Moti Jan, 55, lives in a shanty house with her husband and two sons in a remote village of Muzaffarabad district of Azad Kashmir (AJK).
Being poor, it is mighty difficult for her to buy medicines for her asthmatic husband Abdullah and son Jahangir. She earns her living doing odd jobs in the village.Most of the time, she can’t even earn a farthing causing the family to sleep on an empty stomach. This also seriously affects the health of the husband and son.

Frequent visits to the hospital and purchase of drugs for the asthmatics drain the money she earns through the sweat of her brow.Since the hospital is located at a distance from her village, a lot of hard-earned money goes down the drain as transport expenses. Sometimes, she has to borrow to meet the family’s basic needs.

In August 2017, the Pakistan Red Crescent through its Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) supported Community Based Organizations (CBOs) for rehabilitation of 37 small communal projects. The CTP pilot project was linked to DRC supported CBDRR project in the Valley of Sarli Sacha, AJK. The project was supported by the American and British Red Cross and IFRC.

Being an active member of ‘Women Committee’ in her village, Moti Jan attended all the meetings and trainings organized on public health and disaster risk reduction.

In a committee meeting, she agreed to work as labor in a conduit rehabilitation project supported by the PRCS.

Making allowances for her age, she was tasked with fetching drinking water for laborers and bringing lunch from their houses to the workplace. She worked hard for 25 days earning Rs15,000.

Though the earning was not enough to meet the family’s expenses for a full one month, she was able to buy a goat and to pay off half of debt.

One of objectives of the Cash Grant Program was to contribute to enhancement of food security and livelihood of vulnerable communities through the cash-based intervention.

Post-distribution monitoring of the intervention showed that community participation in form of labor yielded other benefits beyond the immediate cash benefits.

A wealth of evidence showed that the cash grant was beneficial for health and welfare of the beneficiaries.

Cash transfers can improve health directly by helping to pay for services, transport and medicine, and indirectly by reducing poverty and influencing the social determinants of health. While the CTP design was not explicitly gendered, its impact may be greater because it empowered a female caregiver in this case.

The contributor is Program Manager PMER at PRCS, NHQ