Care sustained through presence.

Worphan’s work in Pakistan is carried through ongoing presence rather than formal infrastructure. It is shaped by the gap between need and available resources, and by the consistency required to return week after week to communities where support is scarce.

This work did not begin with buildings or programs. It began with people showing up, responding to need as it appeared, and staying when it would have been easier to leave.

The Work in Practice

Shahid and his wife, Noreen, travel regularly to communities across Pakistan, including both urban areas around Lahore and remote regions near the Indian border.

Each week, they reach hundreds of children and families. Their focus is practical and immediate: teaching children to read, providing food, and responding to urgent needs as they arise. Where children cannot safely remain with their families, Shahid and Noreen take them into their own home for care until other arrangements can be made.

The work is mobile, relational, and resource-constrained. Travel is difficult and often risky, carried out by motorcycle over long distances.

Equipment breaks. Journeys are uncomfortable. Needs outpace capacity.

And still, they return.

Shahid’s role is best understood as a coordinator and community worker. He organises visits, maintains relationships across communities, and responds when families call, which they do when visits are missed.

Shahid and Noreen

Noreen is a teacher. She leads literacy education for children, often with the help of her own two children, using simple materials and music to engage those who have never attended school.

Their work is sustained through trust built over time. It is requested by the communities they serve, not imposed upon them.

Together, their household becomes an extension of the work, a place of learning, temporary shelter, and stability when alternatives do not exist.

In the course of a single week, Shahid and Noreen may work with more than 200 children, providing education and food that also supports families under pressure.

This is early-stage work, constrained not by commitment, but by resources. The need is large. The means are limited.

At times, children stay with Shahid and Noreen for weeks or months, depending on circumstance. Each situation is handled individually, with care taken to respond appropriately rather than uniformly.

Scale and Reality

There is a shared aspiration to bring greater stability to this work.

This includes the possibility of a permanent home for orphaned children, a more established school environment, consistent access to food and healthcare, and safer, more reliable transport to reach remote communities.

For now, the work continues as it has; through presence, persistence, and relationships, while longer-term structure is carefully considered.

Looking Ahead

Worphan supports this work by standing alongside what already exists.

Support has been personal, relational, and transparent, helping sustain presence where absence would otherwise follow. As Worphan develops formally, the aim is not to change the nature of the work, but to help stabilise it.

Worphan’s Role