Her plan was simple (enough): All we had to do was gather donations from everyone we knew (monetary or otherwise); send out invitations to friends and family who’d like to volunteer their time to buy necessary supplies, and then with careful planning and meticulous organization we’d… (drum rolls please) set up a tent village and run it for as long as it took to rehabilitate the victims.
Ambitious? I know.
Needless to say, I had my doubts about this. Yes, we were all graduates with well-paying jobs and infinitely helpful connections. But we had no experience running camps–not even those dodgy ones we were forced to attend during childhood. Rest assured, we’d at least be supporting about a thousand people a day. Food, clothing, shelter, sanitary needs, medical help, clean drinking water supply…the sheer number of things to be done was mind-numbing. Not to mention at this point ‘we’ included a close knit group of four ladies, all self-confessed coffee addicts. What could ‘we’ do?
All we had to do, it seems, is take one step and the universe conspired to make the rest happen! We came across this awesome guy; let’s call him Sarmad as he wishes to remain anonymous. Well Sarmad and his angelic team of friends and family in Pakistan, who had previous relief work experience, were glad to undertake the responsibility of setting up and running a camp in Makli. We all worked tirelessly providing security to tent shelters (thievery was common), and transport facilities for relief supplies out of our own pockets.
You seldom see such Pakistani spirit on TV. Media gurus would rather portray us as Shahada mumbling terrorists, not the silent guardians of faith and humanity I witnessed up in Makli. Our team raised approximately 0.7 million rupees, which was utilized to set up four tent villages with around a hundred tents each, sheltering and feeding about 8,000 people. Eight times the amount we had in mind! Donors from all around the world have been very kind, contributing from the Middle East, Europe, USA and Australia. Mind you, we have not approached an NGO or a corporate giant to fund our camps. It’s just people we know!
Shakespeare willfully inquired “What’s in a name?” but for rural folk in Sindh, a name is all you have. They are proud people who until recently were givers, and now whose same set of hands have been reduced to beg for a stranger’s mercy. Our project aims to help them recover from this tragedy with their pride intact and their spirits high. They are a hopeful bunch though. You can see the smiles creeping back on kids’ faces already. One of them said something to me during our campaign in Ramadan–those words will stay with me always, reminding me of the potential of the human spirit:
“We have 125,000 Sufi saints buried at Makli graveyard,” Asif informed me with a shy smile. “These people will tell their kids about other saints now. The ones who came out of their air-conditioned city life to help us. Anyone who helps in any manner will be remembered by our people forever.”
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To find out more about our project please visit our Facebook page Sindh Flood Relief. Contact pakfloodsindh@gmail.com to find out how you can contribute and make a difference.
