Recovering Pakistan (World View Magazine)

http://www.worldviewmagazine.com

VOLUME 19 NUMBER 4 WINTER 2006
AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

Pakistan's private relief agencies say they can do better

by Ambreen Ali

The 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit northern Pakistan and Kashmir at 8:55 on the morning of October 8, 2005. Almost instantly, thousands of poorly designed buildings collapsed, causing massive landslides in the markets and burying schoolchildren under blocks of cement. In Balakot, the worst-hit city, over 50,000 people lay buried under the rubble. Many of those who survived were missing limbs and suffering from dehydration.

By nightfall, international non-governmental organizations had arrived to search the rubble for survivors. The Red Cross, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Islamic Relief and others disseminated emergency supplies and temporary shelter and provided medical aid to the victims. They quickly mobilized their global networks to draw media attention to raise funds for tents, medicine and food. As time went by, the rescuers received a request for another item much in need in these Himalayan mountains slightly rearranged by the earthquake: white sheets. Unprepared for such large-scale death, Pakistan had run out of shrouds to bury the dead.

In the months that followed, the need for immediate relief was overshadowed by the necessity of finding sustainable, permanent solutions for the 3.3 million people rendered homeless by the natural disaster. Many families started relying on relief goods for sustenance; entire economies in the region had been destroyed. Some victims found it easier to stay in the tents and receive rations than to seek employment. Slowly, organizations began to recognize that their presence was inadvertently handicapping the population.

Such unexpected consequences are inevitable in the work of international agencies. They are efficient in responding immediately to disasters and quickly mobilizing funds, but efficiency has its drawbacks. International agencies often apply the same relief models throughout the world, according to Adnan Sattar, a relief worker who has worked with UNICEF and the Pakistan-based Strengthening Participatory Organization. This cookie-cutter approach often ignores social nuances and situations unique to a region, he said.

This is where local organizations offer innovative and sustainable solutions for Pakistan's current crisis. Pakistan's local relief and development community has played a vital role for most of the nation's 59-year history and has created sustainable development solutions adapted by others around the world. Today, many international organizations, including UN agencies, rely on the expertise of these local organizations to execute long-term rehabilitation projects.

The Sungi Development Foundation, a rights-based community participatory organization working in the affected regions since 1989, operates projects funded by Oxfam and UNICEF. Pre-earthquake, Sungi focused on building governance, social mobilization, education and health structures based on local community initiatives. Though Sungi is not a disaster relief organization, its staff is experienced with floods and other disasters.

When the earthquake struck, only Sungi had a complete list of all villages and populations in the remote parts of the mountainous region. International agencies worked from hubs in Mansehra and Muzaffarabad, large valley cities where many refugees had settled after their villages were destroyed. Sungi went to remote regions where, months after the earthquake, no organization had yet been.

In a recent critique of the UN agencies, ActionAid International charged that cultural insensitivities led to poor decisions, like providing joint kitchens when many families were hesitant to cook in front of others without having enough to share. Sungi's previous work in the region allowed their staff to anticipate such social nuances. They arranged their relief tent camps by clusters of villages, separating one village community from another to accommodate the tribe-centric culture.

"Community and social bonds are very important in this region. If we had thrown random communities together, the victims would have felt a lack of protection in their new surroundings," said Uzma Gul, Mansehra District zonal coordinator for Sungi. She added that Sungi workers had earned a level of trust and friendship with the communities because of their past work in the region. They also stayed true to their rights-based approach by providing a public platform for housing and other concerns.

"Since October 8, we have been sitting under the sky," a local landowner said at a September press conferfence. "Give us the money our brothers across the world have sent us so that we can build a roof on our children's heads before the winter." Sungi helped disgruntled Balakot residents appeal to government offices and showed them how to fill out the forms.

Gul thinks Sungi and other local NGOs have the capacity to handle the earthquake rehabilitation effort without foreign presence. Furher, she believes international non-governmental organizations should not play a role on the ground because they don't know the region or its people. Some international NGOs acknowledge the advantages for local groups working with local communities and have partnered with them. Others remain skeptical about local capacity to handle the disaster.

"Local values and culture have a stronger bearing on recovery planning and execution," said Usman Qazi, manager of a UN Development Programme transitional and housing project. But, he added, "There is still not enough local technical capacity to handle the complex phase of 'recovery.' The local NGOs are mostly development agencies with neither the mandated skills nor the technical resources for such a calamity. The international NGOs had systems at hand to respond to various relief needs."

The American Red Cross has found a healthy balance in this dilemma, according to Augustine Gill, the agency's senior field representative in this region. The American Red Cross works within the framework of the Red Cross/Crescent movement and its 185 member societies around the world to ensure local needs are met. The American Red Cross has been working here in partnership with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society.

As a result of this partnership American Red Cross has kept its overhead to nine percent, a figure Gill compares to the 60 percent overhead costs frequently charged by other international organizations.

The Citizens Foundation, a Karachi-based educational group known internationally for its financial transparency, has also relied on local talent to keep the foundation's administrative costs at five percent. Next year, the Citizens Foundation plans to build at least 1,500 low-cost, earthquake-resistant homes. The foundation provides materials for the homes but wants the prospective owner to shoulder some of the costs. "Some of the victims have become used to receiving aid," says Saeed Iqbal, a field coordinator for The Citizens Foundation. "We don't want them to think the house is free. So we are asking them to pay for the transportation of the materials. That way, they have invested in the house and can feel that they truly own it."

