Kalsoom Lakhani recently wrote a reflective inspiring piece about her experience of fundraising and creating awareness about the Pakistan floods on her blog CHUP.

When the floods initially hit in August, Kalsoom launched a campaign called Relief4Pakistan which in it’s first phase reached a target of $150,000 in just two months. The money raised was directed to Mercy Corps for immediate relief and assistance. Inspired and enthused by people’s response, Relief4Pakistan launched a second phase with a target of $250,000 for longer term rehabilitation in an area of Rajanpur district called Bangla Ichha which consists of 4 villages. This agrarian area is one of the worst affected where 2 out of 3 households are affected.

Kalsoom humbly writes about the lessons she and her team learned along the way and the importance of listening to the local community. This has led to a “community-based approach” in which they are partnering with social innovators, donors, local and international NGOs, but at the heart of it is the perspective of the community. Going with this approach, they had to scale down or re-prioritize well-meaning but perhaps ill-timed plans for rehabilitation and social innovation and instead focused on delivering what really mattered to the community. Kalsoom writes:

The answer was unanimous. The community, most of whom are poor farmers, needed wheat seeds and fertilizer in time for the planting season. They needed to restore their livelihoods. Our team was humbled and learned a big lesson – in order to ensure sustainability, the local community not only needs to be engaged, but they also need to be listened to.

Kalsoom also makes the important point that while attention is always great at the beginning of a disaster or emergency, it is harder to sustain interest and activism over the long term. Great work is still happening to rehabilitate the people in Pakistan, but as public (and hence media) interest fades away, efforts will also dwindle. To make any lasting difference it is this challenge which needs to be taken on. Individuals like Kalsoom have taken it head on. Let’s extend our support to them.

To read Kalsoom’s article, click here.

To learn more about Relief4Pakistan and donate to the cause, visit their webpage.

Inspired by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie’s talk titled “The Danger of the Single Story“, Asim Khan relates the key idea to Pakistan and notes that these days there is a ‘single story’ in the media about Pakistan – a depressing tale of doom and gloom, of terrorism and taliban, of floods and feudals. In that depressing single story, there is no room for optimism, hope or space for Pakistanis to be anything other than villains and victims.

We of course know there are multiple stories from Pakistan. Of ordinary people living their lives, children going to schools, youth activism, thriving villages, philanthropy and generosity, fashion designers and models, TV soaps and songs, media and commercials, literature and art…and yes also of poverty and suffering.

Asim writes, “As Chimamanda said, all stories and experiences we go through make us who we are but to only insist on the negative stories is to flatten our experience. We need access to many stories of Pakistan and not rely on the single story echoing in different corners of media all around the world. We need responsible journalism – and I cannot stress more of it’s importance. There is always a positive side to what happens in Pakistan – and please do not hesitate to share that.

Resilient Pakistan is one of many such initiatives, a platform, to share the multiple stories of Pakistan. Please join in and together we can make a difference.”

What’s your story of Pakistan?

Eid mubarak to everyone! Hope you enjoy the day with your friends and family!

There are those amongst us who are not forgetting the millions affected by floods this Eid ul Azha. Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) is taking on a much needed initiative. For their Eid Campaign 2010, they are requesting people to donate animals to flood affected families instead of slaughtering them– hence aptly called “a life-giving sacrifice”. 

Many of us had been worried about the impact of mass slaughter of animals this Eid. As we know over 1.2 million animals have died in the floods and many more million are at risk. While this of course has larger repercussions on the economy, especially the agriculture and livestock sector, it also has a very direct impact on the livelihoods of families who raise animals for their milk, meat, young kids and for selling to others.

“For Eid-ul-Azha sacrifice this year, join PAWS and help restore the lives and livelihood of people affected by the floods. Buy a goat – and this year, instead of sacrificing it, send it back to a village to replace what was lost and help people back onto their feet. Goats can provide an ongoing income for families through the sale of milk, ghee, meat and kids, as well as supplement their own diet and agriculture.

Your donation of 12,000 PKR will buy a healthy, local goat and will deliver that goat to a flood refugee in Sindh. This cost includes: purchase of the goat and its delivery to the flood affected family, initial veterinary examination including vaccination and drenching, and high quality fodder for two months (as fodder is not easily available in the areas to where the families are returning).” (Source: PAWS)

 Having discussed the situation with friends and family, there is quite a mixed feeling on the issue of subsituting animal slaughter ‘qurbaani’ with donating animals. There are many who would prefer to slaughter animals because they believe it is ‘wajib’ (a necessary injunction but decreed on the basis of a text which has some doubt in it). But it also seems that there are others who do it because it is a customary practice and because they haven’t even considered other alternatives. In these extraordinary circumstances, I wish more people would consider alternatives.

Without getting into much controversy over whether people should or should not do qurbaani, PAWS are simply giving people the option and saying that even if people want to do qurbaani this year of more than one animal, perhaps they can consider donating at least one of them.

The project will continue well beyond Eid, so this isn’t just about subsituting qurbaani. Even after Eid, if people would like to give the gift of an animal to a family who has lost one, they can do so by donating to PAWS. The campaign has received coverage in Newsline magazine and we hope many more people will support their excellent initiative.

For more details, please check out the PAWS appeal.

Wishing them all the best and a very happy Eid!

This last weekend there was a glitch in our boiler and we were without any hot water and NO central heating. I felt cold… very cold and yet I was well wrapped up. I had the luxury of warm clothes, plenty of tea and was within four walls but still it didn’t help much to comfort me.

