Laidback Show Episode 22 – Flood Relief
Faisal Kapadia and Dr. Awab Alvi head to Sukkur and Shikarpur along with offroadpakistan & SA Relief to deliver relief to the affectees in the region. During the trip they produced the 22nd episode of the Laidback ShowFlood Relief Mission #3 to Thatta
Starting this third flood relief mission, yet again we will document it live via GPS and also CoveritLive. I believe that is the only way to share with the world what we see and hear on the ground. GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.comReport: Flood Relief Mission #2 to Shikarpur
On return after our first relief effort to Sukkur two weeks back we had several meetings amongst the core group of volunteers adopting a long term medical relief and rehabilitation strategy, however during the subsequent week we continued to receive urgent demands for help emanating from many of the inundated villages of Sukkur and Shikarpur
Thus in response to these pleas we embarked yet again on the 21st of August with a convoy of 8 trucks laden with relief goods of which seven were carrying relief hampers while one carried the load of a hundred tents accompanied by their donor. The convoy consisted of 7 cars and we made our way to Sukkur at around 5 pm passing through Hyderabad and Kotri which was slowly becoming inundated with flood water as the water levels had considerably increased since our first relief mission a week earlier.
Our staging area & warehouse was arranged by Taimur Mirza through the local MNA Agha Taimur located on the main Shikarpur - Sukkur link road. We immediately offloaded our seven trucks of relief goods into this warehouse and with the help of the U.N coordination center in Sukkur dispatched the 100 tents to a PAF-managed IDP relief campsite on the Sukkur Bypass road
Day 1
The first night a few of our volunteers oversaw the construction of the 100 tents in the PAF enclave in an organized manner, the slow process continued the next three days and we ensured our constant presence at the site ensuring the construction to our total satisfaction. Returning home late that night to our accommodations in Sukkur we hit the bed immediately preparing to start early the next day for distribution with the help of smaller hired datsuns pick-ups. The reason for taking datsuns was because the larger trucks could not be taken into the deeper areas of Essani, and other inundated villages which were being pointed out by the accompanying leader
Day 2
We left at 9am the next morning and after a short recon of the areas we were planning on distributing in, set off in two teams one led by Atif Ashraf and the other by Awab Alvi to different villages totally inundated by water, this place has been so remote that no food had reached for a couple of days, we were greeted with eager people anxious to get this aid and it is our estimate that we may have been successful in providing relief to over 500 families waiting in desperation.
Next we liaised with three NGO’s, first is a Karachi based school organization called Reflections who has rented houses in order to provide shelter in Shikarpur and Sukkur housing a large number of pregnant women and their children and are definitley doing a splendid job on the ground, We also liaised with an NGO called Hands who is running quite a number of tent-cities around Kandkot, Jacobabad, Larkana, Shikarpur and Sukkur. The third NGO also is a Karachi based organization run by a few Karachi based architects called Karachi Relief Trust. All three organizations were thoroughly evaluated by us and were seen to be doing a genuine hard work on the ground and dservedly needed to be supported, we then dispatched a sizable quantity of relief hampers into their camps sites to augment their depleting food resources.
After accounting for these relief distribution we still had two datsuns full of relief supplies and three datsuns worth of water bottles left for handing out. We ran a few sorties of water-bottle distribution along the highway passing these out to many thirsty people who under the scorching sun on roads of Shikarpur
Day 3
While doing water sorties the day earlier one of our team members Rehan Bandukda helped identify a school run by SSG&C, they had 1600 registered IDP families inside in squalid conditions. We visited this establishment with 2 datsuns of water and two datsuns of food hampers, we also had over 700 packets of ready to eat sheermal, milk and khajur packets all of which was quickly picked up by the residents of this camp.
As this distribution in schools was going on, two of our team members Nabil Jangda and Atif Ashraf seeing the dilapidated conditions in the area also ordered fresh cooked of dal and roti packets for 700 people which we then continued to distribute till 5pm despite our planned departure at 2pm which would have allowed us to traverse the National Highway during the daylight hours, but this last minute distribution had us running late, we finally got done by 5pm and headed for Karachi reaching home by 11:30 pm. Reaching safe and sound, this last minute decision to feed another 700 people was well worth the inconvenience
As expected the on ground difficulties included extreme heat (48-50C) and a fluid situation of refugees settlements and their needs forced us to improvise on the ground practically making us come up with a new strategy at every puzzle. Gladly we had the mettle to make this happen on the spot. The overall security situation was also a lot riskier then we faced last week, in Sukkur as we were one of the first people to arrive back then, the towns are now littered with rioters, professional con men posing as NGO’s as well as political misfits of every variety out to make a fast buck. By the grace of god I am happy to claim we negotiated the various pitfalls with success. We may have stumbled but we did not fall!!