The foundation's role is limited to a handful of villages and rebuilding in only a part of each village. But by training local landlords, construction workers and women on the building technology, The Citizens Foundation is ensuring that knowledge of the technology is available for generations.

"If we forget this earthquake, we are the ones who will suffer. We have learned so much from this disaster and we have to use that knowledge to build better structures for the future," said Iqbal. The Citizens Foundation will share its reconstruction technology for low-cost earthquake resistant homes in a training collaboration with Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, a Pakistani government agency, and UN-HABITAT, the UN's human settlement program.

Collaborations have become central to the efforts in Pakistan. The United Nations held conferences with local organizations to minimize duplication, facilitate sharing of knowledge among non-governmental organizations and to highlight smaller initiatives, such as Strengthening Participatory Organization's efforts to serve the emotional needs of victims. After SPO's Adnan Sattar completed his own training in post-disaster trauma, he trained volunteers in Muzaffarab to treat the children suffering the emotional trauma of personal loss in the earthquake. The program has served more than
700 students in one year.

"After the earthquake, many of the children were scared to return to school," said Arzana Iqbal, another Strengthening Participatory Organization volunteer. "When we asked them to draw, they would make pictures of their tents and surroundings. Then we could use those pictures as a way to discuss their emotions and fears."

SPO started in the early 1990s as a semi-governmental development organization. Today it is an independent capacity-building organization focusing on social, economic and cultural rights. It is present in 68 districts in Pakistan and is the largest rights-based organization in the country. What sets SPO apart is a strong focus on including government in its efforts through advocacy and policy recommendations.

SPO focuses heavily on lobbying for policy changes based on lessons learned from its work. Such advocacy work can only be done by local NGOs; as outsiders, international organizations cannot demand changes in local government policies, though they are sometimes freer from local influence and can provide necessary criticism.

Following the earthquake, local organizations addressed post-earthquake needs with innovation and prudence. They have been limited in the scope of their influence, however, and opportunities to create large-scale change have been missed. A year later, Oxfam reports that 83 percent of victims lack permanent shelter and 66,000 are facing the upcoming Himalayan winter in tents and temporary shelter. But despite the frustrations about lack of housing and economic opportunity, there is progress and reason to be hopeful.

Today, there are more non-profits and funds available in a region largely ignored prior to the earthquake. Medicine, education and basic water and sanitation are improving in ways unimaginable before the disaster. Victims are demanding their rights, organizations are advocating for policy changes and the government is actually listening. Estimates for how long the recovery process will take are vague, though most international NGOs plan to leave the area in the next five years. The World Bank recently provided a timeline of eight years for the completion of earthquake-related efforts, but even that is optimistic, says Gill of the American Red Cross.

International NGOs have improved conditions here and were instrumental in the initial relief phase of Pakistan's earthquake efforts when the country lacked such resources. By empowering local organizations, the international community ensures that be strengthened economically, politically and socially long after they have left.

Ambreen Ali is the editor of Responsive Philanthropy and a McCormick Tribune Fellow at the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism. This was her fourth trip to Pakistan, her parents' home.

"One Year Later: Disaster Relief in Pakistan," Glimpse Abroad

Published today, along with a slideshow, on Glimpse Abroad (www.glimpseabroad.org).

“What will you do if you see Osama bin Laden during your trip?” a coworker asked me before I left for Pakistan. Even though I laughed the question off, I later wondered if he was being serious. Did he really think Pakistan is such a terrorist haven that Osama freely walks the streets of the country? As an American of Pakistani origin, I often feel a tug of identities at moments like this: it is the American in me that my coworker was recognizing with his off-handed comment, but it is the Pakistani in me that was offended by its implications.

Such identity struggles are probably how I ended up on this trip: only two years ago I went to Pakistan for the first time as an adult to visit relatives. While there, I remember realizing that had my father not put me on a plane for the United States years ago, I would still be living in the bustling city of Lahore. And because I did leave, I now had an education that put me far ahead of my cousins in terms of privilege and power. In the fall of 2006, I returned to Pakistan as a journalist. I hoped to use my “Americanness” to draw Western attention to the plight of Pakistanis after the great disaster that hit them last year.

On Oct. 8, 2005, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake changed the lives of millions of people in an instant. Over the next months, over 75,000 bodies would be found, and at least three million people would become homeless. The earthquake, which hit regions of northern Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, would rush in relief workers from all corners of the world. Thick, winterized tents would be flown in for the harsh winter ahead, which was sure to claim more lives. Billions of dollars would be pledged to help the Pakistani government administer relief. For a moment, the unity and dedication with which Pakistanis and international workers cooperated would bring a glimmer of hope for the future.

Ten months later, I was standing on the ground that shook the very lives of these people. Having recognized that Western media had moved on from this disaster to news about Lebanon, London terror attack plans and Britney Spears’ new son, I decided to cover the situation, far from over, by myself.

I realized that even after almost a year, many people were preparing for another winter in the tents that were intended for temporary relief. I found families living in these same winterized tents during hundred-degree weather. I watched children playing around garbage and sewage in the tent camps. I saw rain wash under tents and ruin the few blankets and clothes that people owned. But I did not see Osama bin Laden.

