ActionAid began operating in Pakistan in 1992 and now works with 60,000 of the country’s poorest people, particularly small, landless farmers, women and urban poor people. Pakistan gained independence in 1947 when India was partitioned. Two-thirds of Pakistan’s population lives in rural areas, where poverty is almost 40 per cent.

We work mainly in food security, education and women's rights, as well as supporting people in conflict and emergency situations.

Child sponsorship in Pakistan

Many internally displaced children like Rani, 6, and Palvati, 8, (pictured right) live in temple shelters instead of their homes. Through child sponsorships, ActionAid has supported non-formal education for hundreds of children like Rani and Palvati. In Swat and Buner a volunteer education committee has been established to manage the overall school functions. ActionAid has hired ten female teachers from among the IDPs to teach students.

Pakistan's Monsoon floods of 2010 were the worst to affect the country in more than 80 years. The floodwaters covered a third of the country, killing over 1900 people and leaving 20 million without their homes, possessions or livelihoods. Thanks to the generous donations of ActionAid's supporters, we are helping to ensure that the most vulnerable victims of the floods can rebuild their lives.

• Sponsor a child in Pakistan

Health and relief in Pakistan

Recent economic and political instability has also hit Pakistan’s poor the hardest, with fighting, inflation (largely due to rising world prices) and the arrival of millions of Afghan refugees putting pressure on resources.

In May 2009, violence broke out between government and Taliban forces in the northwest of the country. 2.3 million people were forced to flee the fighting, and sought temporary relief in mobile camps. ActionAid Pakistan provided food and hygiene kits to almost 5,000 families, as well as distributing medicine and school supplies. We particularly supported women and children.

ActionAid’s HungerFREE campaign was launched in Pakistan in 2007, where agriculture accounts for roughly a quarter of the economy and employs nearly half the workforce. We promote sustainable agriculture, justice in food distribution and just laws for international trade. We also work to improve women’s access to land and defend the rights of fisherfolk who are being pushed into poverty by over-fishing from trawlers.

How you can help

When you sponsor a child in Pakistan, you'll be providing the resources for real, long-term change. You'll get two letters a year from the child you sponsor, and updates from the country programme to tell you how the money you are spending is changing the community your child lives in.

• Sponsor a child in Pakistan