Our future plans are now being formulated and should revolve around supporting some genuine aid teams working on the ground in a long term basis augmenting with medical and rehabilitation requirements which we can possibly address
PICTURES: Flood Relief Mission #2 to Shikarpur
Pictures from our Flood Relief mission to Shikarpur this weekend in conjunction with OffroadPakistan and SARelief.com [nggallery id=86]Pakistan Flood Relief: Field Notes from Doctors to Sukkur – Day 2
If there is anything the government should learn from this flood, it is to take education and women empowerment more seriously. The enormous task of taking care of so many IDPs iz only magnified many fold by lack of a good base. If these IDPs were a little better educated it would have been so much easier for the govt. to house them. How can a mother take care of 10-15 children? It is simply not possible. Corroborating Dr Nighats experience when told about family planning theyre responses were 'have you no fear of Allah' or 'our husbands want it-they beat us' Many females do understand but the men dont. A woman came to one of our camps today asking for birth control pills an amazing happening, to our shame- we had none with us - I wonder if medical teams should carry IM depoprovera-council them and administer? We went to 3 camps today All of them were tent villages- it is good that people are being moved from schools, not all of the desks will become firewood
- please make a note that after the floods are over much help will be
- That is when I realized that my grand idea of an lhw visiting every camp was too Naive - last nights meeting had many false promises lady healthcare workers are a great force- underpaid, exhausted n downsighted by local hospital doctors-this force is only acheiving 25% of its potential
- diarrhea prevention
- ors
- malaria prevention
- high risk preg notification
- general hygeine
- amoxcillin
- augumentin
- eye drops
- zinc syrup
- ors
- multi vit tablets
- skin ointment
Flood Relief Mission 2 – Live Tracking & Tweeting
As customary to our Relief trips to the flooded areas, Faisal Kapadia and I will be live GPS tracking and Live Tweeting all along the way. Our plan is to depart Karachi on the morning of Sunday 22nd August accompany a convoy of 8 relief good trucks, be joined by 7-8 accompanying vehicles with around 25 odd volunteers to head to Shikarpur. We hope to offload all the goods in a secure warehouse in Shikarpur and from there strategically disburse the relief to deserved people in the area. As different from the previous CoverItLive we launched last time, our emphasis is to concentrate / share tweets from only the people taking part in this particular mission and the readers will not be bothered or overwhelmed by the other twitter chatter. GPS Tracking will be maintained for record sake, to be transmitted every 5-10 minutes from our phones GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.comPakistan Flood Relief: Field Notes from Doctors to District Khairpur – Day 1
Dr. Nighat Shah's brief about our trip: Khairpur at this moment is housing huge bulk of displaced people from Larkana, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, and many smaller villages like thul, ghouspur etc. The registered displaced people are more than 50,000. Around 120 camps are housing people in small clusters. These range from 250-300 people in smaller schools to 5000-8000 in bigger schools. In all camps, the majority is of children and the statistics are mind boggling! In a camp at Ghari Mori, district Khairpur, housing 280 people, there were 44 men, 67 women and 169 children. Almost all children are sick, ranging from stunted growth, severe malnourishment, diarrhoea and skin problems. Almost all women are anemic, weak, malnourished, perpetually pregnant or breast feeding, and the sad part is that there is no milk but the baby is still latched, always! More than 20-25 percent are pregnant. Brief review of our activities- Day 1 As a team comprising of a retired pediatrician (working at SOS villages), a local gynecologist / obstetrician, 2 soon to be graduates from AKU and I, a recent Masters in Public Health graduate from Harvard and an instructor in the Dept. of General Surgery, AKU, Karachi, visited displaced peoples camps in District Khairpur. We left around 7 a.m. for the visit but worked early in the morning to organize the medicines available in boxes so prescription would be faster. The hospitality of our hosts is of tremendous. I had to have two cups of tea in the morning (that is more than I drink in a year :-). They do not let you work until you are well provided for and do not stop asking you to drink up and eat up. Our first stop was the APWA school where around 400 people mostly from Thul are housed. It was nice to see displaced people having shelter from rain and the hot weather and a place to rest. The schools have lots of open space so the camps are not very congested. However, this is coming at the cost of education of the local children. Schools are closed. I hope alternate efforts are planned - The IDPs are not suiting the schools well and the furniture and facilities are taking a toll. There were no toilet facilities available - the school's toilet was clogged so the openess of the grounds was being used as a substitute. Upon inquiry we found out that sanitation work is underway and they just havent reached this school yet. Yes, we saw pit latreens in all of the other places we visited today. It was also nice to see that handpumps were being constructed - almost all of the camps we visited had them. How potable that water is something requiring thought. We plan on taking a few samples with us back to khi to be tested - we have to keep in mind the arsenic incident in Bangladesh. But atleast that water is fit for washing and showering and we did see lots of showering as we went along. The problem was the choice of place to construct the hand pump - it was not rare to see water having standing on the ground. No drainage was thought of while contructing these - we provided these observations to authorities who instructed those planting these pumps to do something about the standing water. Standing water is an issue that needs to be taken care of urgently. This camp was clean, the headmistress was paying the kids to clean up - but the garbage was being collected at one place in a heap - no city truck ever came to take this away - and as is the garbage disposal system of most of Pakistan - this garbage was scheduled to be burnt. As mentioned before - problems are not only due to the flood - but the baseline itself is a low health state. We divided ourself in two teams and began seeing all kinds of patients - women , children and men. I was surprised to see that even the men were so anemic - women and children always are, this is the first time I saw such a high proportion of men being anemic. Gastroenteritis, skin conditions (scabies, impitigo, fungals) were expectedly quite common. There