In the United States, I am often reminded that I am Muslim, and thus a minority; in Pakistan, being Muslim is the norm. Islam plays a large role in the lives of those who were affected by the earthquake. Each evening I would watch the sunset as the soothing call to prayer silenced the sounds of cars, traffic and business. On Fridays, I marveled at how quiet the city was while shops shut down for Friday prayer. Some women walked the streets with their heads covered in colorful shawls and scarves, others with daunting black burqas that masked all but their eyes. Islam is sewn into the fabric of this culture, and it is common to hear locals use religious greetings and prayers in conversation.

Jamat-e-Islami, a leading religious political party in Pakistan, has done extensive social work in the earthquake-affected regions. It was disturbing to see the signs for Jamat-ud-Dawa, operated by the founder of the Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist group, waving high and proud in front of tent camps. On newly erected walls of shops and on the sides of temporary shelters, graffiti declared the importance of a jihad against the West. I remember the shock of my Pakistani companion, who remarked sarcastically, “Yes, carry on your jihad, even if you have nothing to eat or no place to live.”

For extremist organizations, the earthquake relief efforts provide an opportunity to win the hearts of victims. Locals told me that even if they didn’t agree with the politics of organizations such as Jamat-ud-Dawa, the NGO headed by extremist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba's founder, Hafeez Sayeed, they could trust them to be honest, straightforward and free of corruption as compared to other relief organizations. Immediately after the earthquake, the United States sent aid and relief workers to the areas, and many speculated that a more positive impression of Americans would result. Following this logic, extremists are executing their own public relations campaigns in the region.

Interestingly, religion has also fed into a fatalistic attitude, particularly among those who after a year see no sign of permanent housing ahead. As nonprofits and government relief agencies work to rebuild the affected regions, they are battling a passive acceptance of future disasters. “If another earthquake comes, it is God’s will, and we can do nothing to stop it,” one earthquake survivor told me, as I explained to her the importance of building homes away from fault lines and with strong earthquake-resistant structures.

But despite such frustrations, it is this same religion that is helping these people move forward with their lives. Almost everyone knows someone who died in the tragedy; many lost parents, siblings and children. Islam teaches them the importance of moving forward: death is inevitable, and everyone has his or her time to go. Because they have survived, the victims have a responsibility to God to forge ahead and better their lives. It is also their responsibility to help each other, and in this tragedy, many victims have come together to build schools, provide vocational training and move together as a whole. Such hope and inspiration exemplify the peaceful and compassionate aspects of Islam.

Upon returning to the United States, I once again felt the tug at my identities. I pushed my way through the security line, nervously handing my Pakistan-stamped American passport to the customs officer, knowing that a string of questions would follow. He might pull me into another line, or walk me to the holding room in the back, which I have had the privilege of visiting before. Unlike my fellow white Americans, I walk into airports already expecting to be pulled aside and questioned. In Pakistan, where the culture may be less tolerant and where women are struggling for their rights, I still felt accepted.

There are many faces of Islam. Just because we have seen how some people have twisted the religion’s ideology to fit their selfish needs and purposes, it is absurd to dismiss the faith altogether. There are millions of Muslims living peacefully in the United States: they are doctors, engineers, teachers, politicians and journalists. They are mothers, fathers, neighbors, friends and coworkers. They practice a faith they believe advocates peace, love, and compassion for others. And there is so much more to them than their faith. When I was in Pakistan, I did not see Muslims. I saw people, hurting and damaged from the trials they had endured, looking for a way to survive and experience a better life. As fellow humans, it is our job to understand and help those in need; tolerance means withholding assumptions and stereotypes.

During my trip, I overheard an employee at John F. Kennedy International airport in New York say, “We don’t discriminate. We just hate everyone.” Instead of hatred, what about indiscriminate love and compassion?

Originally from Seattle, WA, Ambreen Ali is a student at Northwestern University. She has traveled throughout Pakistan and has written many freelance articles about South Asia.

Copyright 2006 The Glimpse Foundation

"Moving On," Newsline (Pakistan)

The full article is below or view the PDF of the layout with images.

Newsline October 2006
n e w s b e a t

Moving On
By Ambreen Ali

A moving story about a woman who picks herself up after the devastating October 8 earthquake, and helps others to follow suit.

“Bring me the quilt,” Safiya Tariq instructs her seven-year-old daughter, Mishal. Mishal runs out of the room, stepping over the large crack in the floor and through the broken doorway. She enters a tin shelter and reaches under her mother’s bed for the quilt. Usama, her eight-year-old brother, joins her as she returns to their mother. Safiya plants a quick kiss on both their cheeks. Usama gives her big hug, and Safiya whispers a prayer for her children’s education and future. She turns her attention to the women, who are watching her closely, eager to learn. Their worn eyes and tattered clothes are witness to the week of rain that has just passed.

It is September, and it has been almost a year since they moved into the tents near Safiya’s home in Muzaffarabad. Safiya uses her needle to demonstrate a new sewing technique to the women. She is less than 30 yeas old, but her tired expression makes her look much older. It’s been sixth months since she has been teaching and creating handicrafts; last month she met with a buyer in Islamabad, who has placed an order for some material. She is excited about the order, but nervous and unsure of herself. Until this year, Safiya had never worked. Nor had she ever felt the burden of providing for her children.

