<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 11:40 AM, kausar.skhan <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kausar.skhan@aku.edu">kausar.skhan@aku.edu</a>> PHM Pakistan</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#1F497D" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">The support you are mobilizing for us is very heartening. How we can avail from your efforts is a challenge for us here, as the task is so daunting and overwhelming
that if we do not watch-out paralysis may slowly strike us – i.e. those who MUST come forth to help.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">I take this opportunity to salute Tanveer and his team that has directed all its efforts into relief work, and that oo within a few days of the disaster that
struck us. The magnitude of this calamity took a few days to hit us. I was in the hills of Murree at a meeting of a peace initiative in Pakistan, and some friends from Peshawar informally shared what was happening amidst the heavy showers that were lashing
at the land and mountains. – bridges collapsing; villages inundated; humanity beginning to move to whatever high ground could be found. During one of the sessions, a friend from Lahore got a call and with a shocked face he said: ‘I just got a call from Layya
(a district in Punjab). They have asked people to vacate the main city of Layyah …’ Since then we saw individuals, groups, organizations small and large scrambling to respond. Of course, some were quick to reach the affected, and some got entangled in preparing
mammoth plans.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Some of us in Karachi compelled by the need to respond have been visiting the camps in and around Karachi. What struck us was the need to protect the dignity
of those affected and needing relief in various aspects of their life. Distribution of relief goods has become a major challenge, for it is creating conditions where people fight for the goods, with the weak (women and old men) sidelined in the scrimmage for
goods. A woman in the first camp we visited said, pointing to her arm,:’ they beat me with a stick as I tried to get the clothes…. Then somebody gave me a packet… and somebody snatched it from me”. She held her thick hair in her hand, and said: ‘they pulled
me by the hair’. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Health , as the focus on social determinants of health vividly declare, is about social determinants of health, and perhaps it has never been so challenged
as today in Pakistan. Medical care today is as critical as disease prevention and health promotion. Community participation has never been as much in need as today, for this alone will initiate the process of helping people dealt with their trauma. Beneath
every trauma is the helplessness of those afflicted. Wanting people to passively receive the relief goods is to have them experience another form of helplessness. (most relief work seems to indicate this charitable approach – ‘why can’t they make a line !
they must be made to make lines’, said a man who has yet to visit a camp; ‘we tell them to stay in their tents and we shall deliver the food’, said a frustrated manager of a camp. In order to prevent possible stampedes, one camp had devised a strategy .
A small group, accompanied by a policeman and a few wielding sticks, delivered the relief packets to the people waiting in the tents. Yet, in this same camp this strategy collapsed when dust bins were to be distributed for the camps. The frail policemen,
and the volunteers with the trash cans were accosted by the youth in the camp and literally ran away with the trash cans, and some only with the covers of the cans . Having said this, I must add, there are those who have linked up with local organizations
and their volunteers to help the people affected by the floods to share responsibilities of distribution of relief goods. There are some good practices emerging, and need to be disseminated so that more and more relief work could engage the affected in an
active mode where they become equal partners in the relief work. This is doable, and can easily demonstrate the strength of the people in distress to begin to take control of their lives – provided, of course, those involved in relief work are committed to
the spirit of community participation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> Better end here. More later. I’ll end by saying that if in the efforts of the small group with which I am associated there is something to share on
how we managed to ensure dignity of those in need, I’ll share it with you. This Sunday, we plan to visit a camp that now has 1100 tents, and with grossly inadequate food coming their way; and diarrhea and skin diseases beginning to raise their heads.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Stay in touch,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">All the best, and thanks again for being there,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Kausar</span></p>
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