A valley once full of homes, schools and businesses is now empty after the flood. Photo: PWS&D
Reconstruction in Pakistan to rebuild homes after the flood. Photo: PWS&D
Flood survivors Naushin and her newborn baby in Pakistan. Photo: PWS&D
Read more entries from the Pakistan Travel Blog
PWS&D communications coordinator, Barb Summers, is currently visiting program partners in Pakistan along with PWS&D program coordinator, Alex Macdonald, and Canadian Foodgrains Bank communications officer, Emily Cain.
I wish I could effectively describe the landscape of Pakistan’s Swat valley, however I’m afraid I just wouldn’t do it justice. Besides, while the natural beauty of the place is undeniable, I must say that the most amazing thing I’ve encountered on my trip so far has been the resiliency of the people we’ve met, especially given the magnitude of the challenges so many are now confronted with.
Visiting Flood Affected Communities
We arrived in Islamabad early Monday morning and have journeyed five hours north into Swat where our program partners, Church World Service – Pakistan/Afghanistan, (CWS-P/A) have been helping thousands of people in the region overcome tremendous losses due to massive flooding in July. The flooding has been cited as the worst in Pakistan’s history, affecting over 20 million people, and it is clearly an event that has scarred not just the physical landscape, but the lives of everyone affected.
The devastation is unbelievable. In a region once popular with tourists, dubbed “the Switzerland of Pakistan” due to its beautiful mountains, lush valleys and picturesque rivers, the area now seems forever changed.
Over the past two days, people have kindly taken us to where their homes and farmland used to be, only instead to be replaced by a vast valley of rubble with a thin sliver of a river running through it. That harmless looking river became an ocean to the people living nearby, flooding metres high, dragging away homes, buildings, crops, livestock and even people.
Naushin’s Story
In the village of Jurgali we spoke to several women gathered together to describe the destruction of their homes and livelihoods. One woman, Naushin, peered out at me curiously with big brown eyes behind a white head scarf. She told us it was 10:30 at night when her family evacuated. It had been raining for two days and when they watched other nearby buildings being destroyed, they knew their modest home wouldn’t last much longer. The family fled to a relative’s house further up the mountain. When they returned later, there was nothing left. No home, no belongings, not even the soil they once stood on.
A CWS emergency relief food package helped the family and others in the region for the first two months. The money they would have spent on food allowed the family of five to rent a small room in a nearby building. The food package contained rice, oil, salt, sugar, tea and some non-food items like matches and soap. Meanwhile, Naushin’s newborn baby couldn’t have picked a worse time to enter the world. Having arrived only weeks after the floods, the child’s family is homeless and without any means of income—and winter is approaching.
As Darkness Falls
It’s surprisingly cold at night in Swat. I realize I’m writing for a Canadian audience, where a long, cold, snowy winter is setting in, however I also know just how warm and cozy my apartment is in the winter. This area simply does not have the central heating luxuries or access to the same insulated clothing that we have, making a night where the temperature dips to a chilly five degrees, painfully cold.
It’s hard for me to imagine how Naushin and her family spend these cold evenings. Or the countless number of families now living in tents on the rocky debris where their homes once stood. It will be a long, difficult journey getting their lives back to normal. CWS has been invaluable in the first few months after the disaster, and now the initial crisis is over only to be replaced with a new one: how will we rebuild? Cash for work programs and assistance in livelihood establishment is vital in order to help people become independent again, though the amount of assistance needed is incredibly great. Many of the people I’ve met question how they are going to survive, wondering how they are going to have enough food for their families or how to find new sources of income. When asked about his future, one man simply shrugged and said, “God only knows.”
Tonight when we climb into our nice, warm beds, may we all remember the flood victims in Pakistan.
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Presbyterian World Service & Development is the development and relief agency of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Visit the PWS&D Facebook page.
