GlobalGophers | PAKISTAN | Kashmiri Earthquake Volunteer

Volunteering after the October 8th 2005 Pakistan Earthquake

Shelter 30,000 sandbags didn't arrive at our camp today, which is why there's spare time to write this. Forty-eight hours after my best friend Katie touched down after deciding to fly out to Pakistan as a nurse; we were in the back of an open-topped truck, sitting on (although technically probably 'balancing on') boxes of medical supplies, bouncing along to a remote village in the hills of the Pakistani side of Kashmir. On the way up, the medics (Imran & Ahmed) who'd been at the village for 2 weeks, told us about the village of Surrul. To say it was 'badly affected by the quake' seems like one of the biggest understatements I've ever made.

I've been trying for the last 5 minutes to word this next paragraph.telling you about the devastation in Surrul. The fact that 15% of the 2,500 population died; that every household lost someone, most houses more than one person. No home is left standing. I could tell you about the number of people who were badly injured. Or how severe medical problems were still untreated 2 weeks after the earthquake (until Imran & Ahmed arrived on foot). About the vets who've been acting as doctors - treating people like animals & hacking bits off. Or about doctors who are so incompetent that they give out arthritis medication to someone with stomach pains. But I can't put this into words. You have to see the faces, shake their hands, cuddle the children, listen to their tears - that's the only way you can understand. Statistics will never effectively explain what's going on here. I can feel tears welling just thinking of the people of Surrul, who've treated us so well the past weeks we've been there.

We give a little in return.a real life television for the children, we are the first westerners to ever visit these villages.

Our camp (consisting of 3 tents) is next to the main road, which sees about 2 pieces of traffic each day. There are no UN or other NGO 4x4s cruising around here, assessing the damage. We (me & the 9 other volunteers) are the only group in these mountains (we're at 2,500m - that's roughly 8,000ft, Grandma!). Sure, there are NGOs in the city of Bagh 2 hours away, but they don't come up to the mountains.the authorities are encouraging those living in mountains to go to tented refugee camps in Mussafarabad & Islamabad - but can they really accommodate the 6 million people living in the hills? There are also so many other problems of getting these people to relocate to these refugee camps; encouraging strong, independent kashmiris to become dependent on handouts & aid; what happens when the NGOs leave? What should the locals do with their cattle - their livelihood? The sanitation problems faced in these camps.I could go on, but there's so much else to write about.

Helping locals to stay local

We want the locals to stay local - to remain in the mountains through the winter. But this also has its own set of problems, primarily shelter. At the moment, people aren't homeless. Everyone here has a tent over their head. But let me tell you a little about these tents. They are crap. Even now the medics in our group are treating a large number of people with pneumonia and the temperature is yet to drop below freezing. Winter in this area will bring 6-8ft of snow and temperatures of around -10 to -15C. Even those lucky enough to have the so-called 'winterized' tents, have a piece of material devoid of any zips, just flimsy ties to close the doors - how will they keep out the snow & chilling winds? The tents aren't even waterproof, so how will they protect against such snowfall? I'm at a loss as to why our media are telling us that Pakistan is screaming out for tents. Anyone who attempts to survive winter in the mountains, in one of these tents will die. And as I said before, there's 6 million people living in the hills of Pakistan. The earthquake killed around 80,000.the winter stands to kill so many more.

Building Shelters

The evening that we arrived in Surrul, sitting around a campfire, Imran & Ahmed explained to us non-medics that we were going to build a shelter out of sandbags. The 5 of us city-folk looked at each other and gulped. No-one had any experience of doing anything like this (nor much muscle). But each of us apparently had enough motivation & desire to help because the following morning we started.

