Emergency response
When natural disaster strikes, CARE provides emergency food and nutrition support to those affected, especially young children, and pregnant and breastfeeding women. We also help people find new ways to make a living. We support public healthcare by building water and sanitation facilities for families returning home from emergency shelters and work with local organisations and the authorities to rebuild schools in areas affected by conflict, earthquake and floods.
Building resilience
Ensuring communities become more resilient is a key element of the CARE strategy. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (northern Pakistan), with funding from the European Union (ECHO), CARE has been working with conflict-affected people who have been displaced from their own homes and are having to rebuild their lives from scratch. As well as contributing to meeting their survival needs (food security and livelihoods) through cash transfer programmes (cash for work and conditional cash grants), the project is also strengthening local community capacity in food security and in water and sanitation service provision and management.
The cash transfer programme enables families to choose their own immediate priorities. Zakia, the mother of two young children who both suffer from chronic illness, said:
I am pleased and thankful to receive cash as through this I will take my children to the nearby hospital.
Abida (pictured above with her 3-month-old daughter) had been unable to nurse her child because of her own insufficient diet, but after attending a CARE session on maternal health and hygiene, and receiving cash support from the ECHO-funded project, she said:
I am thankful for this cash grant as through this I’ll improve my diet and buy milk for my daughter and go for a medical checkup.
Improving opportunities for women and girls
We work hard to create links with the private sector to improve career opportunities for women and young people living in rural areas. We work with local communities, the private sector and training institutes to help students gain the skills they need to find work or start a business. We encourage Pakistani companies to invest in their staff, improve access to training, jobs and business opportunities for youth, and help increase incomes and productivity.
Read more about our work in Pakistan in this two-page Factsheet:
You can directly support poor entrepreneurs in Pakistan
Our Lendwithcare programme works with local microfinance institution partners to offer loans to people in poor communities who are starting or building up a small business. Find out more about Lendwithcare and how you can make a small loan directly to an entrepreneur in Pakistan.
