An article of one of the renewed journalists Zubida Mustafa on IRC efforts for flood victims in Khairpur and Dadu-Sindh

On the point of change?

By Zubeida Mustafa
Wednesday, 27 Oct, 2010


THE tent cities for the flood-affected in Khairpur are now being dismantled. According to the EDO of the district only five remained last Friday.

As I watched the occupants of the Indus Resource Centre’s (IRC) camp prepare for their return journey, I wondered if this watershed event in their lives would also prove to be the turning point. For two months the trauma of the flood’s ravages became a distant nightmare as they lived in a new caring environment they had never known before.

The question is whether this experience will move them to change their lives radically. The two tent cities organised by the NGO in Dadu and Khairpur, where I spent several hours with the flood victims, provide a textbook example of what development is all about.

Sadiqa Salahuddin, the executive director of IRC, who is far from being a desk-bound activist, summed up the choices before the displaced people in her farewell speech. “Your children [there were 685 among the 1,221 victims] were so happy here and we hope you will also keep them happy. Be gentle with them as well as with their mothers. You were also happy here. Take back these memories to give a new direction to your lives,” she exhorted them.

From August to October, it was not just their basic necessities — mainly food, water, shelter and healthcare — that were attended to; their children received schooling, their women got guidance in handicraft and lessons in reproductive healthcare and the men learnt the virtues of living in harmony.

This was done by setting up schools in the two camps I visited, organising health and sanitation education classes, workshops for handicrafts and setting up a conciliation council comprising leaders of different clans to take collective decisions and resolve disputes.

Here was participatory governance at its best. Some teachers and camp managers had to be hired from outside (but from the local population) as expertise was not available among the affected. But assistants — teachers and managers — and manual labour for any project undertaken came from the inmates of the tent cities who received due emoluments in cash.

According to the executive director, it was a record of sorts that no violence occurred in the camps, notwithstanding the diverse backgrounds of the people thrown together by the doings of nature. It was amusing to see a police guard deployed per routine trying to make his presence felt by unnecessarily throwing his weight around.

This participatory form of governance must continue if lives have to change. Sadiqa Salahuddin’s advice to flood survivors carried weight. They could empower themselves if they lived peacefully and did not allow their enemies to hurt them by dividing their communities.

Of course it will be a challenge for the flood victims to replicate their camp life in their impoverished home environment. Lacking political empowerment they have to struggle against socio-economic odds that are daunting. Land owners can be tyrannical when it comes to exploiting their haris to extract undue privileges for themselves. Denied the benefits of good education and the basic facilities of healthcare, family planning, sanitation and nutrition, the farm workers are unaware of the rights they are entitled to.

Nevertheless, the parting message was, ‘Help yourself and we will help you’. The emphasis was on self-reliance and dignity. To show the way, gifts were handed out — tools (shovels, spades, saws, etc for the men), kitchen utensils for women and schoolbags for children (courtesy Unicef). Families were given dry rations for a fortnight and seeds to grow vegetables. Earlier they had received beddings and were allowed to take their tents with them.

Most of them live on land that they have no title to. They were leaving with mixed feelings. They were satisfied and grateful but also pensive. The good times were drawing to a close (evenings had been occasions for folk music and women had been spared the violence that was their fate earlier on). Above all, they were stepping into an uncertain future.

But at least, the first stirrings had been created in a people who had previously shown little interest in sending their children to school. The young ones had became absorbed in their lessons — there were three- and four-year-olds who tugged at my sleeve demanding that I listen to them recite rhymes and alphabets. Will this interest blossom into something more?

Many villages have no schools. There are others where the wadera uses the school building as a bara for his cattle. Others have schools but no schooling. The people lack the means and organisation to pressure the government to safeguard their rights. Two months were not enough for them, the weaker party, to acquire the skills to neutralise the levers that are traditionally used against them.

But there is hope. Seeds of awareness have been sown, new relationships forged and new friendships struck. Ingenious uses of the ubiquitous mobile phone are being discovered. Above all, they have been promised continued support to keep alight the flame that has been lighted.

Ali Madad, an IRC project officer who helped with the Khairpur camp, captured the message poignantly when he recited Shaikh Ayaz in wai-style:

When the red roses burst into bloom/We will meet again.

Much now depends on the government. Last week it appeared to be nudging the NGOs out of this space some of them have created for themselves in the life of flood-affected communities. It declared that henceforth the government will manage the $3bn additional aid it was seeking.

Will it be used to dole out meagre charity to individuals to hurt their dignity? Or will this aid be used to stimulate economic activity in the flood-ravaged regions to rebuild the infrastructure on a cash-for-work basis — albeit keeping contractors out and employing only indigenous people?

zubeidam2@gmail.com

IRC-Tent City (A general overview)