She glances over at a framed photo of her tall, handsome husband. She had her arm around him in their photo and they were both holding a flower. They were so innocent then, she reflects. The earthquake changed their lives forever. Her husband was buried under a landslide in a market in Muzaffarabad. She was in her in-laws’ village with her children, where she suffered a fractured pelvis and broken ribcage. She shudders as she thinks about how her brothers had carried her to the city on a charpai, stopping along the way to check if she was still alive.

Safiya spent two months in Abbottabad’s Ayub Medical Complex, where she met Dr. Nauman Akhtar. “If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know where I’d be,” Safiya says. Dr. Nauman runs the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), operated by the Abbottonian Old Boys Association, and they are providing her transportation and a salary to teach local women handicrafts.

She had been at a complete loss about how she would raise her children without their father. Dr. Nauman encouraged her to use her sewing and stitching skills to make handicrafts. He made a personal promise to market her goods in Islamabad and the U.S., and followed it through.

Her in-laws have basically rejected her, and their eyes are on the money the government provided her for the loss of her husband. Her family has allowed her to stay in their home, but she feels the burden she has created for them. “The DMC cared for me more than my own family did,” she thinks, saddened by the thought. After she recovered last winter, Safiya began working with the Alfalah Welfare Society in Muzaffarabad.

Despite her troubles, she could not stand still while her city was suffering. She was amazed by the number of Pakistanis and international workers who had rushed to volunteer in the tent camps. She too wanted to do something to alleviate the suffering of her sisters in need. She visited other widows, and taught children in the tent camps. So many of them were kidnapped then, she remembers with sorrow. Men even approached Safiya with offers to “take care” of her. She is still disgusted by their boldness in pursuing a mother of two young children.

The women in her sewing class look to Safiya with both hope and admiration. They don’t know how much longer they will live in tents, or when the government will provide them land to build on. Some of them have lost their husbands and wonder how they will survive with no education or assets.

As they get up to return to their tents, Safiya realises how enviable her position must be to them. “At least I have a roof over my head,” she says to herself. She has experienced life in the tents. The worst part was uncertainty about tomorrow. When would she have a home? How would she provide for herself and her children? Usama and Mishal play in the corner of the room. Safiya reaches over to the framed photo and asks her children about their father. She will never let them forget him, she has promised herself.

As tears fill her eyes, she notices her children watching her. They were the reason Safiya was teaching the women. The skills she had acquired had given her security about her children’s future. Now she wanted to share that knowledge with other women, so that they could also alleviate their own suffering.

Safiya embraces Usama and Mishal, and more for herself than her children, says: “We can’t die along with those who have died. Why should we look at the darkness when we can look towards the light? Your father is a shaheed. Happiness is sure to come to us again.”

Copyright 2006 Newsline www.newsline.com.pk

PakCast Commemorates One-Year Anniversary

In this week's podcast, PakCast commemorates the one-year anniversary of the earthquake. Hosts Nasir Aziz and Ethan Casey interview me on my trip to Pakistan and Kashmir.

Oxfam Reports 83 Percent of Affectees Still Homeless in Pakistan

[This transcript is from a PakCast radio report.]

“Sub kuch theek hai, bus humain chain nahi hai.” “Everything is fine, it’s just that we have no peace,” an elderly woman told me at Ambor tent camp in Muzaffarabad last month.

I was visiting the tent camp with Adnan Sattar, a volunteer with Strengthening Participatory Organization, a Pakistani NGO, who was delivering books and toys to a 5-year-old orphan. Lately, the child has been waking up and screaming at night, a symptom of post-traumatic stress, Sattar explained.

The tent dwellers moved into this open field one year ago, shortly following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked parts of Northern Pakistan and Kashmir. Muzaffarabad, a city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Balakot, Pakistan, have been the worst-hit areas. Over 80,000 people have died, and at least 500,000 of the 3.3 million displaced remain homeless. Oxfam has estimated that only 17% of affectees have begun rebuilding permanent homes.

In Muzaffarabad today, most buildings have structural damage and people are continuing to live in makeshift shelters. The government is making plans to rebuild the city, but those living in tents have word that it might be three years before they have homes again.

Still, the situation in Muzaffarabad is much better in comparison to Balakot. When I was in Balakot, reconstruction has completely halted. The area has been determined to be a “red zone,” because of its proximity to fault lines and instead, the city will be shifted 30 km away to Bakryal. Bakryal doesn’t exist today, but the government promises that it will be a model city that rivals Islamabad, the nation’s capital.

Earlier this week, Oxfam issued a report analyzing the earthquake reconstruction efforts. They recognized that it will take a lot longer than a year to rebuild this area, but did point out inefficiencies and inaction on the part of the government.

The Oxfam report put President Pervez Musharraf on the defense about the government reconstruction scheme. The government is not providing or building homes, but rather issuing checks in installments to affectees. Those checks must go towards proper earthquake-proof rebuilding, or further checks will not be issued. The money amounts to about 3000 US dollars and is not enough to cover the expenses of building a home, particularly given rising labor costs and the cost of transporting goods to remote villages.

TCF Relief Fund, an arm of the Pakistan-based NGO, The Citizens’ Foundation, has been providing training and free building materials to villagers so that they can rebuild their homes. Other NGOs have started similar schemes to help at least those who are most disadvantaged such as widows or the disabled. Their schemes allow affectees to use the government checks to cover transportation costs.

According to Oxfam, a third of affectees who have begun rebuilding have not complied with official guidelines so they won’t be getting and more government money to build their homes. In addition, corruption charges were brought up against the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, or ERRA, by leaders in the international NGO community, for not properly distributing relief money.

