Pakistan, Oct. 3 -- I went to HELP to learn what public health means. They put me in a kindergarten.

My first assignment at the Health, Education and Literacy Programme (HELP) left me confused. I had arrived hoping to understand public health. I had expected clinics, health workers and perhaps hospital visits. Instead, I was stationed in the school above the clinic in Neelum Colony, surrounded by kindergarten and lower-primary students.

HELP is a Karachi-based non-profit working across Sindh on maternal and child health, early childhood development, sanitation and community healthcare. Its roots go back to the 1980s, when volunteer medical students began providing primary care to underserved communities. Its motto is deceptively simple:...