was high volume of URTI and LRTI prescriptions were mostly, amox, cipro, ORS, vitamins, benzylbenzoate, FeSO4. However, a feeling of helplessness was frequently encountered when we encounter patients with epilepsy, angina, Colon Ca (most likely), Nephrotic (most likely), Hypertension. What does one do about these patients in a camp? we tried sending them to hospitals but common complaints were, 'they prescribe meds that we cannot afford', ' we cannot affort tests', 'doctors are never available', 'doctors do not treat us'. Some of these complaints are not appropriate. Many had cannulas in their hands, meaning they were going to hospitals regularly and receiving IV fluids - sent back to the camps for the night to return the next day (not an ideal way to deal with things - but a good way to deal with the high volume of patients and lack of resources). The teachers of the school were a huge force - educated women who understood and spoke Urdu. They were coming everyday on duty, however, they were not doing much. We encouraged them to teach the children running about (atleast teach poems etc.) We encouraged them enforce handwashing, general hygeine and cleanliness. They are definitely a force to be utilized in the right way - dispensing ORS and maybe vaccination? Of mention is a vaccinator who was idly sitting at the school. We asked her to administer polio to all children and TT to all pregnant women (she actually had those vaccines), but her reply was, 'but they are pregnant' to the TT request. We explained to her what she can do - her response was 'acha'. I hope she does some vaccinations tomorrow (she needs to bring the shots from storage). Our next stop was Salimabad. The condition there was terrible. Almost 50% of the displaced people there had watery diarrhea. We sent two patients immediately to the hospital in our ambulance. In one of the rooms was a dead body of a 20 year old female who died of watery stools. She had died in the morning. They were around 250 people and had been staying there for 10 days. What is this besides cholera? I certainly fear more deaths will occur here. Our treatment was based on IMCI - ciproflox for 3 days and ORS. We immediately got them to fill three water coolers (half of what they had) and filled these with ORS. We adviced everyone with diarrhea to immediately drink plenty from those coolers. ORS is life saving in these situations! Handwashing with soap was emphasized. We heard of another neonatal death in another one of the camps. Of note: In this camp there was no one incharge - these people were just brought here and left on their own - there was no one there to look after them, but it seems like they were supplied with water and food. There were pit latrines made by UNICEF, however, feces was piled in these pit latrines. The people of camp said that someone used to come everyday to maintain this latrines but after a 'foreigner' came and looked at them no one has come back even once. The last visit was 5 days ago. An appeal to those deploying the pit latrins. Please educate people on how to use them and maintain them - the latrines are really good and are an amazing help but that benefit is severely stunted if feces is lying open to the millions of flies buzzing around. From there on we went from camp to camp repeating the same. Taking a look at water sanitation and hygeine and seeing if we could do something, treating patients, educating on handwashing with soap and improving health and hygiene awareness. We have brought soap with us and will be distributing it tomorrow. We understood the issue of intestinal worms is an endemic problem , however we had no medicines for that purpose. Instead of asking about we thought we would buy Albendazole and give stat doses to everyone we enounter. We aim to deworm all camps. Many organizations are setting up medical camps in various camps - we faced a bit of disorganization today and some time was wasted in looking for camps without doctors. We are meeting with the EDO health tonight and hope to resolve this issue and make full use of available resources What is needed:- ORS, Amoxcillin, Vit B complex, scabies and deworming medicines.
- Water jugs and utensilts to make ORS in (cant put it in the hand pump).
- pictographs of flies sitting on feces and going and sitting on hands and food.
- benefits of handwashing (pictographs).
- They must be sindhi speaking
- LHWs, medical students, nurses, doctors (any educated person with a bit of training)
- Need to promote and ensure hand washing with soap (provision of soap)
- availability of ORS (made - not only powder) and education to use it in case of diarrhea. As expected we got the sense that people were not satisfied with just ORS - they need to be explained the benefits of this and encouraged to NOT DELAY ORS. Cholera is a killer and it has already begun.
- getting rid of stagnant water
Pakistan Flood Relief: Notes from Kot Addu and Sukkur
Both Awab and I recently went on separate trips to Kot Addu and Sukkur, into just some of the areas affected by the flood. I think that by now, the scale of the disaster is hitting people- even Ban Ki Moon’s statement sent everyone scurrying for ideas and strategies to deal with the flood. The food relief truck I went with was organized by Saad Sarfraz Sheikh, an inspiring photographer and friend, who pulled in food through donations, and had someone arrange for a truck to transport it all to Kot Addu. I must also mention that even now, Saad’s father remains trapped at the PARCO refinery in the Kot Addu area. I realize that we’re going through the greatest natural disaster that we’ve gone through- ever, and what’s more important, is that the world is realizing this as well. Rather than going into the usual analysis-paralysis of why the floods were so bad this year, or why the politicians are so indifferent, this article candidly shares what Awab and I have learned from our short trips into the field (Awab is more experienced with relief work, since he also helped out with earthquake and army-operation refugees earlier). I’m also cowriting this with him so that we share experiences from different affected floodzones. If you are working in Balochistan or Khyber Pakhtunwa or any of the many, many regions that we aren’t please get in touch or just write your thoughts out as a comment. No time for formalities here. Normally, a social worker would write this, but I wanted us, normal people with no training, to put out thoughts together on what worked, and what didn’t work based on our experiences. Why? Because the majority of Pakistanis who can help- are average people like Awab, Saad, myself and you. NOTES/ OBSERVATIONS Khurram Siddiqi: Kot Addu- I’ve found that in the almost utter absence of a functioning government disaster management authority, citizens are taking matters into their own hands. No independence day has ever meant more since 1947, than this one. We’re all in this together, and pooling resources and funds like never before.
