Integrated development and community empowerment in Sindh

Shahid Khan CEO of Indus Earth Trust talks about empowering a community to rebuild their village in Sindh after the floods of 2011.

Indus Earth Trust (IET) was established in 2000 with the simple vision of providing help to neglected coastal communities in Pakistan. This film explores the work of IET in the village of Peeru Patel in Sujawal, Sindh.

IET worked closely with the community to supply clean water pumps and solar street lighting. They also worked towards community empowerment, holding local and regional government bodies and officials democratically accountable, and explored the importance of women’s education and empowerment to society. Indus Earth Trust believes that poverty is a complex, multi-layered issue, so that development must have an integrated approach for success, and that development work cannot focus only on the here and now, but also on the generations to come. Long-term sustainability in an age of climate instability is a requirement, not an option. The devastating floods of 2011 in the Sindh regions reiterated this concern, which has become a cornerstone of IET’s approach. Currently, IET operates in 5 districts in Sindh and Balochistan, with 255,000 beneficiaries in over 400 villages.

Producer: www.indusearth.org

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