Musharraf adamantly denied such charges yesterday at the first annual ERRA meeting, calling Oxfam “doomsday predictors” for saying that 1.8 million people will be in tents this winter. He says that 95% of displaced affectees have returned home, but still asked that the international community foot an additional 800 million dollars for earthquake reconstruction to continue. The Pakistani Embassy in Washington has been unavailable to comment on how the funds collected thus far have been applied to relief efforts.

According to the president, all homes will be rebuilt by December 2008. But the NGOs, and the 66,000 people still living in makeshift shelters and in public parks-turned-tent camps, are skeptical.

For them, the greatest concern is survival as the Himalayan winter sets in.

Reporting for PakCast, this is Ambreen Ali in Washington D.C.

Interview with PakCast

There is a 16-minute interview on PakCast (www.pakcast.com) about the situation in the earthquake-affected regions in Pakistan. PakCast is an American-based radio show serving as a weekly dialogue between Pakistan and the West.

My work in Pakistan is featured in episodes 105 (Aug. 17) and 107 (Sep. 2) of the show.

Margala Towers Memorializes Earthquake's Impact in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD--The Margala Towers were the first sign of destruction from last year's earthquake. Early on, the government and media thought it was the only place where lives were lost. Later, it was discovered that Balakot and Muzaffarabad were devasted. Due to poor structural design and lack of care in construction, the tower that fell killed and injured most of its residents. Today this building stands to its left awaiting demolition so that a new complex can be built.

A Different Sort of Healing

MUZAFFARABAD—The earthquake hit shortly before 9:00 a.m., when most children were in school. Many died under collapsed buildings, but for those who survived school became a dreadful idea.

“The children were scared to go to school because in case there was another earthquake,” Arzana, a volunteer with the Alfalah Society in Muzaffarabad. The organization mobilizes volunteers for service, and has a particular focus on youth volunteerism. Through the Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO), one of the largest rights-based development organizations in Pakistan, they began a trauma counseling program for local children after the earthquake.

The program is one of a few addressing the emotional needs of earthquake affectees. After the immediate medical relief phase, most of the rehabilitation effort has addressed housing and job needs. But even today, according to Shabana Kausar of SPO, affectees and relief workers burst in tears when they are asked to recall the earthquake.

“There is a lot of emotion and shock that results from such an event,” said Adnan Sattar, a volunteer with SPO. “There has been no real effort to address that trauma and help people understand what has happened to them.”

Through SPO, the Alfalah volunteers visit schools in local tent cities and affected villages on a weekly basis, asking the children to draw their surroundings and discuss issues affecting them. They also provide an opportunity for the children to run and play, something they are denied in the cramped tent city environments in which they now live.

Despite the strong need for such an initiative, SPO has kept the program small. They only have funding for a few more months, during which they plan to train teachers in those schools to continue the counseling work.

“SPO does not focus on providing educational or counseling services,” said Harris Khalique, chief executive of SPO. “Our job is to mobilize communities at a grassroots level with the hope of creating policy changes.” He explained that the trauma counseling initiative will serve as a model that SPO will document and present to government education boards. They will recommend curriculum change and teacher trainings so that the earthquake and earthquake preparedness will be discussed in schools.

“It is the government’s job to implement such initiatives, and when it does they will be more sustainable than if [an NGO] operated such a program,” Khalique said. “We hope that our model and the success we have had with these children will initiate a larger reform in overall school curricula.”

A Permanent Solution

MUZAFFARABAD—“You are not building houses, you are building graves for your children,” Saeed Iqbal warned villagers in Upper Kabbabat, Muzaffarabad (right), referring to those houses that are being rebuilt without basic earthquake resistant technology.

Iqbal is the field coordinator for TCF Relief Fund, run by The Citizens’ Foundation. TCF is the largest education-based NGO in South Asia, and in its 11 years of existence, it has provided education to over 25,000 Pakistani children. On October 10th, its board decided to join the relief effort in Muzaffarabad and Balakot.

They designed winter shelters (left) covered with GI sheets that were replicated and disseminated throughout the affected areas.

With the relief phase over, TCF Relief Fund has turned its focus to rebuilding. The organization has received enough donations from Pakistani corporations and individual donors throughout the world to rebuild at least 1,300 homes in various villages around Muzaffarabad city.

“We are training the masons and homeowners of those villages on the new construction method,” said Iqbal. “Then we provide them with all the building materials and monitor the work to its completion.” The homeowners will use their government-issue rebuilding money to transport the materials to their village and for any labor costs they incur. In this way, the homeowner feels that he has invested in his home, and will be more likely to maintain it properly, according to Iqbal.

During his meeting with Upper Kabbabat villagers Friday, Iqbal explained that TCF could only provide 45 homes to the village of 118 families. TCF Relief Fund does not determine who among the villagers should receive the homes, even though they have independent survey data on the needs in the villages. Part of sustainable development and empowerment is allowing them to decide together who is deserving, he said.

“Look among you for those who are most in need—widows without supporters, families without assets—and decide who deserves these homes,” Iqbal told the Upper Kabbabat villagers. “This world will come and go. This is your opportunity to do something noble and help someone who is in need.”

For Iqbal, the most important aspect of TCF’s work is education. By building the homes, they hope to create models that others will replicate when making new houses. They have a special focus on teaching women the building methods so that children will be taught how to build structures properly. This is especially important because another earthquake is expected, if not in this generation, then in the next.

