A Dubai-based Indian businessman, Joginder Singh Salaria, set up 62 water pumps in the Tharparkar district of Pakistan. He spent months first understanding the situation in the district, mostly through social media. A United National Development Programme report stated that the district had an 87% poverty headcount and is among the lowest in terms of social and development indicators in the country.

Salaria coordinated with social worker Bheal Khangar for the project. He said: “There are very few roads in the villages. The nearest hospital is 50 km away, and people need to walk 25 km to reach the main road. Schools are also very bad in those areas. Most children can’t go to school due to lack of opportunities, lack of easy access to school and lack of schools.” The UAE based man who runs a transport business used Facebook and YouTube to reach out to social workers in Pakistan and fund the operation. He also sent bags of grains to the locality.

“While India-Pakistan tensions were high following the Pulwama incident, we were installing hand pumps in these poor villages,” said Salaria.