- Work with someone who has already done this in the past. This is not Pakistan’s first disaster, so there are bound to be people who’ve done this before, and have lessons to share; usually in the form of logistical efficiency.
- Empathy over sympathy – action over emotion. For the most part, I saw that people in the cities- removed from the flooding, are eager to satisfy their personal grievance by purchasing loads of food supplies. Though commendable, before we set out to help others, I think we need to take stock of what is really required, and choose a partner in the field to work with. Too many people seem to be generating stockpiles of supplies that though necessary, become burdensome because of distribution. Furthermore, because of the lack of coordination between relief providers, we might end up providing too much of one thing, and not enough of another. We saw this firsthand. For example, our truck carried a great deal of onions, potatoes and flour, but no anti-malarial medicine.
- This is a relief trip, and not a chance to be Indiana Jones: do not take this as an adventure trip. Make this about the people you want to help, and not about soothing the restless ‘activist’ in you. For example, Saad and I are both avid photographers (though I just shoot- he photographs), and there came points for both of us where we realized that in an effort to document and ensure that food was being distributed to the right people, the volunteers we were working with began to feel that this was becoming a slight PR campaign. It’s embarrassing to admit, but you need to be humbled in order to realize it.
- Ensure that what you’re taking out to the field is pre-packaged, preferably as ‘family packs’. With the help of your chosen relief partners, establish the quantities or sizes of packages required, meaning how much of what item they intend to distribute, depending on estimated family size.
- Someone posted this on their Facebook page: “Pack this with the expectation that it shall be dropped from 80 feet”. Brilliant piece of advice; you should aim for this even if your food is pre-packaged,
- Aim before you fire. Trucks, on average, cost Rs.20,000 (driver and diesel included one way), for goods that must have totaled about the same. The truck however, had much more space available, which would have been filled of course, had the pace of donations been higher. That said, logistics need to incorporate the incoming sources of funding. I realize again that this stuff sounds natural, but when you’re emotionally charged and want to save lives, you’re usually in 5th gear from the get-go; not the best of ideas. Another thing to consider is that fuel itself is in short supply. Let’s not become a part of the cycle, by burning it inefficiently. I just think we could have packed a lot more in there, before leaving. (But on the flipside, that is also a testament to Saad, who believed in getting the food out ASAP)
- Staying on the truck topic – banners and marks of your organization are probably not the safest of ideas. You could get looted- or you’ll get mobbed at your destination, and might end up distributing your relief supplies in ways you never expected: robbery and/or mobbery.
- The Pakistan Youth Alliance truck just got looted, then had their stuff returned. Some local MPA orchestrated the looting. So, yes- it is about how many big fish you know, and get ON the job as well. But I recommend considering strongly the added fuel costs, if you so desire, of a security detail. (convoy = protection, but convoy = more staff, more fuel)
- One of the main things we came across, even when working with professionals, was who and how to distribute food amongst. By who- I mean tribes, clans, families. I mean it. And if you’re not ready, you’ll discover this all at delivery time when you’re heading out into the field. This may or may not become an issue for you, but please consider where you want to distribute.
- As far as who to give the food to, even with the most skilled of social workers, I think there is always room for error. The question of ‘who is most deserving’ arises. In this case (of floods), it’s a hard call to make. Is it in terms of who lost their house? Who lost the most cattle? Who lost family? There are no solid answers, but make sure you have decided what you want out of the distribution exercise. Though this sounds like it’s about making it convenient for you, it’s actually about you, getting out of your own way, and getting the displaced, what they need, as soon as possible.
- I believe that food is not the thing in shortest supply; medicine is. While we were out in Kot Addu, Mospel (mosquito repellant) was one of our best friends. Anti-malarial medicines, along with gastro-drugs and even anti-venoms, are must haves (though anti-venom requires careful storage and temperature control). I don’t have a complete list of required/ suggested medication, but I’m sure that information won’t be too hard to pin down.
- Apart from food, think about the other things that people might need. For example, women have special needs, and things that pertain to them in particular are rarely considered as relief items. Again, this depends on what the objective of your trip is.
- One thing that really worked well for us was who we partnered with. Zafar Ali of the Pakistan Wetlands Program, Kot Addu office (thank you, Nuzhat Siddiqui for putting us in touch), and Saleem Khan of Saiban Trust (a trusted partner of the PWP’s in Kot Addu) were just amazing to work with. They each had their own teams as well, who we got to know quite well over the short time we spent in the field. It’s tempting for me to go up to Nowshera or down to Sukkur the next time to take aid, but because of the familiarity with the locality, and team- I suggest returning to the same place you’ve been, a few times again before picking a new spot.
