New Partnerships Initiative Expand Human Development Activity – Buner

USAID engages with Pakistan through bilateral cooperation and robust civilian and security assistance, allowing joint action on issues that are important to both the United States and Pakistan:  energy, economic growth, resilience, education, and health. An array of partnerships with the Government of Pakistan, the private sector, and Pakistani civil society help ensure that assistance programs are aligned with local priorities and build local capacity.  USAID seeks to develop transformational partnerships and practices, as well as legacy institutions, to ensure that assistance has a sustained impact beyond the implementation period of its programs.

My name is Faasla bibi, I am 32 years old and belong to Union Council Topai tehsil Gadezai where I live with my family of 5 (me, my husband, my two boys and a girl). My husband is a labourer, he earns around 20-22k a month, which is insufficient to cover our monthly household expenses as all our children are school-going. Lately, it just got worse due to the insane price escalation of household goods due to inflation. My husband’s income was barely enough to provide food to eat. I was highly stressed out and didn’t know what to do. I even thought of halting my kids’ education for some time but couldn’t make a firm decision regarding this. It felt like it was going to get worse with every passing day, raising my sense of impending doom another notch.

Help, was on its way, a neighbour of mine showed up at my door and informed me about Greenstar looking for potential female community health workers aka Sitara baji. She said that she had joined Greenstar as Sitara Baji and also advised me that being a socially active member of the community you can be of great benefit to the community and of course yourself too as you will be getting paid for your services. In addition to that, you will also be trained on various themes and will be given MCH and FP-related commodities on subsidized rates that you can sell for a profit. The best part is that Greenstar will support you establish your own clinic aka Sitara houses. You have to dedicate a room within your house for the clinic and Greenstar will support you in terms of essential equipment and furniture where you will replicate the role of a LHW. This whole package made it worth a shot.

The whole concept of Sitara baji truly fascinated me and of course, my need for money was the first thing that motivated me to go join Greenstar. I thought the money was good and secondly, I’ll be helping my own community which I would love to do. So I discussed it with my husband and convinced him on how this will help us in getting out of our misery. The next day I went to the district health office and submitted my expression of interest to which Greenstar responded and took me on board as Sitara baji.

It’s been my second month with Greenstar and Alhamdullilah with the additional money I bring home all my basic expenses including the school fees of my kids. My kids don’t have to discontinue their education leading to an easing of my mental stress.

I am genuinely grateful to Greenstar for helping me and others like me. This will definitely pay off for Greenstar.

Sustainability of Sitara Baji Model

The Sitara baji is a self-sustainable model. Greenstar will sustain SBs after the project rolls out by providing them with a basket of products (FP, MCH, Nutraceuticals, Self-care) for community sales which will help them generate an income making their work sustainable.

Quote by Faasla Bibi:

 “I was on the verge of being totally hopeless, but Allah’s help always finds a way to reach to the ones in need. I am very thankful to Greenstar for supporting me in my time of need.”