That did make me think about the flood victims and today, whilst browsing the web, I happened to come across this photo which gives us a glimpse of what life in “tents” is like for these victims… It made me think about the hardships that these people are going through, day in day out and now the cold winter looms…

 

Life in the camps

These people are at the mercy of the weather, exposed to the elements and let me tell you the mercury does drop below 0°C.  The winters months, in particular the nights in December and Janaury can be and are bitterly cold. In Northern Pakistan it is even colder.

The winter is fast approaching and the temperature at night is already dropping. People in Pakistan, well those who can afford to, have begun to buy warm clothes for the winter but unfortunately not the flood victims many if not most of whom have lost everything and have only the clothes that they are wearing…

Oxfam recently published an article, the headline reading

“Farmland still under water; malnutrition and disease rates rise, seven million face winter without shelter”

and further within the report

“With winter a few weeks away, there are fears that malnutrition rates, pneumonia and other respiratory infections will sharply increase.“

Full report can be found here

Do keep in mind our fellow human beings, children, the elderly, women and men who need our support at this time. The winter looms but they have hope in you!

Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does.  ~William James

Just six months ago I found myself taking a trip to Sukkur, on behalf of finance program at a local bank. I remember the quaint, dusty feel of the town…modern conveniences interspersed with historical landmarks. Couldn’t have dreamed that just two months later the town would be brought to its knees by the ravages of flood.

Found this post by Deena Guzder, a freelance journalist, on Sukkur’s struggle to stay afloat:

 

http://pulitzercenter.org/blog/untold-stories/pakistan-flood-relief-sukkur

 

While surfing the web looking for what has been done so far to alleviate the burden of livestock loss, I came across this page. Chris Anderson of TED highlights the efforts of Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and the services they are providing to the flood victims in caring for whatever livestock they managed to save.

http://tedchris.posterous.com/pakistan-flood-story-9-the-fight-to-save-farm

Good to know there are local organizations situated to begin to deal with livestock “rehabilitation”.

We are a group of friends, living in Pakistan, England, America, Canada, Dubai and Cambodia (yes, Pakistanis in Cambodia?!) who wanted to do something to improve the situation in Pakistan. If you look at the extent of the damage caused by the floods, you are so overwhelmed that you don’t know where to start. So we thought, we’ll pick one area and start with that.

A little bit of research told us that the floods had done the greatest damage to Pakistan’s agriculture and livestock sector. Now the challenge is: how do we captivate people’s attention towards crops and animals? That is a tough call.

People can feel passionate about hunger and thirst and you can bring them to tears with stories of homeless children. While those are of course absolutely crucial issues, we need to now move away from the immediate relief phase and focus on helping people rebuild their lives.

We need to look at the issue of people’s livelihoods and think of ways in which we can enable them to earn their own living and become self sufficient again. It is that idea of “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. Many larger NGOs have started doing this, but their efforts are mostly concentrated on shelter, infrastructure and agricultural sector, not many are focusing on livestock at the moment.

Over 1.2 million small and large animals have died in the floods and over 6 million poultry. Another 14 million are at risk of disease or death. For many flood survivor families, loss of an animal means losing their entire income.

In the next few weeks, we will also be launching a small and simple project to practically help flood survivor families who have either lost their livestock or whose animals are at risk. This could be in the form of getting animals to families who have lost them or something around veterinary care or providing seeds for fodder. At the moment, we are scoping out organisations that are working in this sector and speaking to them about what’s needed. We will let you know very soon which organisation we will be working with. If you know of any organisations or have any ideas, please do suggest them by commenting on this blog.

Who knows, our little effort may snowball into something larger or inspire others to either join us or start something completely new on their own. Either way if people are spurred into action, that’s mission accomplished for us.

So, watch this space!

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little. - Edmund Burke 

It’s been three months since the floods hit Pakistan. In this time, we have seen heartbreaking images and heard stories of immense human suffering and misery. We have been bombarded with countless fundraising appeals, but have seen little progress. We are told that because the scale of the disaster is so massive, anything we do is a drop in the ocean. Positive news and inspiring stories have been few and far between.

Yes, this is the worst disaster Pakistan has ever seen and in fact one of the worst natural disasters in history. Yes, the scale of the disaster is so overwhelming that when you think of helping, you don’t know what to do or where to start. Yes, we have one of the most corrupt governments in our history and we are embroiled in fighting insurgencies and extremism. It really isn’t a pretty picture.

So what do we do?

Do we give up? Lose hope? Or leave it to the others—the NGOs, philanthropists and social activists—to sort it out for us?  

If there is one thing Pakistanis know about their country, it is this: we are an extremely resilient nation. 

It has a lot to do with the birth of the country. Pakistan was born out of a bloody partition in which millions of people left behind their homes and belongings and lost many family members along the way—all for a dream. The nation was penniless, but had zeal, passion and an almost unreasonable desire to make something of their country. Women gave away their gold and jewellery to help the migrants settle into their new homeland. People donated huge parts of their wealth, worked without salaries and went to work in government offices with no stationery and hardly any furniture. Can any of us now think of making those sacrifices?

Pakistan has survived two major wars and many smaller battles. We lived through another unfortunate partitioning of the country in 1971. We survived earthquakes and floods; insurgencies and extremism. You name it and we’ve overcome it.

So the point is: We can’t and won’t give up.

And yes, things will get better. It’s up to us to play our part.