- Our trip to Sukkur was quite well coordinated, we had two teams one destined for Sukkur while the other was ambitious enough to go to Kashmore.
- There are many nay-sayers scaring the beejeepers out of you, be confident in the belief that you are out to serve, and inshallah God will make way
- We had the support of the local politician who provided us with support on the ground which was a key influencing factor in our decision to go there – I would suggest if possible do arrange for a local contact within the area you are going, if not then remember to travel during the day only and distribute in areas where you have an exit strategy just in case you get mobbed. Meaning dont distribute on a dirt track, a paved metal road provides the vehicle to quickly move away
- Your own security is prime at all times, DO NOT carry a weapon and treat these people with patience and respect, understand at all times they are suffering and are desperate
- We had 3 trucks of goods all were offloaded into a warehouse where we hoped to effectively disburse in an organized manner, this turned out to be a strategic mistake, being located on the main road, we attracted a lot of attention and a mob quickly formed outside
- Having only one entry and exit door to disburse pre-prepared hampers became a problem as mob became impatient to block the door, it became difficult to open the door and when it was open difficult to close it under the pressure of the mob
- During the mob riot that ensued within our warehouse it was not possible to maintain discipline even after a police force was called in, they too were fighting with all their might, we tried to control the use of force but at times had to
- What I would have done differently, if we had a warehouse, id prefer it to be located a little far off the main road. I then would load small consignments on small datsun and head to areas where there was a need. smaller consignments meant less at stake
- If you feel the need to disburse to the settlers on the street, do so in a slow moving vehicle dropping goods intermittently, that too you have the fear of being mobbed, if it gets out of control move quickly away
- If you want you can also drop items from the truck itself, but fear the fact that if you loose control of the mob, the entire truck shall be mobbed within moments and you will loose the entire tranche of relief good that you brought for them, contend to the fact that you came to serve the needy and they all were needy [truly they are]
- Try to distribute by hand going to schools and checking the situation, this requires an local escort, politician etc – and most will regret supporting a political hegemony but on the flip side you get organization and can target the needy with a free hand
- The disbursement of tents was also a little difficult, we requested ID Cards in lieu of each tent where we noted Family # [or Khandan #] so that it prevented members of each family getting multiple tents, we caught 3 people doing the same, we only listed the Khandan number on a sheet of paper and compared every number before giving them the tent
- After the tent was given, we told them to set it up in the designated area and we would return to them the ID card with the promise to supply them each with 2 hamper bags for supporting them for the entire week, this temptation got them busy in putting up the tents in the required location
- In Sukkur there is a desperate need for Tents, Clothes and Medicines, with even a strong request for powder milk.
- Sukkur itself having a few hospitals are facing the pressure for medical support, but it was not so apparent in our two days there, but the need will definitely grow shortly
- I would stress people going for relief to target slightly deeper locations further away from city centers, if you have gone the effort to come this far, go a little bit more and target some area you suppose has not been provided relief
- Prefer to arrive a little 3-4 hours before your truck so you know the geography, refer to Google Maps / or the Pakrelief.crowdmap.com to help identify the location before departure.
- I used GPS tracking with frequent twitter updates and posted abundant pictures on Facebook – do that, not to show-off your work but to inspire others and also update your donors that you have taken the effort to deliver, build a credibility and it shall go a long way. People in Pakistan will trust a doer, dont even for a moment spoil that level of trust, its priceless.
- Go with friends, and distribute with your own hands, there is an immense emotional satisfaction to have given with your own hands, it inspires you to do more for these poor suffering people, compels you to come back and give more
- Remember to look after your belongings strongly advise to leave your wallet inside the car and do not carry large amounts of cash, carry a notebook, in case you want to make a list of people etc, manage the finances to the last rupee and publish it maybe on a Google Doc so that your donors know what was used and what remained, do not reveal the names of your donors as most will not appreciate it.
- Remember to applaud and acknowledge your team, after successful trip it is mostly the credit to team work that brought you through
- Plan housing in advance and not ‘hope’ to get a place nearby
- You are doing this from Zakat fund, your travel, eating and housing is NOT an expense from the donation.
- Water: 300 bottles of 1.5 litre, preferably Aquafina, as it is cheaper than Nestle and Kinley… 300 bottles/35 cartons will cost = Rs 4,900
- Aseel Dates: 100 packs of 500 grammes…. @ Rs85/500grammes = Rs 8,500
- Pulses (assorted): 100kgs @ 150/kg = Rs 15,000
- Atta: 400kg needed, 80 bags of 5kg flour, @ Rs 175/5kg = 14,000
- Sugar: 7 cartons of Ashraf Sugar (2x10kg): 140kg, Rs77/kg= Rs 10,750
- Rice: 138kg, 69x2kg packs, Rs 11,040
- Salt: 14 packs of (800grammes x 3) National Iodized Salt = Rs 637
- Milk: 5 cartons of 24x250ml Dairy Queen, @ Rs 272/carton = Rs 1,360
- Banaspati: 100kg – 100 packs of 1kgs banapati, Rs 75/1kg (Sufi) = 7,500
- Truck transport/logistics: 20,000
Relief Cannot Wait – Flood Relief Mission 2 – this weekend
With a very heavy heart I write this blog post urging for immediate suport for the flood relief victims. We have been receiving word from many sources that there is dire need for food relief in the disaster stricken areas people may possibly be dying while we sit comfortably in our homes enjoying those lavish iftaris. With 20 million poeple suffering from the disaster we simply cannot wait for International donor agencie to suddenly wake up and come running, they simply are not too concerned the political leadership PPP despite being in power has zero presence in this region and all feudal lords are busy protecting their own lands while the rest can go to hell.
