Khairpur Mirs and Beyond: PHWO's Free Welfare Support

Khairpur is a district of date palms, old forts and long desert roads. It was a princely state until 1955, and the Talpur Mirs’ palaces still stand in the city. Across its villages, though, many families live on what a date harvest or a day of labour brings. For those families, PHWO, the Peace and Humanity Welfare Organization, steps in as a voluntary, non-political NGO in Khairpur, and its services cost nothing.

You will not find a PHWO office in Khairpur. We have one office only, the head office in Larkana. Khairpur residents, from Gambat and Kingri to Faiz Ganj and Thari Mirwah, reach us on our website, through Message PHWO in a free PHWO account, or with the help of volunteers.

The largest district outside Karachi

With 2,597,535 people counted in the 2023 Census, Khairpur has more residents than any other district in Sindh except those in Karachi. It is also huge in area, 15,910 square kilometres, second only to Tharparkar, because its eastern half stretches into the Nara desert. About a third of people live in towns. The population grew slowly, by 1.29 percent a year, from 2,405,190 in 2017.

Khairpur is one of the most Sindhi-speaking districts in the province: census mother-tongue tables show well over nine in ten residents naming Sindhi. Just over half of those aged ten and above are literate, a figure helped by Shah Abdul Latif University and many colleges.

Dates, desert and seasonal work

Khairpur’s dates are sold across Pakistan and abroad, and the harvest in July and August employs whole families, including children, for a few weeks. After that, work thins out. In the Nara desert villages, families depend on rain-fed grazing and on men who migrate for labour. Water is scarce, health centres are far apart, and a single illness can mean a long, costly trip to the city.

These patterns explain why the requests we see most from places like Khairpur are for ration, for help with debt, and for a laptop or phone that lets a student keep studying or a young adult find work beyond the farm.

Applying to PHWO from Khairpur

Choose Request help on our website. Write your need in Sindhi or Urdu, then add a clear live photo of yourself. If you live in a desert village with weak signal, a relative in town can submit for you as long as the details are true.

Volunteers verify the information. Our team then looks at whether the need is established and whether PHWO can actually provide what is needed, and only then is help put in place. Nothing is promised in advance, and no one has the right to ask you for payment.

Free legal aid in Khairpur

The family courts of Khairpur district hear cases of khula, maintenance and custody, which are also the matters Khairpur women raise with us most. Some families also struggle with land and inheritance disputes after the death of a husband or father.

Fill in the free legal aid request. You do not need a police case to be registered first. Custody and urgent hearing dates are read ahead of other cases by our volunteer advocates. We try to connect you with a volunteer who practises in Khairpur, but cannot promise one, and we never predict a verdict. You can also ask at the district court about its legal empowerment committee.

Distance makes health care expensive

Because the district is so wide, a patient from a village near the Indian border may have to travel for hours to reach Khairpur city, Sukkur or Larkana for tests and surgery. Transport, lodging for the attendant and medicines bought from private shops add up quickly, even when the hospital itself is free. Pilgrims visiting the shrine of Sachal Sarmast at Daraza or families attending events at Kot Diji often mention the same problem: the road is long and the bus is costly.

If a hospital referral, a prescription or a surgery date has left your family unable to cope, include the papers with your request. PHWO treats health as one of its eight programme areas, although every case is still checked before any help is agreed.

Losses from the 2022 floods

The 2022 floods struck Khairpur hard. PDMA Sindh’s situation report of 13 September 2022 listed 88 union councils in the district as affected, second only to Hyderabad, and 622 kilometres of road damaged. That single report also recorded 44 deaths in Khairpur in just one 24-hour period. Date orchards were waterlogged and many families lost their homes. Disaster losses are one of the categories you can select in your request.

Support PHWO from Khairpur

Teachers, students at Shah Abdul Latif University and advocates at the Khairpur bar can join as volunteers. You might verify a case in your village or help families in the Nara area apply from their phones. Volunteers are given a certificate and letters recording their appreciation and experience.

Date traders and families with members working abroad can donate, sponsor a specific case, or use the Zakat calculator. Every rupee of Zakat and Sadaqah goes to deserving families.

The Rishta Desk is also free for Khairpur families of any religion. Profiles are checked with a live selfie and reviewed by PHWO staff, and the decision is always yours.

Public services in Khairpur you can also use

• Civil Hospital Khairpur (Khairpur Medical College)Government teaching hospital for the district.
• Khairpur district courtsFamily courts and the district's legal empowerment committee.
• BISP tehsil officesKafaalat and Nashonuma registration; helpline 0800-26477.
• EmergencyPolice 15; SIEHS ambulance 1122; Edhi 115; women's helpline 1094.

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

Frequently asked questions