*A group of local residents going to school in Naushahro Feroze. Photos by courtesy of Ms. Saima Siyal, DREAM NGO Chairperson.
Located in the Sindh province, the state that delineates an extensive border with India's northern regions, Naushahro Feroze is a district that comprises 5 administrative sub-regions: Moro, Naushahro Feroze (the district capital), Bhiria, Kandiar and Mehrabpur, each one home to approximately 300.000 citizens. The district's population is mainly rural. The vast majority of the population is Muslim (98%), and the languages most commonly spoken are Sindhi (89%), followed by Urdu and Punjabi. According to studies conducted in the province (Yousafzai, K. et al, 2016) within the sub-region of Naushahro Feroze and adjacent villages, approximately 17% of families were moderately food insecure, with 12.44% of children being classified as stunted, and 9.55% as malnourished, at 4 years of age. Furthermore, caregivers illiteracy is pervasive, being present in 67.51% of mothers and 28.8% of fathers. The vast majority - 99.16% - of primary caregivers within the study's sample population were biological mothers, out of which 21.27% were currently employed or working at home for wages. In regards to household family structure, as much as 78.96% were non-nuclear, incorporating extended family members or jointly living with other families in communal household spaces, with an average of 4 children per household. As of 2019, Pakistan Human Development Index(HDI) is 0.557, and life expectancy at birth was 67.3 years, with approximately 2.9% of the gross domestic product (GDP) directed to health expenditures. The GDP per capita is $4,690 (United Nations Development Programme, 2022) with pronounced income inequality, with a GINI coefficient of 0.31 as of 2018 (The World Bank, 2022) with 38% of the population living in multidimensional poverty ( United Nations Development Programme, 2022) . Neonatal disorders are the main contributor to the burden of mortality and morbidity, accounting for 24.27% of the total burden in DALYs in 2019 (IHME, 2022), followed by lower respiratory infections and ischemic heart disease, accounting for approximately 10% of the burden, combined.
Naushahro Feroze is also home to a resilient and resourceful community, implementing a vital primary care programme that is not only responsible for promoting the health and wellbeing of mothers and children, but also fosters female empowerment within a highly patricarchal society. More about this in the next post!
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