Located in a remote corner of southern Pakistan, the Thar Desert borders the military line of control on the frontier with India. Home to a population of one million Muslim and Hindu pastoralists, this arid, poverty stricken region is literally a dead end. The traditional marginalised communities who eke out a life in the sands have little access to health facilities, education or the outside world.
The women here, who live hidden away from the harsh light in a strict purda, have almost no access to mother and child health care. Rates of maternal mortality are more than double the national average in a country that has one of the world’s worst rates, and levels of infant mortality are little better. With only two beds available to female patients at the single district hospital, women rely heavily on traditional medicines and birth attendants. Stories of premature deaths still permeate almost every family.
A grassroots rural NGO however is setting out to change all that. By training women from within the communities in safe pre and ante natal practices, so called MARVI lady health workers have begun to provide basic assistance, medicines and family planning from a small network of mud huts scattered throughout the desert communities. Supported by Save The Children, the outreach scheme is slowly beginning to make a difference, empowering the female population in these forgotten dead end sands.