Food Security Project (Food Cards in Tharparkar and Karachi)

Inflation rate in Pakistan is on the rise the past few years. Worsening economic situation has

put food, one of the basic necessities of life, out of reach of many people. This has resulted in

malnutrition and that has remained unresolved for decades. Existing approaches, like Ration

distribution are severely inadequate. The ration distribution drives become source of great

humiliation for the beneficiaries and they completely exclude the lower middle class of

communities in need. Recipients of ration distribution often face psychological trauma, which

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embedded in their thought processes which hinder their journey towards social mobility and

independence. We have enormously changed the idea of ration distribution by providing

beneficiaries with digital cards which they can use to redeem at any of our Right Choice stores.

One of the major impacts of this intervention was that the circle of beneficiaries expanded to

the people who never wanted to compromise on their dignity for their food. Also, the

beneficiaries started to actualize their self-worth and self-esteem. Lastly, our experience indicated that the beneficiaries buy varied items as per their houselhold needs which are very

different from a pre-packed ration pack. The beneficiaries got a chance to decide their needs

without any form of external imposition.