“This earthquake taught us a lot of lessons. We won’t forget this earthquake,” said Iqbal. “If we do then we are the ones who will suffer again.”

Muzaffarabad, Kashmir

A view of recent landslides in Muzaffarabad.

Ambor tent village in Muzaffarabad.

Jalalabad Park Affectees Left Homeless, Without Answers

MUZAFFARABAD—I laughed with Saikah Kazmi and her cousins, Saira and Mayra, as we returned home on a rickshaw after shopping for shawls and having dinner. All appeared normal, until I remembered that it was a public park we were entering.

Jalalabad Park used to be a large leisure area for residents of Muzaffarabad, a large hub city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Now it has become home to 165 families whose homes were destroyed in last year’s earthquake. The fallen trees, uncut grass, and dirtied fountain are eerie reminders of the normality that once was.

Saikah’s family has been living here since their large home in Muzaffarabad city crumbled, killing Saira and Mayra’s mother. The joint family of three brothers share several tents in the camp.

“We cannot rebuild our home because the government says the land is very dangerous,” said Saira Kazmi. “We are waiting to see if they will give us another piece of land to build a home upon.”

For now, Saira is choosing bedroom furniture and sewing cushions for her bed, which will be placed inside a new relief tent the family has received. Their largest tent serves as a living area, kitchen, dining room, and bedroom for her father and his new wife.

Last night, the family gathered to watch a cricket match between Pakistan and England on the small TV set inside the tent. Saira served me dinner and we looked at pictures before going to bed. The children talked of going to school tomorrow morning, and some family members prepared for work. All seemed eerily normal, as if nobody but me noticed that we were under tents and in a park.

The tent village is fairly independent, and there is little NGO presence. A bulldozer regularly lifts rubble out of the area, but there is no other sign that anything will change for the park dwellers in the coming months.

“We have been granted stay in this park until March 2007,” said Saira, reminding me of the harsh winter they will have to endure for another year. “After that we’re not sure where we will go.”

Khubaib Foundation Provides a Home for Orphans, Widows

MANSEHRA—After the earthquake, many children who were left parentless were adopted into their extended families. Widows began living with their parents or other relatives. But not everyone was welcomed with open arms, and many orphans and widows were reduced to poster figures for receiving aid money.

Last fall, the Khubaib Foundation, a Turkey-based relief organization, liaised with the Pakistani government to create temporary shelters for orphans in Mansehra and Muzaffarabad. The plan was to bring the children to Islamabad and either find them homes or build an orphanage. But, through the resistance of the local community, the children were not shifted to Islamabad and still reside in the shelters today.

In Mansehra, a boarding school has been set up for 321 such orphans and 20 widows in April. Mansehra is a commercial trade hub for villagers, who are able to come visit the children when they go to the city. The orphans are currently living and studying in tents inside a large guarded field.

“Our biggest problem is a lack of space,” said Major Fayyaz Akbar, project manager of the Mansehra site. “We are working with the government to find a large plot of land in Mansehra were we can build a permanent shelter and school for the children.”

The children are taught based on a New Century education system, developed by a group of Karachi-based NGOs. The Montessori-style classrooms emphasize writing skills and reading comprehension instead of simple memorization. The widows are also provided reading skills and vocational training.

“In their villages, the children were not educated properly. Their parents, busy with their own work, didn’t pay much attention to the children’s studies,” said Akbar. “Now we have brought them to a point where they can even skip a class and enter the next grade.”

But the more notable accomplishment of the Khubaib Foundation is the cleanliness, order, and respect with which the children and widows are living. Other tent villages are covered with trash, but the orphanage is clean and the children are provided food and medical attention regularly.

The children of the Khubaib foundation are receiving education and attention today that would have been unimaginable for them prior to the earthquake. Among the sadness and frustration of earthquake evacuees, the orphanage provides a much needed glimmer of hope.

Photo Diary: Jabba Tent Camp

Please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambreenali/ to see photos I have uploaded from my visit today to Jabba.

This tent camp opened recently to accomodate those earthquake victims who had settled back in their villages and were once again homeless after this month's floods and landslides. 550 families will settle in this area for an indefinite time. Tents have been set up with medical, educational, and food facilities. The NGOs working there include the UN World Foods Program, International Medical Corps, and Haashar.

A Break from Reality

ABBOTTABAD—Children of First Step School, based in the Jalalabad Park tent camp in Muzaffarabad, Kashmir, enjoy rides during a field trip.

School Teaches Vocational Skills to Earthquake Evacuees

ABBOTTABAD—“There were no men in the villages when the earthquake hit,” Saima Pervez recalled. “My aunt went back to find her children in the house and was crushed under a door.” Two children of the family survived, sandwiched between the corpses of their siblings.

The women in Imtiaz Bibi’s class come from remote villages surrounding the Mansehra area. After their homes were destroyed, they moved to Jhanghi, on the outskirts of Abbottabad, where some live with their husbands, who are drivers and laborers, and some share flats with other girls.

Every day, the girls walk one hour to the Disaster Management Center (DMC), operated by the Abbottonian Medical Association and American Pakistani Physicians of North America, where they learn sewing, embroidery, and beadwork for free. In 10 months, they will know the basics of making and selling handicrafts. DMC will sell their products and give them the profits to take, along with their new skills, back to the villages.