The tent city in Khairpur is the oldest and was designed and set up before Eid. It has two blocks – Bhitai and Sachal and the road in between – Shahrah-e- Sami. Ten neighborhoods after the names of 10 communities are living harmoniously. A city council consisting of 10 representatives, one from each community facilitates the distribution of commodities, use of services, and helps in planning for the improvement. Some norms for living together have been designed and have been pasted at a visible place. Apart from cleanliness and discipline, the norms do not allow violence of any kind particularly on women and children. Only one complaint of an old father beating the young son had been reported otherwise there had been no instances of violence.
The residents of this tent city are mainly from Jacobabad. The other districts of their origin are Shikarpur, Jafarabad, Dadu and Kandhkot. Most of them are victims of Thori breach and found shelter in Khairpur in early August. By profession they are either unskilled labourers or landless farmers except very few who claim to have their own small pieces of land. Out of a population of 1221 persons in one camp, 685 are children below 15 years of age, 53 women are pregnant and 7 safe deliveries (all in city hospital) had already taken place.
Tent city has three Teaching and Learning Centres with an enrolment of159. Except a few, all of these children of various ages are out of school either because the teachers in village schools are absent or not posted or the building is used for some other purpose by the influential individuals.
Health standards of our guests are poor however, all the pregnant women in the camp now have access to pre-natal check ups. The government doctors come for OPD at least twice in a week and IRC provides ambulance service in the case of emergencies.
Now we have started a vocational centre in two large tents for women. IRC Crafts Centre staff trains women in various crafts. A crash programme by a trainer from Karachi will be held in the last three days of this week when the groups of women will learn flower making, candle making, block printing, envelopes making etc.
The constraint in expanding vocational centre is the limited number of manual sewing machines. We need at least 16 more sewing machines so that we can well equip Khairpur centre more.
The tent city receive important visitors such as district officials, donors and international agencies, multi national executives, other NGOs and media. ` Occasionally cultural programs are also organized in which the talent from IDPs participate.
Nights have become cool in Khairpur and there is a need for light woolies. We have already ordered ‘razaiyan’ and ‘gadday’ for 185 families of Khairpur Tent City.
Our mission is to make the lives of our guests enjoyable, memorable and useful. We have been receiving reasonable help from various donors in doing this. The pressing needs now are manual sewing machines, woolies particularly for children, and resources to set us skills centre for men in Dadu and Sehwan camps. We do not want to set up a skills centre in Khairpur as we expect that we will have to wind up the Tent City soon IDPs have already started planning to go back to homes districts.

EID account by Madam Sadiqa

Madam, Sadiqa Salahuddin, The one who has inspired me through her positive actions for reinforcement of positive thinking, these actions are always based on principals and values. All these actions have great impact in my life while promoting the values of human participation and investing energies on children of our country. She is really a great mentor of my journey in the development sector. Aumir
Below is an article written by Madam, Sadiqa Salahuddin which got a meaningful space in Ms Beena Sarwar's 'Jounrney through Democracy" web page.
September 14, 2010
Dear Friends,
Eid in a Tent City was a unique experience of my life. I do not remember seeing so many happy faces around on Eid as I saw this year. This might seem contrary to what we are hearing and watching on television about the deprivation and gloom among internally displaced persons (IDPs) on Eid. I have no doubt about media portraying realities but what I am saying is real too. A young journalist has captured Eid in our Tent City in Tribune. Please see this report Learning to say ‘I love you’

Eid in Sehwan Camp
Thanks to all of you who sent us donations and thanks to the untiring efforts of IRC staff that made this Eid a memorable day for 687 children (out of a total population of 1,221) of IRC Tent City in Khairpur and all our team. Preparation for Eid, along with setting up of the Tent City, was a great challenge. The staff collected information about age and sex of each and every child so that clothes and shoes to size could be purchased and prepared. With clothes and chappals, artificial jewelry, ponies, catchers, bangles, henna, small toys and sweets were also added in their Eid bags.
Distribution of Eid bags to 195 families of different sizes and backgrounds, a day before, was a nightmare but we devised ways of making it transparent and just. All this was found worth the effort when children with happy faces, clean clothes, chappals in their feet, henna on small palms, and jewelry all over greeted us the next morning. The adults although complaining about not getting new clothes, were busy in cleaning the place with brooms and picking the trash to be thrown in the bin. In solidarity, IRC team also did not wear new clothes. Eid was a relaxed and enjoyable day in our Tent city, with no anxiety and no signs of mistrust. In the morning, our team went to every tent to greet them and to give them mithai, Eid money, bangles for women, and small gifts for children.

Singing and dancing during Eid at an IRC camp
Soon we noticed that a group of internally displaced persons (IDPs), both men and women, spontaneously prepared a stage in public area and started singing happy songs in Sindhi while little girls danced on the beat. What if the homes were washed away or harvest is destroyed, they have learned to ignore their worries for a while and be contented with what they have. Eid for them was a good time in the new environment with new friends.
While all this was happening in Khairpur, another team was working with a group of 100 families consisting of 796 persons near Hyderabad Toll Plaza. In my last note, I mentioned this emerging cluster which has not yet shaped as a complete camp. It is a small effort to provide basic shelter, ration for 100 families for about a week to ten days and 200 gifts including girls’ and boys’ clothes, toys, biscuits, stationery and sweets to 100 affected families. Since they are using unfiltered water from the nearby canal, we have given them water purifying tablets with instructions about their use.
We did not forget our camp school children in Dadu and Sehwan where 301 children are registered. A team from Sehwan and Dadu spent their Eid with those children. We could not distribute clothes and shoes but we did celebrate Eid with songs, dances, juices and sweets.
We feel that we have now learned the art of camp management and the skills to gain people’s trust. The team has internalised the basic principles of participation, respect for the right to life with dignity, building capacities in the process, increasing social awareness and creating a demand for public services, and most of all mobilizing them for positive thinking and action. We want to use this learning for the benefit for many more but we have serious resource constraints. If we can get some more donations, we can at least develop Hyderabad cluster into a similar city as Khairpur and can organize many other camps.
Please forward this request to others as well. Donate us and visit us with our partner IDPs. Bank details:
Title of account: Indus Resource Centre
Bank: Habib Bank Ltd.
US$ account no. : 00120250022610
PKR account no.: 00120001651403B
SWIFTCODE: HABBPKKA
Branch Code: 0012
Address: Zamzama Branch, D.H.A Phase V, Karachi
With camp management, other interventions on a large scale such as installation of temporary latrines, distribution of food and non-food items, organising health camps at many locations, providing food to stranded families of a few villages, distribution of hygiene kits etc are going on in various locations of Khairpur, Dadu and Jamshoro districts.
We need your financial and moral support.
Sadiqa Salahuddin