This last week a group of friends from OffroadPakistan and MotorSports Club of Pakistan embarked upon a relief mission to Sukkur, One team setup a small tent city of about 50 odd tents provided them with food and water, while the remaining hampers were distributed in and around the disaster area. Another team took the step to head towards Kashmore with about 1800 food hampers, went door to door and they got a first hand glimpse of what hunger and starvation has done to these dislocated people. Frantic requests have come forth to come now not later, and to come repeatedly, have emerged from all these areas, whatever we do, is at best a small drop, but help nevertheless to hopefully save our people.
OffroadPakistan was envisioning a longer planned approach with the establishment of a tent city to the likes of over 500 tents housing 5000 people with total logistical support for the next 3 months.
With the repeated pleas for help, it has compelled us not to sit back and plan, but to delivery NOW targeting remote locations where aid has not reached, being offroading enthusiasts we need to push the envelop to go further and deeper. So hence forth launches the effort for our second relief mission this weekend Saturday we depart and with the hope to return Monday evening if not sooner. To plan for this sudden trip we have some donations left over from last week which can be diverted to acquiring one truck of food hampers [600 from makro, we have commitment for a truck of bread [Papay]. We are issuing an urgent call for donation, the best way is to donate cash to me personally [23-B Sindhi Muslim Society] alternatively you can arrange for goods in-kind but preferably in pre-packaged hampers [which should be ready to depart on Friday night] as usual the entire trip will be documented via Twitter, GPS and Facebook, so everyone will have live updates of where we are and what we are doing.
Step up NOW, pakistan simply cannot wait
PICTURES: OffroadPakistan takes Flood Relief to Sukkur
Offroadpakistan in conjunction with MotorSports Club of Pakistan and SARelief we embarked upon a relief mission to Sukkur. Offroadpakistan took charge of three trucks and distributed the goods by establishing a tent city on the outskirts of Sukkur while the MotorSports Club of Pakistan went ahead to Kashmore to distribute the remaining three trucks. Pictures from the offroad team is included here [nggallery id=84]Flood Relief Drive to Sindh – Live Tracking
It seems we are finally off on our mission to provide relief to the flood affected region in Sukkur, Sindh. The OffroadPakistan has collected some significant funding for taking 6 trucks of relief good valued at more then Rs. 2.4 Million - four trucks of standardized basic food valued at Rs. 16,80,000, one truck containing a mixture of food hampers acquired from Makro at a cost of Rs. 4,43,585 and the sixth truck laden with tents and water bottles valued at Rs. 6,75,000. We are also trucking 250 1-kg tin cans of read-to-eat biryani generously donated by a friend of ours. We are not taking any medicine, but hope to concentrate on a medical relief later. The cost of trucking is approximately Rs. 25,000 per truck and im sure there shall be incidentals in between for this transportation process IIt must be remembered that all this is the effort of quite a lot of people and the generous contribution of Pakistanis wanting to help their fellow citizens who are suffering in these devastated areas. We as representatives of OffroadPakistan are headed towards Sukkur hoping to distribute three trucks there while our friends at MotorSports Club of Pakistan shall accompany three trucks with an attempt to approach Jacobabad and hope to disburse it there. Our plans are that we do plan for a phase 2 of the relief effort which we hope shall be a larger and grander push, this first trip shall serve as a reconnaissance trip for the bigger push in 10-12 days after this. With so much of confusion in the area we are hoping to do our best, to keep track of our progress I have installed a GPS tracker on my Blackberry which will transmit our location every 60 seconds, it will be a drain on the battery but it shall remain on as long as Mobilink service supports GPRS in the area. @FaisalKapadia and I [@DrAwab] will be feverishly tweeting along the trip and taking abundant pictures. We hope to make this a total digitally monitored relief trip. We shall be exclusively using the #PkField & PkOprel hashtag for sharing our progress from Karachi to Sukkur <a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=ff70ee95e5" mce_href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=ff70ee95e5" >Flood Relief to Sindh #PkRelief</a>Flood Relief Incident Reporting goes Live
The past seven days Faisal Chohan a TEDFellow has been feverishly working to establish an incident reporting website at http://pakrelief.crowdmap.com/ to monitor the flooding situation in Pakistan. This is technically a Ushahidi platform connected to an SMS shortcode allowing people with cell phones to give live updates of issue on the ground. Ideally this incident reporting portal should then be used by humanitarian relief organizations to adequately divert resources where needed. To submit an incident all you need to do is sto end message Type FL “Your needs/ situation/emergency” and send it to FL 3441. It will cost the user Rs. 2.00 per message. You can also send the report to pkfloods@gmail.com or fill out this incident reporting form on the website. After proper verification of the incident which may even mean calling the incident reporter back it shall be shared with the world. Read more about his effort at the TED Fellows Blog. He is slowly ironing out the bugs with tremendous cooperation from the International community of technologists and an amazing team on the ground in Pakistan.Op-Ed: Managing the Disaster Managers
One often wonders how a country run by a bunch of total lunatics can be expected to perform a reasonable job when confronted with a natural disaster. It may be a harsh generalisation, but Pakistan suffers far more seriously at the hands of bureaucratic pencil-pushers during natural disasters, while millions of Good Samaritans chip in to provide relief in a far more organised and generous way than the very people they have voted into power.
