A River Runs Through It
Flooding Aftermath
By Kirsty in Pakistan
(Foreword by Jamie Wood)
While Kiwis mobilised to help Christchurch in the aftermath of the September 2010 earthquake, FIVE TIMES the population of New Zealand were permanently displaced in Pakistan following the devastating floods of August 2010.
An estimated 20 million people were homeless and in dire need of water, food and adequate shelter. In the face of overwhelming need aid agencies did what they can to help Pakistanis cope with this ongoing crisis. The rains keep coming and the Indus flowed ever wider but many felt help came too slowly.
Kirsty is a Kiwi gal in her mid-20’s from Palmerston North who arrived in Pakistan merely weeks before the monsoon rains started. Sent from Christ’s Sanctuary Church, through Pioneers, Kirsty is based at Murree Christian School as a ‘house parent’ for the high school aged girls boarding there. From this platform she is learning language and culture in preparation for longer term ministry in the Sindh region… which was inundated by water.
The flood devastation in Pakistan was horrific. Over 20 million people lost family, homes, livelihoods. In some areas entire villages were washed away and refugees streamed out of places that could not be reached by food supply drops. Many died of starvation, and there was much fear that diseases such as typhoid and cholera would begin to spread.
The national and international response in aid was, in general, very slow. Many areas are inaccessible except by helicopter or hovercraft, and ‘copters couldn’t fly much of the time due to the bad weather. Overseas, it seemed people were prepared to give money, but remained hesitant due to the widespread corruption in Pakistan and the security situation here.
It can be difficult to know who to trust and give to and where money will be used honestly and wisely. At the start, immediate aid such as food, clean water and medical help was desperately needed and it seemed humanly impossible to meet this need. But, each drop of oil in the oil jar counts… God did empower our efforts! Here I’ve outlined some of the projects we as a school were supporting. Giving Out On weekends, the school brought in sacks of flour, rice, sugar, milk, oil, tea that the kids have helped to divide up into family sized food packages. A few of the staff then travelled to places where the displaced peoples were camped and distributed the food. The need was overwhelming and in the end we were only scratching the surface, but every bit counted.
Swat Connection The Swat Valley was one of the worst hit areas and masses of people migrated from the upper valleys down to the lower as their homes were destroyed and food supplies scarce. A personal friend of some of the school staff is a local of Swat and used her own means to distribute food supplies there. We helped by providing her with some financial resources to do more for her people.
Hyderabad Connection Hyderabad is a city in Southern Pakistan where I hope to eventually locate. Masses of refugees are camped on the outskirts of the city. Some parents of children at our school have been working in the area for years. As a result of the floods they got involved with giving out food and medical help as they had the resource to do so.
So those were some of the projects we as a school were distributing donations to.
They all to helped with the immediate need of food, shelter and medical help. Later on the longer term development projects like rebuilding bridges, houses, schools, hospitals will be needed. More than 2,500 schools, 175 health centres and 1,000 water-supply facilities have been damaged. It’s going be a long-haul for Pakistan.
Promos
