Week 1 Diary


Week 2 Diary

Day 6

5.30am I left from Islamabad City to Lunda village. We arrived at 7.30am and saw amongst the ruins that people were waiting for us. As soon as we got out the cars, we were surrounded by men and children hugging and kissing us. Everyone wanted to hug and speak to me which was very emotional. Everyone was still wearing the same dirty ripped clothes from Eid. The Imam of the village spoke to me and thanked me for spending Eid with them. He asked me to tell everyone back in Scotland that although they had lost everything their hearts were still very strong and their prayers were for all the people in Scotland who have donated thousands of pounds.

We then held a meeting with locals who had volunteered to help in the relief effort saying although we had come to help them, they could also help us by being patient and providing man power because we wanted to start the recovery phase tomorrow. So we asked them to form a committee to identify the community’s priorities and coordinate the reconstruction plans with the rest of the village. They said their biggest needs were: 120 houses, clean water, 4 water wells, proper drainage for the next heavy rain, the school to be rebuilt, inaccessible streets to be cleared of debris and disaster training in case such a catastrophe happened again. I made a commitment to them, at that moment, that Islamic Relief would take on the responsibility of meeting all of those needs.

I then sat with the children who told me about their Eid this year which involved none of the usual family meals, visits to their grandparents’ house or family gatherings. This was, for me, difficult to digest and I thought of my children at home who had only missed their father this year.

On my way home to Islamabad that night I sat with my colleagues and we spoke of how, in comparison, it had been the best Eid we ever had. This Eid was different to any one we had experienced previously. It meant so much more to all of us as this year as we felt we had spent it with our bigger family who had shown their pure love and thankfulness.

Day 7

The very next day we came back to Lunda to start work we had promised to undertake. The bulldozers were already there by the time we had arrived and we began planning the housing needs in consultation with the committee.  Engineers also came to assess sites and plans for the water wells and drainage system.

I stayed there all day to monitor and contribute to the work. I did this so people knew I was there to help, not just for the photo-call but that I was in solidarity with them. Islamic Relief’s work is always about empowering the local community and so we would employ the villagers as labourers and give them a salary for their work. All day the young children were coming up to shake my hand saying ‘good good’ as I had taught them the word “good” in English as the best translation for “acha”.

I walked towards the middle of the village and met Bachkhel, an elderly 68 year old lady.  The floods had destroyed her home which took her only son Sayed Ul Haq decades to save for and build. She had no choice but to escape from her flooded village 6 weeks ago with her 5 grandchildren and 8 months pregnant daughter-in-law to find a camp 5km away.

I asked her where her family was as only 5 of her 6 grandchildren were there. The 9 year old grandchild ran behind the tent to pick up Khadjah who is only 20 days old, born during the floods. I was so pleased to see her tiny form; at that point I made my mind up to follow this child’s life. Every time I come to Pakistan I hope to come back here and see how her life is shaping up.  Bachkhel said “we will survive; we will rebuild our home and lives. We have very strong faith in Allah.” She looked at her 20 days old daughter born in the camp and said “She is a little angel but I don’t know what the future holds for her”.

Khadjah stole the day for me. I thought about her for the rest of the day and pondered her wonderful birth sharing her grandmother’s concerns over her uncertain future.

Day 8

I spent the day uploading video blogs and photos to send back to the UK about the development of the work here.

Day 9

I spent the day in Islamabad doing some important organisation and coordination of the relief effort across the rest of Pakistan.

Day 10

That morning I went to the airport early to I receive a delegation from the UK consisting of Sadiq Khan MP and Shabana Mahmood MP, the youngest Asian female Parliamentarian.  I picked them up from airport and brought them back to Islamic Relief office to brief them about the projects we were doing out here. I couldn’t take them to the field the same day as they were tired and it was starting to get late so I took them the nearby town of Rawalpindi.

In this city we have a project for a thousand orphans and a micro-finance programme. I wanted to show these Parliamentarians what the Scottish Government had helped us achieve in Pakistan as this was one of the sites we had been funded by them to help develop. I brought them to meet those who had benefited from the micro-finance programme and then took them to meet some of the orphans. They were absolutely shocked at the poverty in Rawalpindi, Shabana Mahmood in particular was crying when she met the orphans. There were two young blind girls who had lost their mother and father. It was incredibly emotional to see the 7 and 9 year old living under such circumstances. Sadiq Khan and Shabana Mahmood were speechless and numbed at the reality of these orphans’ lives and said to me that they realise they take so much for granted at home.

Day 11

The next day I took Sadiq Khan and Shabana Mahmood to Lunda village to see the work we are doing there. About an hour after we arrived in Lunda the skies opened and it poured incredibly heavy rain. We were all a bit tense at the thought of more rain but happily there was no flooding because the drain system was beginning to work already. It was so pleasing to see. I was overjoyed at the thought of this village and its people being protected from future heavy downpours as much as possible.

We walked around the village and saw some of the tents that had been set up for children to play in. We also visited the mobile medical clinic that was able to see about 200 people a day. Patients were most commonly there with eye infections, skin rashes, or diarrhoea which were endemic amongst everyone in the village. At least people were starting to be treated for the diseases that are rife across Pakistan with so many people living in makeshift camps without clean food or water.

After meeting with the patients we went to witness more of the reconstruction effort building houses. We finished the day by distributing food packs amongst the villagers. Each food package will provide one family with provisions for a whole month. As we went around visiting bits of the village, Shabana Mahmood met with some ladies. These ladies were absolutely shocked to hear that she was a young female Parliamentarian in the West and were very pleased that Britain had elected her.

Tomorrow we are going to Nowsherra with Shabana Mahmood as Sadiq Khan has to fly back to the UK. We will go and visit another village Islamic Relief is helping to rebuild. Our target is to rebuild 20 villages in this area and 200 in total across Pakistan. As with Lunda we are consulting them all from day one about their needs and priorities.