Imtiaz Bibi (left) began teaching such skills to girls in Mansehra last year, where she rented a house and created Sahara Vocational Center. She too is an affectee; her family lives in Balakot, where they have used their initial ERRA* check to build two mud and stone rooms for temporary shelter.

Before joining DMC, she lived inside her vocational center and paid rent with the fees she collected, a great feat for a woman who at the age of 13 had never been inside a school. Now, the Disaster Management Center is providing her a salary to run the class.

“I had an interest in embroidery and sewing since I was a little child,” she said. “I picked up the work wherever I could learn it. I had to beg my mother to let me out of the house I the beginning.”

For the girls in the class, there is no choice but to leave their homes and find work. They pay high rents in Jhanghi, as house prices have quadrupled with the influx of international NGOs and relief offices in the region. They are learning these skills in the hope of gaining a job and helping their families pay the bills until they can rebuild their village homes.

“When I return to my village, I will teach the girls there how to make these crafts,” said Shamaila (right), a 20-year-old student in the class. “We were never taught how to read and write, but now I want us to be able to do something for ourselves.”

*The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority is a government agency providing earthquake affectees with Rs. 175,000 to rebuild their homes. Initial checks of Rs. 25,000, about $400, have been provided to some affectees.

No Place to Call Home

BALAKOT—When it rained today, I remembered Nargis (above). I remembered sitting in her tent and touching its thin cloth. When it rains, the water falls inside, she had said with a resigned smile. Now I watch the heavy rain and imagine her sitting in her dripping home, hoping that it will stop.

Rain has a strange role in South Asian society. Water is good for crops, and it is a comforting relief from the blistering summer heat. But water causes rivers to overflow and mountains to slide. This year, rain is causing the millions of tent dwellers hell.

In Balakot, the rain has left a river of rocks running in between the tent cities. The landsliding (right) that occurred last week has ruined people’s tents, and along with it the few belongings they had salvaged from their destroyed homes. Some who had returned to their villages came once again to the valley, homeless for a second time.

The towns of Balakot and Gurlat have been declared a “red zone” by the Pakistani government. Its proximity to the fault line and its vulnerability to further disasters make rebuilding there unsafe. Residents will shift, over the course of several years, to Bakryal, some 10 km from where they currently live. Where they will shift, how much land they will receive, what jobs they will have, and what money they’ll be given to make the move is all unclear.

“We will stay here. We don’t need Bakryal,” said Nadeem Sahib, a Balakot resident, during a press conference (below) held by local landowners at which over 70 men were present. “Our brothers across the world sent money for us. The government used Balakot to raise funds that it is now using for fancy homes and cars. Where is our money?

When pressed about whether they will move to the new location, most of the villagers present said their first priority is to stay in Balakot. They fear commercial use of their land for tourism and business upon their departure. But they are willing to move, they say, if the government will answer how land will be distributed in Bakryal.

Landowners are concerned about getting an amount of land proportional to what they had in Balakot; so far the government has announced that all residents of Bakryal will be given the same amount of land.

Inside Nargis’s tent, however, the women had a different concern. Shamaila, another tent dweller, said, “We want to move to a place where our children are safe. Our husbands are concerned with money, but we say if we are going to die what good is that money? Another earthquake can happen anytime and if this land is unsafe, we should move.”

For Nargis, the wife of a tenant who was living on his landowner’s land, there are other problems. The government is only allowing tenants to rebuild if their landowners sign a NOC, No Objection Certificate. Her landowner refuses to sign the NOC. Currently her tent is pitched on another owner’s land, and he threatens her family regularly to move.

“We would move but we have nowhere to go,” she said. She’s right. If the NOC is not signed, the government has yet to explain where Nargis can build a home for her family.

For now, she sits in the rain and watches her home flood. The winter is returning and she expects to bear another grueling season of snow without shelter.

"For God's Sake, Don't Exploit Our Suffering"

BALAKOT—One year later, the tents are still in use. The city is no more; there are merely hundreds of tents clustered throughout the mountain valley.

NGOs Continue Work Amid Confusion

MANSEHRA—“Some victims have gotten used to receiving aid from multiple sources. When a new NGO comes, they ask them for supplies, even if they’ve already received them. But there are still people in remote areas who have yet to see one ounce of aid,” said Uzma Gul, Zonal Coordinator of the Sungi Development Foundation, Mansehra District (below).

Despite the creation of a governmental regulatory body, the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), the rehabilitation process has not been streamlined. Some affectees are receiving tremendous amounts of aid while others are not receiving any. NGOs are duplicating efforts and using their funds up inefficiently, according to Gul.

The Pakistani government declared the relief phase of the October 8th earthquake complete on March 31. Army camps were then closed, as were other temporary relief sites, and over 3 million affectees were instructed to return to their villages. They have only been allowed to rebuild where their original homes existed, creating some issues.

For one, those whose land suffered from landslides cannot create their houses on slopes. Tenants and landlords are also battling over where tenants can now rebuild their houses since they never owned the land they lived upon. And while some extended families lived in five homes covered by one roof, they are now entitled only as much money as a single household.

“There is a lack of coordination, and even the various governmental bodies are unsure who is in charge,” said Sadiq Akbar Siddiqui, chief executive of Haashar, a development NGO that began in 2000. The District Commisioner Officer (DCO) has yet to answer the questions raised, and ERRA hasn’t commented on how to resolve the disputes.