In recent times, we have had our fair share of natural and man-made disasters and each has left a lasting scar. By the grace of God we have somehow managed to pull through, but I often wonder if we had been better prepared would we have been able to save even one more life from the hundreds that lay at our feet?
In the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was formed by a constitutional amendment. The initiative, setting up a federal body deputed to coordinate all stakeholders in an attempt to implement a national and provincial strategy on better ways to manage, fund, organise, stockpile and train first-responders, was a step in the right direction.
In an ideal set-up, the first-responders would have been a well-rehearsed team micromanaging any eventuality at the district level. Slowly, the provinces would step in to manage the calamity at a macro level, leaving the national body to attend to larger issues. The disaster management team should have been well-oiled administratively and trained strategically towards effectively saving lives in the times of disaster.
Ever since its inception, the NDMA may have at best had a brief dream of coming up with a national policy for calamities. But, in turn, it was greeted with a Pandora’s box of bureaucratic red-tape across the board. A retired lieutenant-general headed the organisation and was viewed suspiciously by the provinces as part of the Musharraf lobby. For this reason, the provinces did not support and accept the NDMA and instead chose to fend for themselves. Punjab, for example, insisted on implementing their own Emergencies Act of 1952 and proceeded to form the 1122 emergency service unit which, while a brilliantly run service, does not come under the jurisdiction of the national body. Herein starts the cobweb of nightmares that prevent the effective operation of a national disaster response unit.
The lack of interest in coordinating with the national body lead to the provinces managing calamities on their own, creating ad-hoc crisis management cells entrusted to save lives. These cells were unprepared and adopted a do-the-best-you-can approach.
It’s interesting that the vigilant public has more or less seen through this disorganisation and has taken proactive measures to do their own part trying to overcome the shortfall, though these efforts, despite being well-intentioned, lacked coordination on a macro level. This left some areas well looked after, but far flung regions were ignored and left at the mercy of lacklustre government response.
With such an incoherent disaster management framework, there needs to be a serious effort to fix the problems from the core. If such bureaucratic red-tape is impossible to dissolve then, for the sake of the millions of Pakistanis, it might be best to create an independent consortium of various important stakeholders, including key figures from civil society, and entrust them with the management of future disasters. Disaster management is a science that enables you to be better prepared and the more rehearsed your team is, the better its chances that it will save lives. In the chaos that ensues after a calamity, a well-rehearsed team can be the difference saving or losing a live.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2010.
Some thoughts into Planning for the Flood Relief in Sindh
Over the past two days our team of volunteers at Motorsports Club of Pakistan and the OffroadPakistan have been in some intense discussion on what might be the best course of action. We have been busy raising funds locally and commitments have reached to a tune of close to Rs. 2.5 million. The online drive at SARelief has touched $2278 from a few generous donors, as the message spreads im sure this easy PayPal payment option, so close to the Islamic month of Ramadan will most likely get a considerable level of funding for the devastation in Pakistan. Flood has started to reach Sindh from the last two days, the winding Indus river which curves and twists across Sindh is likely to significantly change the terrain for a long time to come, it is anticipated that with the immense pressure of the water it is definite that the water will overrun the pre charted course of the Indus River and alter its embankments cutting a new course towards the sea spreading its wings wide across the plains of Sindh in its due course. A few major concerns do remain, the question that lurks in the minds of many, will the barrages hold up. It seems the Sukkur barrage is as of now holding strong, credit can be equated to calculated and unplanned rupture of a few embankments upstream which have helped soften the pressure of the main flood, these leaks will continue to seep the pressure and lessen the impact in sindh, sadly it also does mean more flooding in the affected areas. The most damage is happening in many low lying areas or the katcha villages, the population that inhabited these areas was forewarned and has been able to scamper towards safety meaning minimal loss of human life as seen in the Pakhtoonkhwa region where the poor folks never expected these floods, The devastation of property and crops will be exorbitantly high all across the country.
There are reports that the Government of Pakistan has provided these disaster area with sufficient funds for evacuation and basic support, some of the nazims, MPAs and MNAs have utilize the funds judiciously and these areas are fortunate to be faring well, but quite a large area of Sindh lies at the hand of corrupt leaders and feudalz who chose to siphon off the disaster relief into their own pockets, these localities are mostly suffering it is also being reported that it is these areas where the screams for aid is the largest. Its sad that even at times of disaster the corrupt are heartless even in such a situation.