I didn't know what 'back-breaking work' meant until I started dealing with sandbags. Filling them, lifting them, lugging them, stacking them.the physical work was never-ending. I got it slightly easier than the other four. I made a lot of notes on what we were doing (which has now been typed up into a 30 page report requesting funding). Even so, I did enough dirty work & got filthy. The pads on all my grubby fingers cracked & bled - they're use to touch-typing, not shoveling. The dirt felt good though, it showed we were working. Camped alongside the locals, with the toilet being whichever field you fancy, a hot shower at the end of the day was a distant dream. And to be honest, we were all so involved in the project that when the darkness of night-fall descended & we were forced to end day 1 - I don't even think a shower was on any of our minds.

Shelter Over the next couple of day the shelter shot up. Local men & children helped us intermittently (especially when a digital camera was involved). Whenever I was sitting making notes, girls would crowd round me & watch my attempts at technical drawings. I'd speak to them with the little Urdu I know, but conversation's not so important when you know the universal language of smiling. Yu-mi (a Japanese volunteer) can speak fluent Urdu & chatted with the first girl who'd come to sit with me. This girl was beautiful & beamed continuously at me. I was full of smiles back at her. Yu-mi told me that this girl, who was practically sitting on my lap, had lost her little sister in the quake. How do you respond to that? How can you offer any consolation at all? The pain these people are going through is unbelievable and yet they're still so welcoming of us. Every night a different villager will bring us a simple meal of rice & dal (lentils) - naturally we try to make them take the kilos of rice & dal we brought with us, but it's quite a task to get them to accept.

Walking around the village (which are more a collection of tents, than anything with a centre or shops) each person will shake our hands & invite us into their home (a tent) for chai. These people have nothing & are struggling to survive, yet they look after us so well. The other night a ram was slaughtered in our honour, to thank Allah/God for sending us. The vegetarian in me objected, but nothing went to waste. We sat in a tent with the family who the ram had belonged to & feasted (they even made lentils for us veggies). The hospitality in Pakistan has always left me feeling so humble, although this takes it to a new level.they can't afford to be doing these sorts of things, but they want us to know their appreciation.

But getting back to our sandcastle.We finished it on day 3. It would've been finished sooner but it rained heavily on 2 of the afternoons. I almost cried when I went inside & realised that it actually is so much warmer in the shelter & that actually, this could save lives this winter. I had faith in what we were doing, but seeing it complete in such a short period of time & the realisation that it works, is something quite powerful. I came here with the hope of making a difference &, without meaning to sound egotistical, it seems that I can.

A request

But not without you. We did some calculations the other night, under the stars.in order to provide these shelters to Surrul & the surrounding villages we need material for about 400 shelters. Whilst the shelters are really cost-efficient, at about $100 (55 quid) to house 10 people, that's still a hell of a lot of money we have to raise. Unfortunately, the NGO we're working with can't give us any money (for many political reasons that I won't go into). It's up to us to fundraise. One sandbag costs just 7p... Winter's coming in a matter of days, each night the temperature drops a few more degrees.so to say that this is an urgent appeal, is probably the second biggest understatement of my life. We have to buy all the materials & distribute them amongst the locals before it gets colder. By the time the snow falls, it will be much harder to build the Bori Shelter (as the sandbag shelter is now called).a great deal of soil needs to be shoveled into bags and if there's snow on a frost covered ground, then this will make building difficult. However, these are tough people, they'll manage - we just have to give them the tools to make a difference. I should also say, that it's not our aim to build all these shelters. We've kept to a very simple design (one which has recently been approved by the United Nations (UN)) so the locals can build it easily themselves. We will be around to supervise & offer help, but we want them to do it independent of us. We (as in 'YOU') will give people the tools to survive. As much as possible, we want them to remain self-sufficient; to encourage dependency is to rob these people of their strong culture. To ask them to stay in these tents, is to leave them to die. We want them to survive the winter.

BY: Jenny

Useful Links:
BBC NEWS Rebuilding Site: The hidden army of volunteers helping earthquake victims
Donate to the Red Cross

Volunteering after the October 8th 2005 Pakistan Earthquake

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