ERRA is mostly run by military personnel, and they determine where NGOs can and cannot work. It was created with the purpose of streamlining the rehabilitation process so that duplication of work is minimized and all affected areas are covered.

“ERRA should not be run by the Army. Those who are experienced in these areas and understand rehabilitation should be making the decisions,” said Gul. Her organization, Sungi, has been working in this region since 1989 in governance, education, health and social mobilization.

After the earthquake, Sungi was one of the few local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that already had survey information on all the villages in the region. The organization focuses on participatory development, undertaking only projects that are initiated from within the communities.

“We knew where the most remote villages were because we had been working there,” Gul explained. “From the beginning we were interested in capacity building. We are training carpenters, laborers and teachers.”

Sungi’s understanding of the local culture gave them an advantage over international NGOs, some of which now fund Sungi’s initiatives. When relief camps were set up, Sungi was careful to allow victims to live within their own communities. The region’s culture is very private, Gul explained, and families felt more comfortable surrounded by others from their own area.

Sungi also took special care to register widows as heads of households even if they were now living with relatives. In this way, widows were able to claim their portion of aid.

Haashar has also focused on the region prior to the earthquake. They are providing affectees who have lost livestock with replacements so that the villagers can continue their way of life.

“There is a cycle to how they sustain themselves. If you take one bull out of the equation, then the cycle no longer functions,” Siddiqui said. Haashar is also concerned about the increasing deforestation of the area as a result of reconstruction; the local environment is changing at an alarming rate.

“The government should bring timber from other areas to minimize the massive depletion of this resource,” he said. So far, nothing of the sort has been done.

Even Among Disaster, Corruption Ensues in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD—Immediately following the October 8th earthquake in Northern Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the government of Pakistan created the President’s Earthquake Relief Fund. As the money is distributed to affectees, the National Accountability Board (NAB) has discovered a 50 percent corruption rate in at least one district.

“The highest standards of transparency and accountability would be maintained,” Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf promised last November. The fund was set up to provide relief to earthquake victims and to mobilize resources for relief efforts.

U.S. organizations and Pakistani expatriates donated over $6.2 million to the fund through the Pakistan Embassy in Washington D.C. Despite the skepticism of some who have experience with the corruption Pakistani governments, most Pakistanis felt confident in donating to the fund.

It’s hard to blame them. The Pakistani Army was on the ground and helping facilitate relief efforts immediately, and their presence was recognized by both the U.S. government and international non-governmental organizations. Ethnic tensions were erased as students and workers from Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad rushed to the affected areas to provide relief. In a rare scene, the country’s citizens and government seemed to be working harmoniously to help the 3 million plus victims.

10 months have passed since the earthquake, and the money is being used to assist affectees in building earthquake-resistant homes. An initial 25,000 rupees ($417) check is issued per family to begin rebuilding, and upon inspection more money is to follow to complete the work.

The system has already been criticized for its shortcomings. Those who are not approved for the second round of money are left homeless. In addition, the cost of material goods has surged, partly because of keen businessmen who recognize that demand exceeds supply and partly because of the international NGO presence. The money, therefore, may not be enough to rebuild homes.

Now, according to Pakistan’s The News, the NAB has reported that 50 percent of the checks issued in the Oghi district of Mansehra are fake. Oghi is one small area of the region affected.

The corruption can be traced to the elected representatives, revenue department officers and military personnel who have been issuing checks. Ahmad Shahryar, the son of the district nazim has been issued 8 checks, and 31 total checks were issued to members of his family. The officers involved have been pocketing a portion of the compensation.

Doctors have also been linked with the corruption in the area; they have issued fake certificates of injuries to allow patients to collect the government money.

The NAB is continuing its investigation in Oghi and plans to do similar probes in other areas. However, they will likely avoid badly hit areas, such as Balakot, so as not to agitate and add to the woes of those affectees.

While the corruption causes valid alarm, donors to the Pakistan Relief Fund can find some comfort in the NAB’s efforts to investigate the problem. One must wait to see how the government will prevent further abuse of the relief funds.

Gearing Up

WASHINGTON—Two weeks from now, I will be stationed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, hours from the epicenter of last October’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake. As the anniversary nears, millions of people whose villages have been ruined continue to live in temporary relief sites. The winterized tents designed to weather the harsh winter are now their only refuge from blistering heat. Lack of proper sanitation, health, education, and food have led some to describe the 70,000+ who perished last fall as the lucky ones.

Of course, this was one of many tragedies to recently affect our world. Less than a month ago, Indonesia was hit with an earthquake, and as I write this, rescue workers are looking for survivors of a flood in Ethiopia last weekend. The amount of disasters, conflicts, and bad news is overwhelming to say the least. But for the millions who continue to struggle, whether it’s in the Gulf Coast, Southeast Asia, or Kashmir, that reality is something they cannot escape by turning off the TV.

As an American who has lived in Pakistan and traveled through the affected regions, I have decided to lend my eyes and fingers to this story. For three weeks I will report to those who are interested, in the U.S. and elsewhere, the real stories I witness at ground zero of Pakistan’s reconstruction operations. I expect stories that give hope, as well as those that depress and frustrate us, and stories that remind us of the never-ending resilience of the human spirit against great odds.

I encourage you to join me on this adventure by checking my postings frequently at www.ambreen.net/blog or by subscribing to my site feed.