An appeal

Pakistan: adding insult to tragedy

The Flood affected communities are struggling for their survival. Their habitats have been destroyed, they have lost their livelihood. In such circumstances in the patriarchal societies adolescent girls do not get proper attention to fulfill their specific needs, they are ignored by the Humanitarian support programs and even local philanthropists as their needs are not taken as an important issue. Diarrhea and other water related diseases are very common, the water has become contaminated, access to safe sanitation lacks.

The young women and adolescent girls have little access to nutritious food. This program is focusing on these specific issues of young women. This program will supplement the ongoing support programs by UN agencies and other Support Programs in the area.


AWARE GIRS is membership Organization and it has membership from the flood affected areas. The members from the target area have asked the organization to work for addressing the specific needs of the young and adolescents women. AWARE GIRLS is young women led organization working for the rights and development of young women of the Province. The young women can feel the sufferings and problems of young women. AWARE GIRLS has already worked for Internally displaced Young women by providing them support KITS, raising voice for Gender Cluster, and developing Research Report for Mainstreaming Gender in Humanitarian work in the North Western Pakistan.

In the Gender neutral relief, rehabilitation efforts the specific needs of Adolescents Girls are ignored such that the use of unhygienic cloth for sanitary purpose during menses period may cause of spread of further diseases among the affected population. The young women have a little access to the relief and support provided by the Relief organizations because of patriarchal culture.
There is an urgent need to move from gender blindness to gender sensitivity in helping the victims of this disaster. it is imperative to ensure that a gender perspective is included in the disaster management programs so that the relief efforts are able to properly address Young women’s needs such that;

* Fulfilling women specific requirements, such as sanitary pads /towels and clean white cloth and underwear,

· Providing Contraceptives, blankets and clothes,

· Toiletries: toilet rolls, soaps, shampoo, Towels,

· Nutritional supplements (multi vitamins, iron etc)

· Clean drinking water

· Ware cleaning tablets

We have developed a KIT fulfilling these specific needs of young women. One KIT Costs 30 USD. We are Generating resources to approach 5,000 Young women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and fulfil their needs.

Gulalai Ismail
Chairperson
AWARE GIRLS
aware_girls@yahoo.com
www.awaregirls.webs.com

Officials of five districts put on alert

Sunday, August 08, 2010

By Jan Khaskheli

Karachi

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has reportedly put district administrations of Kashmore, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Sukkur and Dadu on alert to keep a watchful eye on the raging flood at Guddu which may cause a breach near the Ghauspur embankment anytime.

“We have asked DCOs from Kashmore to Dadu to put the officials concerned on alert to deal with any situation efficiently. It may be the worst situation,” said a PDMA spokesman.

According to the PDMA official, the water level at Taunsa was 950,000 cusecs which will remain the same in the next three days. “The next three days are very crucial and may cause devastation in Sindh,” he said.

Mohammed Younus Marri from Kashmore told The News that presently three main towns — Old Ghauspur, New Ghauspur and Karampur — and the adjoining villages were under threat and the inhabitants were being evacuated on a war-footing. He said that in case of a breach, Kandhkot and parts of Shikarpur district might be affected by the flood.

He said that continuous rain has affected the evacuation process and relief work in Kashmore and Ghotki districts and other areas.

Government officials claimed that minor leakages in the embankments were understandable because the floodwater has touched the muddy walls after a period of 15 years.

Ishaque Meerani, who was monitoring rescue activities in Kashmore, said that the rising water pressure at the Torhi Bungalow embankment near Kandhkot caused a minor breach, which was being plugged. He said that while he was travelling from Guddu to Torhi Bungalow embankment, he saw hundreds of families crying for food, as they had received nothing so far from the government or any other side. The people, who had ration with them while for safe places, have now gone out of the food stock.

He said that though majority of people from katcha area in Kashmore district had been shifted to safe places, still a small number of people were there, who were reluctant to leave the area.

The News received reports from different areas that owing to the flow of 100,000 cusec at Guddu crossing and rising level in Sukkur barrage, katcha areas of Dadu, Jamshoro and Matiari districts came under water on Saturday morning. Standing crops on hundreds of acres in katcha area and the river bed have been inundated by the flood water. Local people said that due to illegal encroachments on land along the embankments, its bunds have weakened.

The government functionaries have also started to plug leakages in the embankments in Matiari and Jamshoro districts.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Irrigation Drainage Authority (Sida) Flood Information Cell figure released on Saturday said that at Guddu downstream water level was 102,2145 cusec, Sukkur 926,035 cusec and at Kotri downstream 132,660 cusec.
ends

No flood, rain worries for Benazir Basti residents

Tuesday, August 03, 2010
By Jan Khaskheli

Karachi

Standing in front of her beautiful house in the newly developed Behen Benazir Basti in the village of Bachal Jam Jokhio, Benazirabad (Nawabshah) district, 50-year-old Mai Aakulzadi told The News that she was lucky to have got the house, which saved her from floods this monsoon.

Mai Aakulzadi was among the lucky ones to have escaped the floods which have demolished a number of makeshift homes and left many people homeless in low-lying areas. “The heavy rains always destroyed our abodes in the past and we had to rebuild them on our own,” she said. “Life was harder then,” she reminisced, adding that those days now seem to be over for them.

Mai enjoyed the monsoon rains after a long time, realising that she lives in a house that is not vulnerable to flood and, by extension, devastation. “Previously, our houses were never able to survive heavy downpours,” she said. “Even during light showers, the roofs of the houses would begin to leak and we, fearing the roofs would cave in, had to live in ordinary shelters in the open.”

Like Mai, all the beneficiaries of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Cell (SBBHC), in Benazirabad district, are equally pleased with living in secure houses in monsoon, said Ismail Zardari, Project Manager, Research and Development Foundation (RDF), which is implementing the low-cost housing project.

These houses have two bedrooms, a veranda, an open courtyard, a kitchen and a toilet. The PPP-led government has identified deserving women, who are being given the low-cost houses in three districts where the scheme is operational i.e. Benazirabad, Tando Allahyar and Hyderabad.

The RDF is currently working on 1,700 houses in 48 villages of the three districts; 1,100 in Benazirabad and 300 each in Tando Allahyar and Hyderabad. Building one such house costs between Rs2,25000 to Rs2,42000, depending on the requirements and expenditures of the area.

“The fact that most of beneficiaries have not been troubled by the rains this year has immensely encouraged the project management,” Ismail said.

Ziaul Islam, director of the SBBHC, claimed that they have not received a single complaint regarding any technical fault in the newly-built houses. However, he said, the rains have affected the pace of building more houses. The possession of as many as 10,000 houses, of which 6000 houses are almost complete, would be handed over to the deserving persons by the end of this year.

“We have planned a strategy to keep handing over the possession of the houses to the deserving people through EDO revenue and other relevant officials as soon as work on a small number of the houses is completed rather than waiting for all the houses to complete and then giving them to the people at once,” he said.

Meanwhile, Benazirabad Revenue EDO Rashid Zardari, who monitors the project in the district, said that work on 400 houses has been completed. The EDO hoped that new houses would bring improvement such people’s lives.

RDF Executive Director Masood Mahesar said that they have taken the suggestions of the beneficiaries while constructing the houses to avoid any possible technical fault. Male members of beneficiary families are working together with the technical staff and have contributed a lot in the building process, he said. Mahesar felt that it was an important aspect of the project.

ends