Free Welfare and Legal Help for Families Across Ghotki District

Drive north on the National Highway from Sukkur and you pass gas wells, fertiliser plants and some of the most fertile cotton and wheat land in Sindh. Ghotki produces wealth for the whole country, yet many of the people who live beside the pipelines still borrow to buy flour. For anyone in this district looking for an NGO in Ghotki that never charges a rupee, Peace and Humanity Welfare Organization (PHWO) is open to applications from each Ghotki union council, whatever a family’s caste, tribe or religion.

Please note that PHWO has no office, godown or local staff anywhere in Ghotki. Its one and only registered address is in Larkana. People in Ghotki, Daharki, Ubauro, Mirpur Mathelo and Khanpur Mahar reach us online, by messaging PHWO from a free PHWO account, or through someone from their own mohalla who volunteers.

Ghotki District, counted in 2023

The 2023 Census recorded 1,772,609 people in Ghotki District on 6,083 square kilometres. Only 21.4 percent of them live in towns; the rest are spread across villages along the Indus and the canals. The district has grown slowly since 2017, when it had 1,648,708 residents, at about 1.2 percent a year. Households average 5.3 people.

According to the provincial census report, Ghotki falls in the 40 to 50 percent literacy band, and between 45 and 60 percent of its children aged 5 to 16 are not in school. The same report places Ghotki among the districts where only 10 to 20 percent of homes cook with gas, a striking figure for a district that sends so much gas to the rest of Pakistan.

Sindhi is the main language, with Seraiki widely spoken near the Punjab border at Ubauro and Reti.

Riverine villages and the cost of insecurity

The katcha belt along the river is home to thousands of small farmers and herders, but lawlessness there has made daily life hard. Parents keep children home from school for fear of kidnapping, teachers are reluctant to be posted to remote villages, and traders avoid some roads after dark. When a family’s only earner is harmed or cannot work, the household can fall into debt very quickly.

If you live in one of these areas, you do not have to travel to ask PHWO for help. A phone is enough. We will never ask you to meet anyone in an isolated place, and no genuine volunteer will ask you for money.

What Ghotki families can request

• Ration for a household with no steady income, or for a widow and her children.
• Help with debt owed to a shopkeeper, commission agent or landlord, especially where interest keeps growing.
• A laptop or phone to keep studying or to earn. This is one of the requests PHWO receives most often, and in Ghotki it can let a college student in Daharki or Mirpur Mathelo take online classes or a graduate earn from home.
• Medicine, fees, rent, or losses from a flood or fire.

Apply through Request help. You will add a live photo of yourself, and can explain your need in Sindhi, Seraiki or Urdu. A volunteer may confirm the details. The request is then assessed, and support is arranged only where the need is real and PHWO can meet it; nothing is promised in advance.

Free legal aid in Ghotki

Ghotki women who write to PHWO about the law usually need help with khula, with maintenance that a husband has stopped paying, with dowry articles kept by in-laws, or with custody. In Ghotki these are heard by the family courts in the district courts at Mirpur Mathelo, which is the district headquarters, and at the taluka courts.

Describe the dispute in your own words on the free legal aid page. You may ask even if no case has been filed and no FIR exists. Tell us plainly if a child is involved or if a hearing is only days away, because volunteer advocates look at those first. PHWO cannot promise that a lawyer will be found or what a judge will decide. Mirpur Mathelo’s District Legal Empowerment Committee is a second route, since it can pay for a lawyer for people who cannot afford one.

Where a woman faces violence at home, the first calls should be to 15 for police and 1094, Sindh’s women’s helpline.

The 2022 floods in Ghotki

Rain and floodwater reached 66 union councils of Ghotki in 2022, according to PDMA Sindh’s situation report of 13 September, which also recorded 252 kilometres of damaged road. At that time 45 relief camps in the district sheltered 8,372 people. The Deputy Commissioners of Sukkur and Ghotki together reported 29,299 damaged houses. Many families replaced roofs and livestock with borrowed money, and some are still repaying.

Volunteer, donate or pay Zakat from Ghotki

Engineers and workers at the gas fields and fertiliser plants, teachers, doctors and above all lawyers can make a real difference by joining as a volunteer. You might check a neighbour’s request, help an older person fill in a form, or take on a family case. In return, each Ghotki volunteer is given a PHWO certificate plus letters of appreciation and of experience.

Landowners and salaried families can donate cash or wheat and clothes, or sponsor a case for one Ghotki household. No deduction is taken from any Zakat or Sadaqah you route through us, and the Zakat calculator helps you find your amount. Families looking for a match may join the free Rishta Desk; it welcomes all faiths, each profile is checked with a live selfie and reviewed by PHWO staff, and parents keep the final say. You can read about all eight of our focus areas on the programmes page.

Public services in Ghotki you can also use

• District headquarters hospital, GhotkiGovernment hospital for the district; referral cases go to Sukkur.
• District courts, Mirpur MatheloFamily courts and the District Legal Empowerment Committee for poor litigants.
• Sindh Emergency Rescue Service 1122Covers accidents on the National Highway and emergencies in Ghotki towns.
• BISP tehsil officesKafaalat and Taleemi Wazaif enquiries; helpline 0800-26477.
• Sindh PoliceEmergency 15; women's helpline 1094; Edhi ambulance 115.

These are public or independent services, listed to help you. They are not part of PHWO.

Frequently asked questions