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.