Another concern that has come to light from a few strategic planners is to monitor the situation as the flood finally makes its way into the Arabian Sea, the mere mammoth amount of flood water colliding with the ocean will create a backlash, with high tide coming in there are good chances that the area surrounding areas will be inundated for example Keti Bunder, which are large plains at sea level will be at best drowned, Karachi is too far to be threatened but the marsh areas near the mouth of the Indus will be bad
There are various concerns with taking relief deep into Sindh, firstly one must asses the vehicular traffic going up north as two highways serve Sindh, Indus and the National Highway. The proximity of the Indus River to both must be monitored with care, the looping Indus River might wash away some major sections of the highway making the areas beyond it inaccessible. The road beyond Sukkur is already inaccessibly meaning Kashmore, Gothki and Shikarpur are already cut away from Karachi, as the flood flows southward more regions are to be affected hence impacting the delivery of relief goods and volunteer transportation, we would not like to risk the noble effort but accidentally creating more of a mess.
The flooding will generally subside in 10-12 days, though Sukkur barrage still awaits one major push of water which is expected to hit the area in few days, after which water levels will go down. The displaced people who have run to high ground with bare minimal belongings in tow will return after the flooding reduces and then hope to rebuild their homes
At the moment these refugees need cooked food, as there is no wood and shortage of eatables, if relief agencies plan then a kitchen is one best sought after relief, manning this for 10-12 days cooking 2 meals a day of rice and daal, one only needs a dependable volunteer commitment and decent logistical support, security I am told will be provided by the local administration as there is a definite chance of stampede at each meal.
The flood affected people also need medical assistance, snake bites, mosquitoes, and relief from other water borne diseases. It has been repeatedly suggested not to over burden these people with other relief goods while they are in temporary shelter as in a few days they will return, if they are showered with large quantities of relief rations it will be next to impossible for them to carry it all back, in these days the greed of stockpiling will overcome the actual needs of these poor dislocated people. Opportune time for relief goods, building material and other essential items can be strategically sent 10-12 days later when they are closer to their houses
Our effort with the Motorsports Club of Pakistan is to send out a scouting team with some minimal aid to evaluate and help the needy in whatever way possible, mostly medical assistance, return safely with sufficient information to plan for the larger push 10 odd days later after the flood has subsided and the roads are capable of transporting relief trucks up into deeper areas of Sindh.
It is expected that Faisal Kapadia and I [Awab Alvi] along with a few more friends cram into 3-4 offroad vehicles to embark on the scouting trip into sindh for 2-3 days, where then we can better gauge the impact of flood in the region. I hope to keep everyone posted as more information becomes available with time .
PS- This post has been a summary of the abundant discussion we have had over the past two days in planning for the Flood Relief effort to Sindh, if I am mistaken at a certain point or if I am wrong to have reached a certain conclusion then please correct me, my attempt is to share all the information as best as I have understood
Pakistan Flood Relief Campaign – Donate Generously
The earthquake's that have hit Pakistan in 2005 and 2008 were regarded as the worst tragedy for the nation. Few have realized that the recent floods have in fact caused more damage then those earthquake's did. As per latest reports official figures stand at 1600 dead and 12 million left homeless. The Monsoon rains began two weeks ago and have washed away roads, bridges and communications lines, hampering rescue efforts by aid organizations and the government. The downpours have grounded many aircraft trying to rescue people and ferry aid, including six helicopters manned by US troops on secondment from Afghanistan. Currently 30,000 Pakistan Army troops are busy in rescue and relief efforts. Where as the Earthquake of 2005 and 2008 and the IDP crisis were devastating, unlike the Flooding they were contained within a geographic area. Flooding has been reported from Kyhber-Pakthunkwa all they way down to Southern Punjab and Sindh. There is only so much the government and the armed forces can do in the face of such a massive disaster and so we as citizens have undertaken the mantle of trying to add our little drop to the ocean To that end, we have decided to take up relief efforts to the areas of Sindh in an attempt to help bring relief to the suffering. The idea is initially to partner with a team of who is willing to take the relief goods up. We hope to launch such an intiative with Motorsports Club of Pakistan and our very own OffroadPakistan group to some part of Sindh and personally deliver the goods there. To help our international donors we have partnered with SA Relief operating under the aiegus of Paksef a US Tax-deductible 501(c)(3) NGO registered in California to enable our US based well wishers to contribute to the relief via Chipin and Paypal The online collection is slated to run through out Ramazan to tap into the generous Zakat giving ability of Muslims around the world, ideally this would mean two missions, one from the cash funds collected personally in Karachi while the second mission will utilize the generous contribution from online donations. It is my personal promise that all funds collected will be disbursed off in a total transparent manner as possible, all recipts and travel expenditures will be posted online for the world to see. Like the IDP Relief effort we did in 2009 here, here Donations can be made directly into Behbood Association Karachiaccount at Standard Chartered in Karachi. A/C#08-2315386-01 [PakRs] Swift Code SCBLPKKXXX or even online on the widget provided above which is processed via Paypal and these online contributions are being collected by PAKISTAN SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FOUNDATION a 501(c)(3) registered California based not-for-profit organization, EIN# 20-2950808. For info contact: info@paksef.org.143 pages
