key actions 4.2 & 4.3).

The impact of the work was visible everywhere. Women proudly showed us their kitchen gardens, planted with seeds provided through the project. Today, 460 such gardens thrive across the 15 villages where the project is being implemented – small patches of green in an otherwise dry landscape (⇒Sphere Food and nutrition 5: General food security, key actions). Families are also raising goats, some of which have recently given birth, and using hydroponic kits to grow fodder for them even in drought conditions – a livelihood support aspect of this DRR project (⇒Sphere Livelihoods 7.1: Primary production, key actions; LEGS 9: Technical standards for the provision of livestock). Farmers shared how they are now sowing drought-resistant seeds such as sesame and millet, crops that can survive on just one or two spells of rain (⇒Sphere Livelihoods 7.1: Primary production, guidance notes; SEADS 5.4: Crop and variety choice & 5.5: Seed quality).

What struck me most was the pride in people’s voices. The women spoke with joy as they showed their gardens, their goats, their progress. These were not just handouts but tools to rebuild life with dignity. Men and women alike are striving to improve their lives, and with thoughtful, quality support, they are doing so in a way that commands respect.

I left the village with a sense of hope. Each person I met had a small story of change to share, and together these stories painted a picture of resilience.

Day 2 – Water at the doorstep

The next morning, I woke up at 7 to prepare for another day in the field. This time, our journey took us to Bandi village. I was eager to see how Sphere’s WASH standards were making a difference in people’s lives there.

In Bandi, water has always been a struggle. I was told that previously, fetching water was mostly the job of women and children. They would walk three to four kilometres each day, spending four to five hours on this exhausting task. Some families tried to ease the burden by hiring water tankers together, but at 15,000 rupees (around USD 52) for one tanker for one week, it was an impossible cost for most.

Everything began to change in 2021, when an RO plant[1] was installed as part of CWSA’s DRR project. Four years later, the plant is still running, serving 75 households, each with about seven family members. With a 2,000-litre capacity, the plant can be filled twice a day, powered by a solar system that keeps it running smoothly (⇒WASH 2.1: Access and water quantity, key indicators).

Listening to the community, it was clear that this wasn’t just about having water nearby. It was about having safe and clean drinking water (⇒WASH 2.2: Water quality, guidance notes), something Sphere standards emphasise strongly. The standards on water supply and quality are not just words in a handbook – here, they are visible in everyday life.

As I watched women and children filling their pails close to home, I thought of how many hours of walking this plant had saved, and how much dignity it restored. For the people of Bandi, water no longer feels like a distant dream.

Day 3 – A school full of life

On the third day, I found myself waking up again at 7, this time to visit a school. We wanted to reach it before classes began, and for a moment, I felt like a student myself, rushing to avoid being late.

What I witnessed that morning was something special: a school feeding project launched in January 2024. In three schools, a whole system has been set up around meals. Each school has a cook, a woman assistant who washes and cuts vegetables, and a man assistant who collects groceries, arranges cutlery, and gathers firewood. Together, they make sure children receive a proper lunch every day.

The aim is simple but powerful – to keep children in school. What was once a school with no students now sees over a hundred children arriving each day, sitting attentively in their classrooms. The feeding project has turned empty benches into lively spaces, where learning feels possible again (⇒INEE 8: Equal and equitable access, key actions).

The difference was striking. Before the project, a typical breakfast for many children was just rusk with tea, and lunch could be little more than yogurt or chillies fried in oil with roti (a traditional thin flat bread); meals that were clearly not giving children the strength to learn effectively.

A nutrition assessment at the start of the project had shown worrying findings (⇒Sphere Food and nutrition 1.2: Nutrition assessment, key actions): many children were not eating breakfast at all, two schools had no attendance, and another had 35 children enrolled of whom none were actually going.

Seeing children now sitting together for a warm meal at school was deeply moving. The meals are made from locally available ingredients, prepared fresh each day (⇒Sphere Food and nutrition 4.2: Multi-sectoral support to infant and young child feeding in emergencies, key actions). Served on time, they give children the nutrition and energy they need to learn, play, and stay attentive in class (⇒Sphere Food and nutrition 6.1: General nutrition requirements). More than just food, these meals bring comfort and routine, and remind every child that their presence in school matters.

What stayed with me

I left the school thinking about how small changes – a meal at the right time, clean water at the doorstep, a goat resting at home – can transform entire lives. In Umerkot, I saw how standards are not just guidelines on paper. They’re helping people live with respect and hope, day by day.

Thank you to Community World Service Asia for the facilitating the thoughtful visit, and to the teams in Umerkot who are quietly bringing change to so many lives every day.

[1] A Reverse Osmosis plant is a water treatment system that uses a semi-permeable membrane to remove impurities from water.