HelpAge Pakistan Country Office

HelpAge International has been working in Pakistan for three decades. In the beginning, activities were implemented through Pakistan Medico International (PMI) in Karachi – a network member with a focus on Ophthalmic care.

HelpAge established its Pakistan office in July 2010 and two weeks into the establishment of country office, the floods emergency of 2010 occurred. Given the dual mandate of the organisation, HelpAge International implemented a humanitarian response to the floods emergency consists of health, shelter, food, NFIs, psycho-social support and early recovery. Since then, HelpAge has been responding to the emergencies which includes Floods, earthquakes, and displacements across Pakistan.

In addition to relief activities, HelpAge International has been modelling interventions for older people in the areas of Livelihoods & Social Protection, Health, Disaster Risk Reduction, and raising voice for recognition of older people’s vulnerability and their inclusion in the development and humanitarian policies and actions.

HelpAge International has facilitated federal and provincial governments for introduction of new laws for protection of the rights of older people. Senior Citizen Act has been passed by the provincial parliaments of KP and Sindh in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

Today, we work in the most remote and challenging areas in the country, with our focus on emergency, disaster risk reduction, health, livelihood and advocacy.

We have strong outreach to older people at household level though a network of older people’s associations (OPAs) in Sindh, KP and Punjab. We have set up more than 200 OPAs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab. These OPAs work with us and also perform as community based platforms for attaining older people’s rights to better health services, sustainable livelihoods, social protection, and preparing communities and older people to cope with natural and human caused disasters.

Current projects

Currently we are implementing number of humanitarian and development projects across Pakistan, including:

  • Empowering Older People to improve lives:  The objectives of this programme are to improve the mid-term food and livelihood security of 2000 disadvantaged Older People’s households and to set in place structures and standards that improve OP’s access to livelihoods support and social protection in the long term at provincial and national level.
  • Moving from the Margins: Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Older Persons in Pakistan: The project  aims to carry out a research on the current situation of older people in Pakistan, their specific issues and rights using human rights framework.
  • Building Disaster Resilience in Pakistan-BDRP: The project targets at poor people in Pakistan, especially the most vulnerable to them become more resilient to natural disasters
  • RELIEF – Responding to the evolving and long term TDP emergencies in federally administered tribal areas  (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP): This is a humanitarian programme that provides immediate assistance and recovery support to temporarily dislocated communities in KP/FATA according to their needs, aided by preparedness actions by the RELIEF members and in coordination with other humanitarian actors and assistance mechanisms.
  • Addressing the immediate lifesaving needs of the most vulnerable Temporarily Displaced People (TDP) groups including Older People, People with Disability (PWDS), women and children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan: Improved health and livelihoods of Temporary Displaced People (TDPs) and Returnees in FATA and KP through access to immediate lifesaving assistance. This will be addressed through the provision of essential healthcare, livelihoods and protection support to vulnerable TDPs including older people, persons with disabilities, and women headed households.
  • WASH and Health Recovery support for the returnees: The aim of the proposed action is to address basic needs (primary health care, rehabilitation and psycho-social services) of vulnerable returnees to Orakzai and Khyber agency, in particular those of children, pregnant and lactating women, isolated people, older people and persons with disabilities, through the support to 4 health facilities and the provision of home-based rehabilitation and psychosocial support services.
  • Promotion of the Rights of Older people (PRO-People): The objective of the project is to facilitate implementation and monitoring of the Senior Citizens Act (2014) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan. In order to do so, the relevant government ministries and departments will be provided with technical assistance to set up the appropriate mechanisms to implement and monitor the Act.

Partners in Pakistan

Contact information

Waqas Ashfaq Qureshi
Advocacy & Communications Coordinator
HelpAge International Pakistan
2nd Floor, 85-East, Kamran Centre,
Jinnah Avenue, Blue Area, Islamabad
Tel: +92 051-8356476
Fax: +92 051-8356486
Email: waqas.qureshi@helpagesa.org