Pakistan: One Year On
6/09/2011 4:05:30 PM
Because of the extremely generous response of Act for Peace's supporters to our Pakistan Floods Emergency Appeal last year, so many people across Pakistan are rebuilding their lives.
During the emergency phase, your gifts helped to provide food relief and much needed supplies such as hygiene kits, kitchen utensils, mosquito nets, water buckets and other useful tools. Now we have moved into the rebuilding phase. Act for Peace is supporting our project partner, Church World Service – Pakistan/Afghanistan, to provide training to community members at the Construction Trade Training Centre in the southern Thatta District. In this region, only three per cent of the population are skilled workers. Through this intensive three-month course, young men can train to become certified plumbers, welders, construction workers, electricians and builders.
At the end of the course, each graduate receives a full tool kit to get them started in their new careers. As skilled labourers, they can earn twice to three times as much income to help support their families.
Scroll down to see stories, photos and videos of Pakistan, one year after the floods.
If you would like to support Act for Peace’s work in conflict affected regions today, please click here.
Anita: “When we returned home, everything was gone ...”
Anita (back left in red) with her family in their tent outside their home, still unliveable after the floods.
My name is Anita Kheemahand and I live in the Thatta District of Pakistan, one of the regions most devastated by the flooding last year. When the floods came, we had so little notice that we just had to leave everything behind. We fled to a camp and stayed there for two months waiting for the water to recede.
When we finally returned home, everything was gone … it was if our lives were washed away. Our home was so damaged that we couldn’t live in it. If it weren’t for the food packages we received thanks to your support, I don’t know how we would have survived.
One year later, we are still living in a tent outside our home, but are hopeful for the future. My brother in law, Rajish, is now getting welding training thanks to your ongoing support at the new Construction Trade Training Centre (CTTC). This intensive welding course lasts three months, throughout which Rajish receives a stipend to help support our family. At the end of the course, he will sit the government exam to become officially certified and will receive a full tool kit from the CTTC to get him started.
Prior to the course, Rajish could not find a job anywhere. There is such a high demand here for skilled workers, particularly to help rebuild homes and shops as the whole region was washed away.
Thank you, friends in Australia, for helping us survive one of the most difficult times in our lives. Thank you as well for giving Rajish the skills to help us rebuild for the future. You are all in our prayers.
Maternal healthcare saves lives in Pakistan
Fehmida Sattar, female health worker, and patient Yesmeen with her daughter at a rural health centre in Kohistan, Pakistan.
My name is Fehmida Sattar and I’m the lady health worker in a rural health centre in Kohistan, Pakistan. Kohistan is one of the most remote and marginalised places in Pakistan. I choose to work here, because these are the people most in need of our help.
Women as a whole in this area suffer the most and are rarely allowed to ever leave their homes. They have no education and are not even allowed to socialise with other women. Their husbands do not allow them to have any rights and most women who come to me are anemic from poor nutrition.
Women in Kohistan regularly have 10 to 12 children and almost always give birth at home with no trained birth attendant present. Because of this, both maternal and child mortality rates are some of the highest in the world. The people are so poor they can barely afford to feed themselves. It is traditional that men eat first, next boys, then wives and finally, the female children eat last. If there isn’t enough food to go around than the girls go hungry. The larger the family, the greater the risk of malnutrition.
Now we are seeing more women coming into the clinic for pre- and post-natal care. When women come to the clinic, I try to educate them about women’s health issues, nutrition and hygiene.
“Thank you for coming to Kohistan to provide us with the clinic and healthcare,” said Yesmeen, one of my patients. “You have done more for these people that you will ever know.”
She’s right. Thank you, Act for Peace Partners, for your ongoing support.
Video
Watch this powerful video which illustrates the devastating impact of the floods, and the rebuilding work that has taken place over the past year.
